More than half of the Jackson County Fire District 5 Board of Directors abruptly resigned mere minutes into a Tuesday meeting.

The resignations of three of five members came after months of turmoil and union-represented employees’ loss of confidence in Fire Chief Charles Hanley, who is alleged to have tolerated and participated in bullying and harassment of district employees.

The meeting convened at 3:30 p.m., and the board stood for the Pledge of Allegiance. Board Chair Vicki Purslow announced that an agenda item dealing with tax revenues for the district would be moved up, prior to a scheduled executive session.

A brief discussion ensued about a written grievance filed earlier in the day by board member Derek Volkart, who advised the board in a written statement Tuesday he intended to call for an investigation into Purslow for allegedly conducting business outside of board meetings and speaking on the board’s behalf “without authority.”

Volkart said he also anticipated that the board would respond to a written request on Tuesday, by International Association of Fire Fighters local 2596 union president Brady Graham, that asked the board to vote on placing Chief Hanley on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation into concerns of an alleged districtwide culture of harassment and bullying.

Volkart made a similar motion Feb. 20, calling for Hanley to be placed on leave. That motion failed.

Purslow told Volkart his grievance would be heard after the executive session.

Board member Sam Pare-Miller said he would like to bring a motion for board consideration. Purslow informed him the motion would have to be raised before a board meeting to get on the agenda.

Purslow then said the meeting would convene in executive session and that she was offering her resignation. She stood to leave, addressing board member Mike Winters: “Director Winters, you’ll be chair for the day.”

Winters responded, “I saw this coming, and I’m tendering my resignation, too.”

Board member Cary Halligan then said, “And I saw this coming … and I do the same. Sorry.”

The meeting adjourned for lack of a quorum.

Neither Purslow nor Chief Hanley were immediately available for comment after the meeting and had not responded to the Rogue Valley Times as of Wednesday afternoon. In a text message to the Times, Winters declined to comment further.

Under state law, ORS198.320, if the majority of a board membership is vacant, the vacancies will be referred to the Jackson County Board of Commissioners for appointment.

Volkart, in an email to the Times, said the resignations would delay an investigation into the allegations against Purslow and Hanley.

“Rather than work to address the Chair’s cover up and appoint the investigator for union allegations of misconduct by the Chief, a majority of the board colluded to throw this mess into the laps of the county commissioners, delaying the investigations of both Chief Hanley and Chair Vicki Purslow,” Volkart wrote.

“They did this after refusing to place Chief Hanley on administrative leave, ignoring hostile work environment concerns and ongoing loss of personnel with total disregard for public safety.”

Before the meeting, Volkart submitted a letter to fellow board members outlining a list of concerns.

Among them is that Graham, the union president, was invited to attend a Feb. 6 executive session to discuss union concerns — and was then disinvited, he was told, because he wasn’t a board member.

Volkart said both the Oregon Government Ethics Commission and the Special Districts Association of Oregon confirmed the board has the authority to include non-board members in closed sessions.

Volkart said the board then allowed two non-board members in the same executive session, despite that the individuals were district employees and should not have been included.

Volkart also claimed the board deviated from noticed discussion topics during recent executive sessions. He said he had learned that the recording of executive sessions had been discontinued in recent weeks. He was “unable to locate a board decision” approving the change, he said.

Volkart’s letter “initiates the 21-day clock for a written response (from the board) before the OGEC will act on my complaint,” he wrote.

Had the Tuesday meeting not ended prematurely, Volkart said he had planned to make a motion calling for an investigation into Purslow — a motion she prevented him from making Feb. 20.

Because he already made a motion to place Chief Hanley on leave, one of the three board members who voted against it — all of whom resigned Tuesday — would have had to reintroduce that motion.

Union president Brady Graham also sent a letter to board members before Tuesday’s meeting. In it, he reiterated union members’ disappointment at a lack of response to ongoing union concerns.

Graham said in the letter that union legal counsel first contacted the district board in writing Jan. 3 but that Purslow met with him Jan. 6 and asked him to rescind it so that she could “handle things informally, without getting the entire board involved.”

“This seemed like an odd request and contrary to the duties of the board, so I refused to rescind the letter. Chair Purslow again indicated that she’d like to avoid having the entire Board address the union’s concerns during a phone call with me on Jan. 18, 2024,” Graham wrote.

“At that time, the union was objecting to the district’s failure to follow civil service rules for hiring and promotional decisions. Chair Purslow warned that I was opening the district up to legal ramifications by raising objections in writing and demanded that I stop sending written objections and emails, because she did not want to involve other Board members.”

Graham said he was informed by union legal counsel that Purslow’s actions “may have violated the Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act, which prohibits employers from interfering with the legal rights of public employees to engage in protected union activities.”

Graham said in the letter that Chief Hanley being placed on administrative leave during a pending investigation “is not only the industry standard, but it is the right thing to do when handling these types of issues, as employees are less comfortable disclosing misconduct to an investigator when the Chief is still acting as their supervisor.”

In a statement to the Rogue Valley Times on Wednesday, Graham said union members were shocked to learn of the mass resignations,” which effectively mean that “none of the concerns raised by the union can be addressed by the board.”

“While the Board members resigned without explanation, it is concerning that they did so without first attempting to address the union’s concerns, effectively choosing to allow these problems to persist without intervention,” Graham wrote.

“Rather than do the hard work of acknowledging improper conduct, investigating employee complaints, and remedying those complaints, these board members simply chose to resign. That is the very definition of poor leadership.”