By: Diane Benjamin
I finally received the rest of the information I FOIA’d from the Downs Fire Protection District late yesterday.
One request was for complaints filed against any employees or Board members. I did not receive any “official complaints”, just heavily redacted memos recapping events with all names redacted. I received ZERO complaints about the December 2017 Christmas Party.
I also FOIA’d Board minutes where additional compensation was approved. They do not exist:
From 2015-2017 additional payments were made, even to employees who had a signed agreement stating their salary. In 2017 $19,281.11 was listed as bonuses.
Comments to previous stories claimed this isn’t a bonus, it was additional compensation for serving as an EMT. That doesn’t change the fact that all compensation must be authorized by the Board of Trustees.
I have documents setting salaries and signed by the employees. No minutes exist authorizing additional salary, so no additional compensation should have been paid to any employees. If an employee was hired as both a Fire Fighter and an EMT, the salary agreement should have stated total compensation for both positions.
Most of the amounts in this account are small and attributed to numerous employees. The troubling amount is what was paid to Michael Manint. There was no authorization from the Board of Trustees to pay him additional compensation. This agreement sets his salary for 2017:
This shows what Manint was paid:
Manint signed an agreement to be paid $54,000. He should not have received any additional compensation without Board approval.
See the entire 2017 payroll here:
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