Investigation of Madison fire department left undone

MADISON TOWNSHIP – After nine months and more than $17,000 spent on an investigator, the Madison Township trustees have nothing to show for an investigation into the township’s defunct fire department.

The investigation was spurred by allegations noted in an efficiency report in December. The trustees voted last month to disband the department.

The Madison Township trustees’ chairwoman, Karen Barger, said Thursday that the trustees have still not been updated on the findings of Little’s investigation.

Results of the investigation will never be released to the public, Licking County Prosecutor Ken Oswalt said.

“(The investigation) came to an end because the fire department is closed,” Oswalt said. “No formal report was finalized. ... Because it’s a moot issue.”

Oswalt said no disciplinary action would need to be taken against Madison Township Fire Department employees because the department has been closed.

Steve Little, of Steve Little Consulting, conducted the investigation. Since October, Little has been paid $17,022 by the Madison Township trustees.

The latest invoice from Little was submitted on June 30 for $3,025, the date Little’s contract ended, according to records obtained from the Madison Township trustees.

The township trustees shut down the fire department and handed all fire and emergency medical services over to Hanover Township on July 14. The results of Little’s investigation were not used to justify the decision during the meeting in which the department was abolished or in a letter to residents from the township trustees about the closure.

In a letter to Madison Township residents, the trustees argued the closure of the fire department would save the township money, as contracting Hanover to provide fire and emergency medical services would cost less than operating the township department. The township also would not have to pay for needed equipment repairs, replacements and upgrades, the letter noted.

In addition to finances, trustees said Hanover Township response times were faster than those of the Madison Township volunteer staff.

Residents have been voicing concerns about Little’s credentials and his investigation for months, challenging the trustees in public meetings about the decision to pay an unlicensed investigator to look into criminal allegations in the fire department.

The controversy

Little was originally hired by the Madison Township trustees in October to perform an efficiency study for the township. His report, provided to the trustees in December, noted potential instances of misconduct in the fire department.

“I heard many allegations of mismanagement, bullying, sexual harassment and sexual activity in the fire house and even assault,” Little wrote in his December report. “These allegations were made by multiple folks that were interviewed.”

Those allegations prompted the trustees to extend Little’s contract first to the end of April and then to the end of June so he could finish an investigation into the fire department.

Little does not have a private investigator license.

In early May, Oswalt and the trustees signed agreements, obtained by The Advocate from the prosecutor’s office, that noted Little’s services to the township “had always been intended to be in the capacity as an expert consultant to the Prosecutor as statutory attorney for the Township and indeed the Prosecutor.”

This intent made Little’s work legal without a private investigator license, according to Oswalt.

Oswalt told The Advocate on Tuesday that consultants did not need licenses for investigations if they were attorneys themselves or if they were hired by an attorney.

“The initial paperwork didn’t say that as clear as it should have,” Oswalt said.

Little was hired with the intent of providing legal advice to the prosecutor’s office, he said.

Former firefighters speak out

Delvin Bailey, a paid member of the former Madison Township Fire Department, was one of the first people to be contacted for an interview for Little’s investigation.

Bailey went to the interview with a tape recorder, was accompanied by former Fire Chief Darrin Decker and requested to record the interview for his own safety, he said. The interview took place at the Licking County Sheriff’s Office.

Little refused to interview him while being recorded, according to Bailey, and the interview never took place.

Oswalt said the interviews for the investigation took place at the sheriff’s office for the sake of convenience.

Later, in May, when Oswalt’s office sent letters to all members of the department mandating that employees comply with requests for interviews with Little for the investigation, Bailey said he and several other members of the department hired an attorney.

After requesting that his new interview time be changed because of a work conflict, Bailey did not hear anything back from the prosecutor’s office until after the department was shut down by the township trustees in mid-July.

According to Bailey, the email stated the prosecutor’s office advised that the investigation was rendered moot by the shutdown of the department.

Nici Rue, a former lieutenant and coordinator of EMS for the Madison Township Fire Department, also never met with Little.

“If (Little) stood right in front of me, I wouldn’t know who he was,” Rue said. “We are suspecting he was meeting with ex-members of the department.”

Rue exchanged multiple emails with Little attempting to reschedule interview times, she said. She is a single mother and works multiple jobs to support her family, she said, and could not make the times he requested.

Bailey and Rue both said they thought Little was possibly interviewing former members of the department, but neither said they knew of anyone else at the department who Little spoke to during the time of the investigation.

By the numbers

Little was paid $55 per hour, up to 30 hours per week, throughout the time of the investigation.

Little’s time sheets, obtained by The Advocate from the Madison Township trustees, are not broken down by hour with a description of what Little was doing during each hour of service for the township. Rather, there are general comments about what was accomplished and then a total number of hours for each month.

This practice is completely different than what the trustees expected from employees of the fire department, Rue said. She said employees were expected to provide detailed time sheets to the trustees.

“He was a contract employee, not a direct employee of the township,” Barger said in response to queries about his time sheets.

Little was paid $3,987 between October and December for the efficiency study.

In the next two months Little clocked 90 hours and received $4,950 from the township. His total for 2015 went up to $7,727 before the first deadline for the investigation at the end of April.

Oswalt said that Little was recommended for hire to the Madison Township trustees because of his background in consulting, human resources and in public office.

Little did not return calls for comment.

abisaro@gannett.com

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