He quit his job to accept one in Lake Wylie and was fired before he could even get started

Work continues on how fire protection in Lake Wylie will operate moving forward, as details emerge as to why the recent decision to dissolve a fire tax board was made.

"I know everybody's not happy, and decisions like this you can't make everybody happy,” said volunteer Chief Don Love. “But majority rules, and that's what happened."

York County Manager Bill Shanahan noted public safety, and an inability in recent months of the tax board and volunteers to work together, as reasons for disbanding the tax board Jan. 26. The ordinance itself provides a little more detail.

It notes “an emergency has arisen” and the county has authority to issue ordinances “to meet public emergencies affecting life, health, safety or the property of people.”

In October, the Bethel Volunteer Fire Department board sent a letter to the county stating volunteers wouldn’t provide fire protection to the district if a paid chief was hired by the fire tax board. The tax board voted in December to hire one anyway, with a start date of Feb. 1. County staff worked since to resolve the dispute, but haven’t been successful.

According to the ordinance, it’s gotten worse.

“Over the last few weeks,” the ordinance reads, “the situation has escalated with threats to call law enforcement should the new, paid chief respond to the scene of a fire, to refuse to respond to emergency calls, and to refuse to acknowledge the authority of the new chief.”

The emergency ordinance states the county isn’t taking a side in the volunteers versus tax board rift. The county just “cannot risk the possibility of insufficient or inadequate fire coverage to the district,” it reads.

The ordinance remains in place 60 days, after which the county will determine a permanent plan for managing money from the special tax district serving Lake Wylie. But Council already had a permanent ordinance coming up for first reading Monday night, which could replace the emergency one with a matching rule that won’t expire once it passes three readings.

Love said he’s gotten positive feedback from volunteers and community members since the tax board was disbanded.

“I've gotten some,” he said. “Some, they're happy about it. Just trying to keep everything low profile. We don't need to jump up and down. We think it was a good decision.”

Love stood to lose operational control of the fire department if the hired chief, Billy Thompson, started Feb. 1. It was unclear how the chain of command would work with a an elected volunteer and separate paid chief. Now Love will work with county staff, as he did with the tax board in recent years, to develop a budget for the new year beginning July 1. He believes “everything will work out just fine” working with county leaders.

"I don't want to rejoice too much, but I think it was a good decision,” Love said of disbanding the tax board. “It was in our favor. We're going to respond to calls. We’re still going to serve the community. We're there, and we're going to be there 24-7."

Predictably, reaction is different from the former tax board. Nine days before the emergency ordinance, the tax board and county leaders received a legal opinion confirming the tax board’s right to hire a paid chief. It stated the hired chief would be “the only chief with authority” in the district.

“The fire chief hired by the district is the chief with legal authority within the district,” it read.

The tax board, volunteers and county leaders were working on a separate agreement outlining powers, too.

“We were working for a solution to work with the volunteers,” said Tea Hoffmann, tax board member. “Were in fact expecting to have a signed (agreement) the week prior to our board being disbanded.”

Thompson was hired in part because he had experience working with volunteers and paid staff elsewhere, similar to the mix at Bethel. Hoffmann said no one on the tax board was contacted prior to it being disbanded about the impact the decision would have on Thompson, paid firefighters or a transition away from having a tax board.

“I am furious about how this will impact us long term,” Hoffmann said.

While disagreement within fire service has been an issue for some time, it’s perhaps someone outside the area who lost the most with the recent decision. Thompson left his position as deputy chief in Gastonia to come on at Bethel. As of Monday morning, he still wasn’t sure his next move.

“Well, I'm trying to figure that part out right now,” he said. “ don't know where it leaves me. My understanding is they dissolved the board and terminated the position.”

Thompson said Council never met with him to ask how he planned to bring paid staff and volunteers together, his vision for the transition or how he has taken on similar tasks in the past, a main qualification tax board members gave for the hire. Thompson said he is frustrated someone would be "affected the most and have the least amount of input."

“It's very frustrating, especially knowing the Council only listened to one side of the story,” he said.

In the spring of 2009, less than 5 percent of registered voters turned out to approve a special fire tax district for the Lake Wylie area. The district passed with 89 percent approval. It bumped what had been about a $97,000 annual budget for the Bethel department to about $500,000. It ranged from a 4 percent tax for homeowners to 6 percent for commercial and 10.5 percent for industrial properties.

That tax district, like others in the county, came with the requirement that a five-member board be established of residents from within the district. That board would oversee funding decisions and set the annual tax rate, but also answer to York County Council.

Last year, the Bethel department operated on less than $680,000.

This story was originally published February 6, 2017 at 2:09 PM with the headline "He quit his job to accept one in Lake Wylie and was fired before he could even get started."