Officials offer breakdown on district finances, investigations and efforts to restore staffing; DA Green says new information submitted to Oregon DOJ

A packed open house on Saturday at Jackson County Fire District 5 Station 4 outside of Ashland offered a detailed financial update on the embattled district and a chance to discuss everything from staffing struggles to an investigation that remains under review by the Oregon Department of Justice.

Those in attendance voiced concerns as well as support for the district, with some even expressing their willingness for a one-time tax assessment if it would help FD5 recover financially —  and restore service levels – more quickly.

The past year brought upheaval for the district, which serves a 120-mile area incorporating the cities of Phoenix, Talent and surrounding rural areas, including Fire Station 4 near Emigrant Lake. Union officials first expressed lost confidence last February in then-Chief Charles Hanley. Concerns about Hanley’s tenure ranged from unacceptable treatment of employees by top-level brass to a staffing crisis that threatened the safety of firefighters and the public.

Hanley was eventually removed, and there were board resignations and reappointments, along with discussions about the ongoing financial crisis. Last summer, district officials began to pursue a contract for administrative support from surrounding districts. Jackson County Fire District 3 took over leadership of District 5 on Jan. 1, which FD5 board chair Greg Costanzo said Saturday had brought some much needed stability.

Fire District 3 Chief Mike Hussey — now also acting as chief of District 5 — disclosed during Saturday’s meeting that District 3, contracted for its services at $14,000 per month, had not yet billed FD5, and would not “until we get them on more solid footing.”

Hussey said working with auditors revealed the district had run without necessary checks and balances, had relied on non-renewable grant dollars and built its budget on figures that he could not determine “where the previous administration got them.”

“July 1, 2022, we started the year for $3,752,000. July 1, 2023, we started the year with $1,200,000. July 1, this last July, we started with $284,516 in the bank,” he told the audience.

“In the 2023-2024 budget, it reflected tax revenue of $7,034,832. When we go back and we pull the tax assessor’s records, we should not have expected any more than $6,308,832. … We built the budget thinking we had $653,000 more dollars in tax relief (than we had),” Hussey said.

For the most recent two years’ worth of budgeting, Hussey explained, the district anticipated $1.3 million in revenues it never should have anticipated. 

Hussey said the district made extensive cuts, lost eight firefighters — funded via a nonrenewable SAFER grant – and was trying to reconfigure massive debt.

“It sounds really bad, and I’m not saying it’s good, but we’re not sliding backwards anymore,” Hussey said. “We’ve stopped that hemorrhage, if you will.”

Hussey expressed gratitude to union members of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 2596 who approved reduced staffing minimums on fire engines and other apparatus last week. Station 4 has been browned out — unstaffed — for much of the past year, which local residents have raised deep concerns about. Last week’s union agreement allows increased — though not fully restored — staffing for Station 4.

Topics raised by the audience Saturday included the Phoenix Government Building and Public Safety Center, which was occupied in the fall. Hussey said there will be discussion of the district’s contract with the city in mid-April.

When residents questioned the status of investigations into former staff, board member Chris Luz announced the office phone number of Jackson County District Attorney Patrick Green.

Constanzo, a retired Oregon State Police bomb technician, also told the audience that investigation results had been forwarded to law enforcement on behalf of district patrons. “There were things that rose to the level of criminality,” he claimed. “It had to do with money, it had to do with property, and it had to do with the whole lineage of things.”

Costanzo elaborated Monday to the Rogue Valley Times, saying, “Multiple investigations conducted by multiple investigators, which were paid for by the taxpayers, led to sustained allegations against multiple former employees. … Those investigations were turned over to the sheriff’s office, which were turned over to the district attorney’s office.”

According to previous reporting by the Times, former Jackson County District Attorney Beth Heckert said in October 2024 that the FD5 investigation had been handed off to the Oregon Department of Justice.

Green on Monday said he received new information from the FD5 board in January that he sent to the Oregon DOJ. He noted that DOJ is handling the review, not local entities.

“The case is still being reviewed by the Oregon Department of Justice to determine if further investigation is warranted and if criminal charges can be filed,” Green said in a statement to the Times. “Due to a conflict of interest, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office are not handling the matter.”

District resident Bryan Baumgartner, a former firefighter, applauded the transparency of information provided Saturday so that “now community members have a better understanding of the debt and the requirements and that they’re trying to move forward.”
Baumgartner noted, “There’s still a lot of work ahead. I just hope they are able to stay on top of the business at hand. It’s a lot of work, a lot of dedication, so we give them credit for that.”

District 5 budget committee member Meredith Reynolds said she was hopeful the budget committee could help “get things figured out.” Reynolds approved of a special assessment, in particular if it meant restoring service levels more quickly and avoiding insurance increases that could result from slow response times.

Rural Ashland resident Will Storm said he attended the open house “just to try to understand a bit more.”

“We become so wrapped up in all the stirred up dust and sometimes you gotta step back a little bit,” Storm said. “It’s like if you get up close to a painting or you see just old globs of color, but you back up and you start to see the bigger picture. I’m trying to back up enough to be able to see.”

District 5 Capt. Brady Graham, president of the Local 2596 said he was humbled by union members’ sacrifices in response to district struggles. Graham said he trusted Hussey to restore staffing levels as soon as fiscally possible.

“At this point the union has made major sacrifices to everything from working conditions to safety while responding to fires and EMS calls that were all built around a significantly different staffing model,” Graham told the Times.

“The members of ‘Local 2596’ understand these sacrifices are necessary in the short term while the fire district rebuilds what was so severely damaged by the previous administration. … I remain hopeful that Chief Hussey and the District 3 team can fix this and get us back to an organization that everyone can be proud of.”

 Reach reporter Buffy Pollock at 458-488-2029 or bpollock@rv-times.com. Follow her on Twitter @orwritergal.