Bailey responds to NACFD issues

In response to the Veradt, Lucero, and Brown letter published in The Standard News Editorial dated October 21, it seems there are very different opinions. It is a fact that these three individuals are very close personal friends of Wayne Eder. Wayne Eder is attempting to fill the NACFD Board with his close personal friends for what possible reason? Who is going to benefit from having these three people on the NACFD Board? If you think about this, do you want people with no experience in the fire service, or emergency medical service, making decisions that affect our entire fire district? 

  What was said in the article is true, I am a career fireman, retired, I was a Captain responsible for my assigned station, my crew, emergency/ non emergency incidents, and I provided emergency medical treatment as a Paramedic for over 30 years. Erik Berg does have experience in both the fire service, and in emergency medicine, and is now a supervisor at AMR, a nationwide ambulance company. Mike Collins does have experience in the fire service, emergency medicine, and owns a very successful excavation business locally. This would explain why the three of us are considered a threat to Wayne Eder, why he wants us removed from the board, and replaced with his close personal friends. Think about that. 

  The article I posted about the management agreement with the City of Kingman was very simply in response to the repeated attacks on the City Council, the City Fire Chief, and other City administrators/ employees by Wayne Eder, his family, and his close personal friends. The City of Kingman has assisted not only NACFD, but all fire agencies in the surrounding areas. These people have made dozens of accusations, threats, and filed lawsuits against the City of Kingman, NACFD Board, Mohave County Board of Supervisors, and the Mohave County Attorney’s Office. If any readers would like to read the complaints, accusations, or lawsuits filed against us, go to northernazfire.com. Once you are on the home page, the left margin is black. Click on agendas/ meeting minutes. Select January 2017 to start. Three close personal friends of Wayne Eder were board members at this time, and began conspiring to bring Wayne Eder back as the fire chief. Select each month’s agendas and meeting minutes from January 2017 to date, and you can read them for yourselves. These people have also accused the NACFD Board of not being transparent. Desert Warrior Entertainment was hired to video record all of our board meetings, beginning in 2017 as well. To watch these meeting videos in real time, simply click on the banner right of the black margin, and you can select any video you wish to watch. This fire district board is extremely transparent. We do not hide anything from the public, and encourage public input. 

  Regardless of what Wayne Eder or his close personal friends believe, the NACFD Firefighters are receiving unprecedented training.  NACFD Firefighters are very well trained and provide excellent service to our district residents, friends, and visitors. Under the direction of Fire Chief Jake Rhoades, his administrative staff has done an excellent job for our fire district, and instead of being criticized for all the great work that has been done to benefit NACFD, they should receive a gracious thank you and words of praise and compassion. NACFD has a fantastic professional working relationship with all area fire districts. Wayne Eder and his close personal friends criticize lower turnout times, but this is a huge improvement in response times. A turnout time is how long it takes the firefighters to be in the equipment, and responding to the scene of the incident. 

 These board candidates say that they can hire a full time fire chief for “much less” than the contract agreement with the City of Kingman. The fact is that these people have no idea what the district fire chief costs are. Salary, retirement, insurance, vehicle, equipment just for the fire chief will exceed $155,000.00 annually. The management contract is for the City of Kingman’s Fire administration. A Fire Chief, two Assistant Fire Chiefs, two Administrative Battalion Chiefs, and three Battalion Chiefs assigned to shifts. Eight people total. Ask these three candidates to explain themselves. 

  The three candidates accuse me personally of using the COVID-19 as an excuse to benefit myself. That’s right, you read it right out of their letter, I am personally responsible for COVID-19 so that I don’t have to have meetings open to the public. Evidently, I am the COVID-19 guy.

  These are the facts.

Wayne Eder has stated that he created the NACFD logo on his own time, therefore it is up to him who uses it and how it is used. Wayne Eder has given these three people “his” permission to use the logo which he thinks is “his” personal property. While Wayne Eder was employed by the NACFD, he was a salaried Administrator. Wayne was not paid by the hour, therefore there is no actual time that is considered down time when he worked on NACFD business. After the NACFD Board learned that these three people were using the NACFD logo illegally, they were notified of the violation by the District’s Attorney.

   Pursuant to A.R.S. §16-192, a person or public entity that knowingly violates or knowingly aids in violating the prohibition may be subject to a civil penalty up to $5,000. The individuals using the NACFD logo were put on notice that their use is misleading and it falsely portrays NACFD’s support and moreover that Arizona law prohibits use of NACFD resources to influence an election, specifically prohibiting support of any candidate for public office. The users were asked to remove the NACFD logo from its signs and website and refused to do so. These three candidates are asking you to support them as NACFD Board Members, and they are violating Arizona State Law to do it. Is this who you want to represent our fire district?

  Wayne Eder’s first reign as fire chief resulted in a Wrongful Termination lawsuit that found the fire district responsible, and the firefighters were compensated by the insurance company. All professional working relationships with neighboring fire departments, and fire districts, were destroyed. Fire district firefighter’s morale was at all time lows, and most feared for their jobs. District tax dollars were paid out to board members and their families. Wayne Eder rushed the consolidation of area fire districts against the district’s Attorney’s advice. When Wayne Eder left the fire district in 2008, NACFD was nearly one million dollars in debt. 

  Wayne Eder’s second reign as fire chief, he had three close personal friends on the board. They refused to hire a company to conduct a fair and impartial recruiting effort for the best qualified candidates to apply for the Fire Chief’s position, and be properly evaluated. The three close personal friends of his, hired him as the Interim Chief. Wayne began funneling money to a board member, illegally, within the first four to six weeks he was hired by his friends as the Interim Chief. A Mohave County Grand Jury indicted Wayne Eder, Vic Riccardi, and Sue Wilkin on one felony count of Misuse of Public Money, and one felony count of Conflict of Interest each . Both Vic and Sue settled for a plea agreement and were removed from the NACFD Board by the Superior Court. Wayne chose a jury trial, and was ultimately found guilty of one felony count of Conflict of Interest. Just because a Judge reduced the illegal activity of Eder’s, he was still found guilty of the felony by his peers. Wayne did not understand all of the improvements that had been made in our fire district over the eight years he was gone, so he took a ten year step back in time and picked up where he left off. During this time, NACFD lost approximately ten seasoned firefighters that refused to work for him. Wayne, his family, and close personal friends immediately began targeting board members, trying to get them removed by any means possible. Wayne was ultimately terminated by the NACFD Board in May of 2018. The constant criticism, accusations, law suits, continues to this day by Wayne, his family, and his close personal friends. 

   All of these accusations, and lawsuits that have been made against the NACFD Board, and board members personally, must be checked out by the district’s Attorney, and occasionally by the insurance company who may have to hire an Attorney as well. These ridiculous accusations have cost NACFD residents/ tax payers tens of thousands of our dollars. These people have proven that your current NACFD Board Members have done nothing to break the law, and yet because there are no findings of wrongdoing by the board, we are accused of being “the good ol boys.” They refuse to believe that we have done nothing wrong. 

  The building at 2600 Northern continues to be a huge problem for these candidates. Upon completion, on or before March 1 2021, this 12,000 square foot building will be a modern fully functional fire station, with a projected total cost of 1.8 million dollars. A building this size can easily cost in excess of 3.5 million dollars built new. This fire station should serve NACFD for the next 40 to 50 years. This is a great money saving project for our fire district, and everyone involved in the process deserves a pat on the back, and “job well done”, not criticized for it. 

  I could go on and fill this publishing with examples of the great things this current NACFD Board has done for the District we serve. We are proud to represent our fire district, we do it with the district’s best interest in mind, and we will continue to do the best job we can. We are not intimidated by these few people that criticize us regularly. Their attacks/ accusations will not stop anytime soon. Any votes for the three candidates that are close personal friends of Wayne Eder’s will only bring our fire district trouble. Votes for his supporters will have a terrible/ disastrous effect on our professional firefighters, and on our fire district directly. These effects were a reality both times Wayne Eder was hired as the fire chief. Please do not support his close personal friends as NACFD Board Members. 

   The best we can hope for is that the residents of the NACFD vote on November 3rd to keep your fire board working in a positive direction. Actual Professional NACFD Firefighters are supporting Larry Moore, Mike Collins, and Jim Bailey for the three board seats up for re-election. I will add that Erik Berg has done a great job for the NACFD Board as well. Please write down the three names of the candidates that you support for the NACFD Board Members and take it to the polls with you. We appreciate your support. You can email board members with comments or questions. We will answer you as soon as possible. Thank you

Jim Bailey