Former Montague Fire Chief Remains Under Fire

[XLFD]

Earlier this spring, I commented on a domestic dispute involving then-Montague Fire Chief Dennis Roesler and his wife where he brandished a handgun during a heated argument lading to some felony charges in the local courts. 

Roesler (to the right in above picture) wound up pleading no contest to the charges in which, according to testimony at his probable-cause hearing earlier, Roesler pulled out his 9-mm handgun and raised it during an argument with his wife, Vanessa Roesler, in their home while he was drunk.  The violent felony conviction had him sentenced to 30 days in jail, where he served 27 between August and September, and suspended as fire chief, although he still served the district as a firefighter.

But now he's back in the fire along with his fire district board, with a federal lawsuit concerning their actions in demoting Roesler's brother and terminating a seasoned firefighter who circulated a petition for the brother's reinstatement.

According to the complaint, Captain Donald Roesler, brother of then Fire Chief Dennis Roesler, raised some concerns “about the flaws in the construction, including the fire code violations and the deviations from accepted specifications.” in the construction of the new station.  Chief Roesler and one other individual had everything about the construction go through them, thereby shielding the public and the Montague Fire District Board from issues regarding the construction’s non-compliance with code and contracted specifications.

The complaint continues:

• As a result of the mounting tensions surrounding this issue, Captain Roesler requested a leave of absence from the fire department until the issues cooled. Despite the fact that no one had ever been denied a leave of absence, Defendant [Fire Chief] Roesler denied Captain Roesler’s request and instead demoted Captain Roesler to fire fighter due to his speaking out about the issues with the fire station construction.  Roesler had been elected to his position by the firefighters in his district.
• After Captain Roesler was demoted, Plaintiff initiated a Petition to reinstate him and circulated it amongst most of the firefighters.
• Sometime after Plaintiff circulated the Petition, another individual mailed it to each member of the Defendant Montague Fire District Board. Thereafter, the Defendant Montague Fire District Board scheduled a special meeting for December 7, 2011.
• At the December 7, 2011 meeting, Defendant [Fire Chief] Roesler recommended that the Defendant Montague Fire District Board terminate Plaintiff’s employment and the Board then voted to do so.
• Plaintiff is informed and believes that the Defendants terminated his employment due to his initiating and circulating the Petition concerning Captain Roesler’s termination.
• This was a violation of his First Amendment right to speak out on a matter of public concern, including Defendant Roesler’s custom and practice of taking adverse employment action against anyone who criticized his performance as Chief.
• Defendant Montague Fire District Board‘s responses to Chief Roesler’s actions amounted to a system of informal regulation of political speech and was designed to chill any firefighter of ordinary sensitivities from exercising his or her rights to First Amendment protections.
• As a consequence of Defendants’ actions, the movement opposing Defendant Roesler’s termination of Donald Roesler and its consequence to the city’s residents was silenced as other firefighters were unwilling to risk being terminated for exercising their First Amendment rights to oppose The Defendants’ policies and practices. Consequently, Plaintiff and other firefighters supporting his position were unable to achieve their goals in making and continuing the citizens’ awareness of the Defendants’ over-spending and under-protecting them with respect to fire protection.

The suit was filed on November 25, 2014 in US District for the Western District of Michigan and names the Montague Fire District and Chief Roesler personally and in his official capacity.  It asks for declaratory relief of the rights violations, compensatory and punitive damages to be determined, and attorney costs. 

The full complaint as filed:  Naghtin v Montague Fire District

Relevance to Ludington

Back in 2008, the talk around the Ludington firehouse was the proposed new station being largely funded by Western Land Services plans to move their headquarters into the block where the fire station and bowling alley stood.  The tensions in the fire station was tight, as officers argued over the best place to put the new station and the timetable necessitated a lot of compromising.

Officers and city officials had came to a decision as to try and get the station on the 900 block of North Washington, just south of the carwash, even though they had purchased a lot in 2007 for a new station at 428 E Dowland (where Padnos used to be).  When the plan was to move it to Dowland, I was all for it, since it would be less than three blocks straight down from my house (for the record, I really wanted the station to remain where it is, on Loomis, to keep it downtown).

Furthermore, on Dowland it would cap the contaminated land there with concrete for the station, and thus mostly alleviate the cross contamination of nearby areas while not being a hazard to the firefighters.  That lot cannot be used for many other things without further remediation.

My past enthusiasm for that site apparently rankled others when the new site was declared, even though the City did not own the other property, and I never argued against the new site.  I had talked informally with other firefighters about my concerns with having the station so close to the school and apartment complexes, and the overall plan to situate the fire trucks in different areas around town in the 1.5 years of time where the old fire station would be torn down and the new one constructed.  The ladder truck was scheduled to be at Oxychem, some of the other trucks at the bus barns near the school.  Security, response times, and safety of the people were at the tops of my concerns.

I believe when that got back in filtered form to some of our politically active members, like the chief, Lieutenant Fred Hackert (on two city boards and a former councilor), and firefighters John Henderson (mayor) and Nick Tykoski (DDA member, later a councilor), it amounted to heresy.  Regardless, the deal fell through with Western Land Services backing out due to the economic hard times of that period, and now six years later, the fire station is still on Loomis and getting repairs done next year.

Department Photo 2002:   Front Row: left to right:  Steve Johnson, Leo Lindbloom, XLFD, Mike Gezequel, Jeremy Bray, John Henderson, Andy Larr, John Healy,Lieutenant, Bruce Pelletier, Lieutenant, Gary Lange,Captain, Ron Jabrocki, Assistant Chief,  Gerry Funk, Chief
Back Row: left to right:  Al Bratschi, Brad Stever, James Erzen, Gary Walton, Bernard Schlacht, Fred Hackert

I think it's very likely that the furor made by Fire Chief Funk and other officers over my bicycle traffic ticket in September of 2008 leading to a hostile working environment, not at the fire scene, but at the fire house, for me was based some on these political concerns which crept into the building and burned down our main purpose.  To put out fires and respond to emergencies. 

During that time, firefighters other than myself had shown that it was dangerous to have a different opinion than the ones held by the main clique-- a characteristic I think which has only gotten worse among city workers and officials.  Whether it be firefighters, cops, or city staff, the whistleblowers and dissenters from the chosen course in Ludington must live in fear for their career if they voice their concerns raised by their conscience. 

Such intrigues led to my resignation from the department, adopting the X-LFD label, and fighting those political concerns, corruption and more ill-conceived Machiavellian machinations ever since by Ludington officials and others when they go against the public interest.

[Willy]

I bet there is a lot of tension in the Montague firehouse where brother and brother are feuding and which now includes friends against friends. I have to agree with the lawsuit especially when it involves the quashing of free speech. The Chief should have resigned or taken a demotion. A convicted felon has no business being Fire Chief.

[AQUAMAN]

The other relevant issue in Ludington belongs to Oxychem and it's security company. That freedom of speech was again threatened to be squashed as XLFD made public comments about city officials, and then was terminated from a security guard job via John Henderson's involvement at the city and with Oxychem for continuing to do so anyhow. The Montague situation clearly shows that this kind of behind the scenes violations of individual liberties is commonplace in more than just one local Michigan community. All three, John Henderson, the security company, and Oxychem deserved and asked to be sued similarly, but XLFD didn't do so. If he were after ill-gotten gains so badly, as some have accused, then why not cash out on that fat bundle? It would be a LOT MORE than any petty FOIA suits to date so far.

[XLFD]

When my attorney was deposing John Henderson for the Rotta v. Shay/COL lawsuit regarding the Workplace Safety Policy and Oxychem issues it was rather disheartening hearing the mayor either not remember or deny several things that were at issue.  In eight years on the LFD together, it was fairly easy to get a read on him as to when he was not telling the full truth or being evasive.  I saw a lot of that on that day.  The evasiveness and plausible deniability he showed made such a lawsuit problematical, even though we probably could have shown a bit of problems if we started one up and invoked successful discovery on the proper agencies. 

But unfortunately, legal help takes quite a lot of money, and so individuals usually can't afford to lose, unlike our public officials.