Prineville, Ore. – A battalion chief with Crook County Fire & Rescue (CCFR) made a surprise announcement of his resignation directly to the organization’s elected board on Thursday morning while primarily raising issues related to confidence in the fire district’s leadership and turnover in frontline staff.
According to Battalion Chief Dan Drayton, who joined the CCFR in 2019, he would be stepping down in the coming weeks.
“First, I am grateful for the opportunity to have served this organization and community over the past five years. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience here and deeply value the people I’ve worked with and have the privilege to lead,” said Drayton. “This organization is filled with talented and dedicated individuals, and has enormous potential.”
Drayton, reading his letter of resignation, went on to explain that his departure was only one in an unusual number of other resignations since he joined the department, which included eleven other resignations in the last five years. His will make the twelfth, with another employee reportedly planning to resign next month.
“This level of turnover is not normal, nor does it have to be inevitable. It reflects systemic issues that must be addressed for the organization to thrive,” said Drayton. “While there have been positive improvements during my tenure, the persistence of these issues suggests the need for a fresh perspective.”
According to Drayton’s letter, he has served for nearly 25 years with multiple agencies, holds a bachelors degree in fire service administration, and graduated from the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer program.
Employee retention has been a recurring topic of conversation at the fire district’s board meetings, according to meeting minutes and this publications own observations while attending meetings.
Several other firefighters, one of which did not want to speak with us due to concerns related to their own jobs, helped pack the limited 3 rows of public seating, seemingly in support of Drayton.
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According to Drayton, many staff are “actively seeking opportunities elsewhere.” Another source, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity, also alleged that many of the fire district’s staff were indeed seeking other employment. Months ago, the district’s board of directors also revealed they were aware many were allegedly seeking other employment with different agencies.
Drayton explained to the board that the organization’s leadership has lost the “trust, respect, and support” of its staff.
“This phrase resonates with me when I consider the organization’s current state, explained Drayton. “As the organizational assessment shows, many employees feel frustrated with the work environment and the leadership.”
The Prineville Review then learned that Drayton was referring to a recent third-party report that was conducted that was being called an “organizational assessment,” as part of a review of reported issues within the organization.
We also learned, only from statements made during today’s meeting, that the CCFR board held an unnoticed meeting on Dec. 9th (a violation of Oregon’s public records law), not only failing to post it on its own website, but failing to provide the required notice to the Prineville Review. Today’s earlier meeting was noticed on its website (although it did not have a remote attendance link), and advance notice with a remote meeting link was provided to the Prineville Review (which we uploaded to our public meetings link).
The Dec. 9th meeting was also referred to as a “work session”, but such work sessions are still regular public meetings according to Oregon law and information from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission. We were provided a write-up of the work session immediately after asking about it.
Crook County Fire & Rescue also faced legal issues years ago regarding complaints of labor violations. The Crook County Firefighters Association, IAFF Local 5115, filed a complaint against the district for unfair labor practices.
The Oregon Employee Relations Board unanimously found that the CCFR and Chief Smith violated state labor laws and issued an order in favor of the firefighters in Dec. of 2019.
We asked Chief Matt Smith why we were not given notice of the Dec. 9th “work session”, to which he simply explained he simply may have forgot. Smith claimed the Dec. 9th meeting was noticed, but the Prineville Review learned that only the Dec. 19th meeting was posted, as well as another meeting the Prineville Review was not told about on Dec. 5th called a “Civil Service Meeting”. The last notice received besides the Dec. 19th meeting was for the board’s November meeting which we were unable to attend.
We also discovered that while the agenda notice in the meetings section of the website did not include the Zoom meeting link, a separate and more obscure “public notices” page contained the Zoom link for the Dec. 5th and Dec. 19th meetings. There was no information about the Dec. 5th work session.
When asked about the organization assessment report, Smith acknowledged the report existed and indicated he would provide the document to the Prineville Review today, but requested we submit a public records request using their own form. The form was not available to the public online, and Smith asked we email him first to request the form.
Despite the promise this morning to promptly provide a copy of the report today, it had not yet been provided prior to publication of this story. We will update this story with the report once it is provided.
CCFR Board Chair Jerry Brummer was also asked why the Prineville Review not being provided notice of the earlier meetings. We also asked if he wanted to comment the resignation of Drayton as well as why the Prineville Review was not given notice of multiple past meetings. Brummer was immediately defensive and ultimately declined to comment.
“I have no comment for you buddy,” Brummer remarked, appearing upset over our questioning.
Brummer is a former Crook County Commissioner who resigned from that post in Oct. of last year. According to the Central Oregon Daily News, Brummer’s resignation was due to health issues and increasing stress which he reportedly cited in a formal letter.
When approached for comment, Board Member Dennis Merrill gave the impression he would be open to speaking, but had to run due to another obligation. When we offered the opportunity to conduct a later interview before he left town, he ultimately declined.
We did not have an opportunity to request comment or an interview with Board Member George Ponte. Gary Abrams, who also sits on the board, indicated he would be open to speaking but did not have time today due to other commitments. Board Member Steve Lent refused to comment and also supported Brummer’s allegation and claim that our questioning after the meeting was “harassment”.
The Prineville Review had also previously submitted a formal public meeting’s grievance with the CCFR board over the summer after uncovering issues related to public meetings compliance. The board appeared to address the issues at the time (before we uncovered the latest concerns regarding the unnoticed work session and other Dec. 5th), avoiding the issue being raised with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission as a formal complaint.
When we asked additional questions, as well as to understand if his refusal was to a specific issue or an indication he had no interest in general to speak with this reporter, Brummer repeatedly started saying that the questioning was “harassment”.
The alleged issues being faced by CCFR are not the first for a smaller agency in Central Oregon. Two years ago, similar issues came to light with the La Pine fire district, leading to the firefighter’s union calling for its chief’s resignation, according to KTVZ reporting at the time.
“I want to encourage the board to revisit the organizational assessment. Read it through the lens of the frontline employees — the men and women who are the heart and soul of this organization. Their feedback tells the story of a team craving better leadership, a clear vision, and a culture of excellence,” said Drayton.
“In closing, I do not intend to diminish the positive work the chief has accomplished, or promote myself. Instead, please view leadership transitions as a regular and healthy part of any organization’s life cycle.
The Prineville Review obtained a copy of the resignation letter that he read during the meeting which can be viewed here. We will update this story when and if we are provided with the organization assessment report that we had been told would be released today, or if we receive prompt comment from any members of the board.
Chief Matt Smith politely told us he wasn’t sure he would want to comment at this time.
This is a developing story which we will keep you updated on.
