ZOAR, OH—A state agency has warned the Zoar Volunteer Fire Department and Chief Charles R. Meiser about the illegal use of uncertified firefighters on runs, and referred the matter back to Tuscarawas County for possible prosecution.
The warning followed a July 16 review of a complaint from Mark Gaynor, a former village councilman, who alleged that six men — including a convicted felon — had responded to fire calls despite a lack of required state certification. The message came in an Aug. 2 letter from Joel B. Demory, chief of investigations for the Division of Emergency Services of the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
The review was conducted by the State Board of Emergency Medical, Fire and Transportation Services (EMS) and its executive director, Melvin R. House.
"In the course of the investigation, EMS found reason to believe that ZVFD was using an unlicensed individual to conduct firefighter duties," departmental spokeswoman China Dodley told The Times-Reporter in an email.
Demory's letter said the department may be the subject of further action if uncertified firefighters are used in the future. It does not identify which individual improperly responded to fire calls.
After receiving a second complaint about the same issue, the Division of Emergency Medical Services referred the matter to Tuscarawas County Prosecutor Ryan Styer in a letter dated Nov. 1. Styer sent the case to the sheriff's office for investigation.
It is a criminal offense to engage in uncertified firefighting, House wrote in the letter to Styer.
"EMS does not have jurisdiction to take criminal action; only a local prosecutor can file criminal charges," Dodley wrote.
The list of firefighters considered in the state investigation of the Zoar department included a man who was convicted in 2006 of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. The state permanently revoked his certification as a firefighter in August 2018.
A Youngstown attorney who is representing the department said the man became a member of the fire department before criminal background checks were required.
David "Chip" Comstock, Jr., said the lack of background checks dated to the time when it was presumed people knew their neighbors, the people likely to volunteer as firefighters. He said the ZVFD now has a process for conducting criminal background checks for prospective members.
Comstock said the portion of Gaynor's complaint about the other five men is incorrect. He had this to say about them: One is a certified 27-year firefighter, who is listed in state records as certified. One of the uncertified firefighters was a "social" member of the department who helped with fundraisers, but not fire calls; he might have helped at a fire scene because an incident occurred where he happened to be, as any other bystander might. The other three men named in Gaynor's complaint are not active and not certified.
In a letter to Mayor Scott Gordon, dated Tuesday, Comstock said the fire department uses only certified personnel "despite inferences to the contrary."
Ohio's volunteer firefighters are required to take a 36-hour course intended as a foundation for further training, according to the Ohio Emergency Medical Services website. The certification must be renewed every three years, with 54 hours of continuing education required during each three-year cycle.
Comstock, chief of the Western Reserve Joint Fire District in Poland, Ohio, said the Zoar fire department has retained him to help review its policies, procedures and contracts. The next contract with the village will include a promise that all firefighters will be certified and clear criminal background checks, he said.
Councilman David Irwin and Gaynor say the village would do better to contract with the Bolivar Fire Department than with the Zoar Volunteer Fire Department.
Gaynor wants residents to be aware of what they are getting from the Zoar Volunteer Fire Department, including the lack of certainty about members' training.
"If they really knew what they get for their money, they wouldn't be able to sleep," he said.
Gordon said Village Council is expected to consider in the next two months whether to renew the five-year contract with the ZVFD, which expires Dec. 31.
On Tuesday, council extended the Zoar fire contract to March 31 to keep it in effect until council decides whether to seek bids for fire service. Council members Hans Fischer, Joe Potelicki, Gayle Potelicki and Paul Worley voted in favor of extending the contract. Councilman Dave Irwin voted against it. Councilwoman Judy Meiser abstained.
Also on Tuesday, council gave the second of three readings to legislation that would renew the fire department contract.
Council will next meet at 6 p.m. Dec. 10 in Town Hall.
Councilwoman Meiser is not permitted to vote on the ZVFD contract because her son, Charles R. Meiser, is the chief and her husband, Charles V. Meiser, is the assistant chief.
In a Jan. 15, 2018, letter to Gordon, Zoar Solicitor Douglas Frautschy wrote that Judy Meiser would have to recuse herself from any and all formal or informal discussion of the village's contractual relationship with the ZVFD (including outside of council chambers) and abstain from any votes.
Should Meiser's council term outlast the ZVFD contract, the solicitor wrote, the village would either have to seek competitive bids for fire service, or, if Meiser or any member of her family were still ZVFD officers or receive any benefit from the department, the contract would need to be made with a fire department that has no connection with a village official.
Meiser lost her mayoral bid in the Nov. 5 election, leaving her on council for two years and Gordon as mayor for four years.
Comstock, in his letter to Gordon, said he was not aware of any state law mandating that a contract between the village and the fire department be publicly bid. He asked the mayor to identify the controlling statute or case law.
The village currently pays the Zoar fire department $12,000 a year, according to Gordon. The money comes from 3 mills of a 4-mill property tax for fire and emergency medical services collected by Lawrence Township and redistributed back to Zoar. The village pays 1 mill, $4,000, to Bolivar for emergency medical services.
The mayor said he is "concerned" about the state's warning.
"The certification requirements, in my opinion, are really the minimum amount of training to be deemed competent," Gordon wrote to The Times-Reporter in an email. "Allowing volunteers to go on runs that are not certified raises safety issues for everyone."
At Tuesday's council meeting, Chief Meiser read a letter from Comstock, the department's lawyer, that said the Ohio Department of Public Safety misinterpreted the state law used in its warning.
Comstock wrote that the cited code section requires that a person claiming to be a firefighter must be either recognized as a volunteer firefighter or must have received a certificate of satisfactory completion of a training program.
"If the legislature wanted every volunteer firefighter to be certified in the state, it would have indicated so by using the word 'and' instead of 'or,'" Comstock wrote.
The fire chief appeared at Tuesday's council meeting at Gordon's request. The fire chief said he had the requested list of the department's members, but would need to type it again before he could submit it. He read a list of 14 names and their training levels.
Meiser told the mayor and council on Tuesday that he could ask anyone to carry a hose or ladder at a fire.
"I cannot send you, as an uncertified person, into a burning structure," Chief Meiser said.
He also said the state does not require an individual to have a commercial driver's license to drive a fire truck.
Irwin and Gaynor would rather have Zoar get primary fire coverage from Bolivar, which has firefighters on duty at all times, in contrast to the volunteer department, whose members report to the firehouse from wherever they may be when a fire occurs. Bolivar responds to Zoar fires under a mutual aid agreement.
Chief Meiser referred a reporter's questions about his department to its spokesman.
"We do provide a service that is pretty much unparalleled for a community of that size," said Zoar fire department public information officer David Schlosser. The village has an estimated population of 178 according to the most recent United States census estimates.
Schlosser looks forward to celebrating the department's 170th anniversary in 2020. He noted that the department has mutual-aid agreements with other departments in Stark and Tuscarawas counties.
Gaynor, on the other hand, is waiting for the Ohio Department of Public Safety's Division of Emergency Services to rule on another complaint he filed about an uncertified firefighter responding to the Speedie Auto Salvage fire at 6995 Eberhart Road NW in Lawrence Township on Oct. 13. He is one of the six men who were subjects of Gaynor's previous complaint — the one that resulted in the warning.
"A warning is not going to prevent (him) from 'acting' like a firefighter," Gaynor wrote. "Further action needs to take place to get their attention."
Comstock said the subject of the most recent complaint is not active with the department and is not certified.
Any action taken on the issue would be directed toward an individual, not the department.
The Ohio Department of Public Safety's Division of Emergency Medical Services does not regulate fire departments; they do not receive a certification or license to operate as such, according to spokeswoman Dodley.
"As a result, we do not have the authority to impose any discipline or plan of correction against a fire department," she wrote. "EMS does regulate and certify individual firefighters who have met all certification requirements and review renewal applications on a three-year cycle.
"Certified firefighters are subject to discipline by EMS if the individual firefighter has violated any of the standards set forth in the Ohio Revised Code or Ohio Administrative Code," Dodley said. "EMS does not have jurisdiction over individuals who do not have a firefighter certification."
Reach Nancy at 330-364-8402 or [email protected].
On Twitter: @nmolnarTR
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