FAILED FIRE BUDGET MEETING – PART 2

No Communication: No Budget

The marathon January 7, 2026 budget meeting held multiple surprises.

· Chairman Thiessen announced that because of a planned vacation, he would leave the meeting in 45 minutes regardless of whether a budget was passed.

· Thiessen announced that if the budget did not pass at the meeting, the Fire District would not be able to raise revenue for operations.

· Thiessen announced that the previous legal counsel had resigned days earlier and that Thiessen selected a new counsel who would have to be voted in at the meeting.

· The Fire District Treasurer announced that the Township routinely delayed the transfer of tax revenue to the Fire District, which caused cash management issues.

· Commissioners Logue and Sheppard indicated their skepticism with regard to Thiessen’s claim that the State would not allow revenue to be raised without a budget in the coming days. Since they believed the budget could modified to reduce the 4.8% tax increase, they refused to support the budget as presented.

· Former Commissioner Joe Sams and resident Gary Brotz presented information which disputed the budget deadline and the need for a tax increase.

· During public comment period, a woman said regarding sexual harassment charges filed against a Fire District member, she was also “a victim of the same predator’s unwanted actions”.

Commissioners Logue and Sheppard sharply questioned Chairman Thiessen, the Fire District Treasurer and newly appointed Counselor Repici regarding the budget and Department of Community Affairs [DCA] rules regarding deadlines for submission of same. Neither of the Commissioners were satisfied with answers received, so Logue urged a “recess” to discuss the matter, but neither Gaskill nor Saucier wanted a recess.

Logue in particular repeatedly probed Thiessen for why he had not communicated with her earlier and what the truth was regarding submission deadlines for the budget. Repici noted that the budget amendment required a “super majority” vote of 4 Commissioners. With Thiessen’s departure before the vote was held, the budget would have to get support from both Sheppard and Logue. But as noted above, those Commissioners were not satisfied that the Board had done its job and they did not support the budget which therefore did not pass.

During public comment, former Fire District Commissioner Joe Sams questioned a number of line items in the budget as needing adjustments and challenged the notion that the budget submission deadline was in January.

“So - you’re pushing the agenda that if the DCA doesn’t have this budget in the next couple days then we can’t get a budget through. But when I sat on the Board of Commissioners in 2024, we waited until April to submit a budget.” Joe Sams, Former Fire District Commissioner

Resident Gary Brotz, who is an accountant, made a presentation to the Board.

He said he offered his services to Mr. Thiessen for free to pull the budget apart and look at what could be done, but got no response. Brotz discussed the cumulative effect of Fire District property tax increases. He stated that while the new fire house construction would necessitate tax increases to pay bonds,

“The fact that we cant find $75,000 to push off a tax hike in a $2,000,000 budget seems crazy. There are various budget maneuvers that can be done.” Gary Brotz