Former fire chief won’t be re-instated: Sundre mayor, councillors

SUNDRE — Residents who rallied last night in support of former Sundre Fire Department Chief Marty Butts were not pleased with the answers provided by local officials.

At least 200 people gathered outside the Sundre Fire Department’s hall on the evening of Wednesday, Aug. 19, when council, municipal officials, and firefighters met behind closed doors with representatives from consulting contractor Behr Fire Services.

It was made public Monday that Butts was no longer the town’s fire chief. Due to legal reasons, neither the town nor Butts will confirm under what circumstances he vacated the position.

When pressed as to whether re-instating Butts as fire chief was an option, several councillors who spoke to the crowd after leaving the closed-door meeting said no.

Mayor Terry Leslie also said in an interview earlier in the day with The Albertan that “there isn’t any going back on this decision. This decision will not be changed.”

Some of the people gathered outside the hall held signs with messages such as “We Support Marty”, “Marty got burnt”, “Bring Marty Back”, “Fire the CAO” and “Out With CAO.”

Emotions flared among others, who chanted calls for the municipality’s chief administrative officer to resign. Two officers from the local RCMP detachment attended, but despite tempers running hot, confrontations did not escalate beyond numerous verbal barrages including no shortage of expletives.

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While the closed-door meeting was conducted, the former chief spoke to the crowd, expressing his grievances about the process that led to his ouster, praising the dedication of Sundre’s firefighters, and lamenting what he called the one-day destruction of a department that took decades to build.

During a rally on Wednesday, Aug. 20, former fire Chief Marty Butts, who had served the Sundre Fire Department since his teenage years, decried the process that led to his removal, and told supporters decades of work building the volunteer department was destroyed in a day. Simon Ducatel/MVP Staff

His wife Nicci Doyle was among several others to share heartfelt stories of sacrifice as well as gratitude for everything firefighters do to protect the community.

“I am here to tell you that no amount of CPR will help restart this heart or bring the life back into this department,” she said to applause.

“We will have a department of some sort over time, I’m sure. But you can bet it will never be what our community has known for decades — those days are gone.”

At one point, several Sundre firefighters left the closed-door meeting early, including Frank Crouch, a captain.

“I can’t listen to their lies any longer,” said Crouch.

“We quizzed them on the statement they put that they had a responding fire department, and they admitted that that was a lie,” he said.

“They’re trying to sway the rest of the firefighters there…there’s going to be more walking out.”

When someone in the crowd asked whether the CAO would be addressing the crowd, he said to laughter, “She won’t come out here — she’ll get lynched!”

Crouch later told The Albertan that he left his pager in the hall when he left and told council and administrators “that I’m done.”

After roughly two hours behind closed doors, the town’s mayor attempted to address the crowd, barely getting a chance to speak, with one person shouting, “Take your mask off, liberal!”

Expressing appreciation to everyone for coming out in concern for their community, the mayor said the purpose of the meeting was for council and administration to listen to what firefighters had to say and to provide a bit of information.

Mayor Terry Leslie attempted to address the crowd shortly after 9 p.m., and ended up yielding the loud speaker and leaving the hall after being drowned out by angry shouts. Simon Ducatel/MVP Staff

As the town’s chief administrative officer and director of corporate services departed while the mayor spoke, he was interrupted by some people who screamed “Get over here!” and “Resign!” as the town staff left.

Reasserting himself, Leslie tried to continue, saying, “We have asked the firefighters to talk among themselves after we left the room, because they have some decisions to make. We’ve asked them to see if they could appoint one of their members as the acting chief so that we can move forward with this transition.”

The mayor was subsequently drowned out and decided to yield the loud speaker and left after insults were hurled out with shouts of “That’s not acceptable!”

The remaining members of council stayed around, with Coun. Richard Warnock reluctantly accepting the loud speaker.

“Just so you’re aware. We didn’t make the laws. And you’re telling me I’m a coward, that I’m hiding behind them, and that I won’t speak up for the people of Sundre,” said Warnock.

“I just made a decision as an individual to come and speak to you tonight because of the animosity that’s going on here,” he said.

“Council has a spokesperson — that spokesperson is the mayor. And you’re not happy with that. And I was not going to speak tonight, because that’s not my role. But I am a councillor in this community,” he said, expressing his love of Sundre.

“There are issues here. There are issues that need to be worked on and fixed. And I asked the firefighters that are inside the hall to stick with it and let’s work through this,” he said.

“You have heard, for the last number of days, Marty Butts’ side of the story,” he continued.

“But there are other issues, ladies and gentlemen, whether you like them, or not…there is more to this story.”

Warnock stood firm with regards to being legally unable to disclose details due to the protection of privacy rights.

“I wish I could,” he said, adding, “(but) you don’t have to talk about me. You don’t have to threaten me. You don’t have to bad mouth me. Because I am just one person. And it will take a lot more than one person to deal with this issue. It’ll take a lot more than Marty Butts, a lot more than me, a lot more than the mayor, and a lot more than the CAO. But this needs to be fixed, and we need to do it together.”

Resident and business owner Colleen Mennear wondered whether there might not have been an alternative approach to resolve the situation, such as management or sensitivity training to address issues with the former chief.

“Was firing the best thing? I mean, we’re losing a 34-year veteran with so much experience and so much leadership. Was that the best solution? You don’t have to answer that today,” she said.

Warnock said labour issues are not a matter members of council can discuss publicly in order to protect the privacy rights of personnel.

“And I know that you’re already disagreeing with that…I cannot answer your questions because you want me to give you the answers you’re looking for,” he said.

“I’m OK if you want to beat me up, just don’t call me a coward.”

Councillors also could not immediately provide a clear response as to whether the municipality had a fully functional fire department in the face of so many senior members’ resignations.

Meanwhile, the meeting with Behr reps and the department’s remaining firefighters continued on past 10:30 p.m., when the crowd slowly but surely started parting.

While members of council and town staff departed from the closed door meeting with firefighters and Behr Fire Services reps shortly after 9 p.m., discussions continued more than an hour afterwards. Simon Ducatel/MVP Staff

In a separate interview with The Albertan earlier that day, Leslie said, “There is deep respect for firefighters in this community, because their professionalism has always been a hallmark of the Sundre Fire Department. Period.”

However, he condemned the reactions of some people.

“There has been a great deal of intimidation, harassments, threats, social media posts, and absolutely unacceptable comments and behaviour from the public in taking sides on an issue without considering that the rest of the story, sometimes simply can’t be told,” he said.

Despite the circumstances, the mayor expressed optimism.

“Out of conflict generally comes some creative solutions,” he said, confident a way forward will be found.

“These are people that dedicate their lives to the service of this community,” he said about volunteer firefighters.

“I have ultimate faith in this group of people.”