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Fire District 13’s part-time secretary, Deborah McFarlane, resigned unexpectedly last week.

Her resignation came the day after the year’s first meeting of the three-member board of commissioners, with newly seated Commissioner Arne Fohn, whose election in November has apparently shifted the balance of power on the board.

McFarlane’s resignation prompted the commission’s new chairman, Doug Avery, to call a special board meeting Friday afternoon.

“The reason we’re here is that District Secretary Deborah McFarlane has resigned,” District 13 Fire Chief Roy Horn began the meeting somberly. “But the sun still comes up in the morning…and so we need to figure out a temporary solution.”

The commissioners first passed a resolution to make Chief Horn the district’s “public records officer” in McFarlane’s absence.

The next order of business was to find a replacement for McFarlane, who has held the 10- to 12-hour per week district secretary job for about five years.

Horn said he had contacted a secretary for another fire district to act as temporary replacement. In the meantime, the board approved a secretary job opening advertisement to be published in the “Skagit Valley Herald” newspaper.

Administrative Assistant Maggie Horn, the Chief’s wife, requested that her pay be increased from $18 to $25 an hour and that her weekly hours be increased, as she said she will be “picking up a lot of Deborah’s slack.” The board approved her pay raise and said her hours must be kept under 40 per week.

“We’ve got a job to get done, and unfortunately we’ve got to do it without Deborah,” said Chief Horn.

Things had not been exactly rosy on the board before McFarlane’s resignation. She and Avery had often butted heads at meetings. Avery was frequently on the losing end of a 2-1 majority before Fohn defeated Commissioner Jim Grove in the fall election and took his spot on the board last week.

Last Wednesday’s meeting marked a big change, with Avery, the former odd-man-out, being voted 2-1 as the new board chairman replacing Chuck Hedlund.

McFarlane cited the change of leadership as a reason for leaving her position, according to a story published by the “Skagit Valley Herald” on Saturday.

She refused to talk to this newspaper, saying she doesn’t trust the editor here.

Commissioner Chuck Hedlund told the “Skagit Valley Herald” on Friday that Avery had led an illegal meeting last Tuesday, Jan. 14, when the commissioners went into executive session after the regular meeting to discuss employee contracts.

Under the state’s Open Public Meetings Act, discussions of contracts are supposed to be done in open public session. Also, elected officials are not supposed to disclose what was said during their closed sessions.

Hedlund also refused to comment to this newspaper.

On Nov. 12, when Hedlund was board chair and Grove was still on the board, the commissioners held a closed session and emerged to approve employment contracts for Maggie Horn and McFarlane.

After that session, they came out and voted 2-1, with Avery dissenting, to grant the women retroactive vacation, sick leave and bereavement pay and provide termination clauses that would guarantee them 12 months severance pay if they were fired.

Those contracts turned out to be illegal, since it is against the law to give retroactive benefits to public employees. Hedlund and Grove approved revised contracts at the Nov. 26 meeting granting the severance pay, but not the retroactive benefits.

According to Saturday’s story in the “Skagit Valley Herald,” Hedlund is credited with saying he will be watching closely this year to make sure Avery and Fohn don’t break laws.

In October, a “Confidential Investigative Report” released to the press a day before the November election ballots were mailed to voters concluded that Avery had created a hostile work environment for McFarlane.

The witnesses contacted by the investigator who compiled that report were McFarlane, Roy and Maggie Horn, Chuck Hedlund and Jim Grove. McFarland, the Horns and Hedlund all went on record supporting Grove in his campaign to be re-elected to his commissioner’s position. In the November election he was defeated by Fohn.

After several public records requests, this newspaper this month received copies of two of the district’s lawyer bills regarding McFarlane’s complaint against Avery.

“La Conner Weekly News” believes the taxpayers have a right to know how much the district spent on the “Confidential Investigative Report,” that came out in time for an election.

Invoices we have received so far indicate the district has spent at least $1,530 on attorney fees for costs associated with that report.

Also, we obtained an invoice showing that the district spent another $562.50 for about 3 hours of attorney time between Oct. 18 and Oct. 31 to find ways to respond to our public records requests.

There are many organizations and agencies throughout the state, including the Attorney General’s Office, that provide free advice to government officials on responding to public records requests.