After Referendum Turmoil, Palos Fire Board Shrinks To Three Trustees

After a the Palos Fire Protection District Board of Trustees has reduced its own membership.

Trustees voted to reduce the size of the board from five members to three. Trustee Randall Guinn who was at over referendum campaigning has resigned.

At a meeting last month the board decided to reduce the number of trustees to three. Board president Kevin McCurrie says that was done, "for the good of the fire protection district."

With the change in numbers, all of the trustees will now have to be reappointed or replaced by the Palos Township Board.

The decision to move down to three members surprised township supervisor Colleen Grant-Schumann.

"We didn't even know about the vote to go down to three members until after the fact," she said.

Grant-Schumann says her first concern would be that a three member board would have difficulty consistently maintaining a quorum. However, the township board's only role in fire district decisions is to appoint trustees.

Palos Fire Protection District residents interested in one of the three open spots can submit a letter of interest with qualifications to Palos Township. There is no official application.

It is expected that current trustees will submit letters of interest, however as of June 17 none have been submitted.

 Grant-Schumann says that the most important qualification would be a commitment to serving in a non-paid position, and that some form of budgetary understanding would be a benefit as well.

"I thought we has such a nice blend of people on that board that did come from many varied political backgrounds and views. They worked so well together for all these years," Grant-Schumann said. "That's why it was a very disappointing situation that arose when I know they felt that they had been kind of betrayed, as did the firemen."

Grant-Schumann says that if a potential trustee was against the referendum that would not be a reason to not consider them.

"Not if they were qualified to be able to manage the other duties associated with it," she said.

Guinn's resignation comes after McCurrie called for his resignation following the referendum's failure.

The letter Guinn sent out to residents detailed recent media articles citing an error in the wording of ballot referendum questions throughout Cook County that would result in tax increases being significantly higher than printed.

At a post-election board meeting, McCurrie called the letter a "miscommunication of the facts."

Guinn could not be reached for comment.

Grant-Schumann says the process for appointing trustees would likely move forward fairly quickly. Until a new board is appointed or reappointed, the current four trustees will continue to serve.