Wood Dale fire district board sees infighting

Anyone familiar with the turbulent recent history of the Wood Dale Fire Protection District had to know the harmony exuded by the newly assembled three-member board couldn't last forever.

Tuesday night's lash-out by senior Trustee Gail Johnson, however, caught even her colleagues off guard.

Angry with what she described as the district's mounting legal bills, failed union negotiations and overall mismanagement within the district, Johnson used the board's secretary report to lash out at recently elected Trustees Wally Takoy and Ron Herff.

"I'm really not happy with the way this board has been run and I think we need to rethink and readjust what we're doing here," she said. "If we keep going the way we're going, we're going to hit a few brick walls financially and just in general in the district."

She then accused Takoy, a former district commissioner and current district president, of "turning a deaf ear" to the firefighters' needs and wishes and questioned the dedication of Herff, a former district chief and 30-year employee.

Takoy acknowledged that since being elected to the board, there are issues that he can't discuss freely with the firefighters, as he could when he was a commissioner but said his door's always open to anyone in the district.

"I will talk to the firefighters about anything, but I will not talk about negotiations or things like that," Takoy said. "There has to be a chain of command. It's very tough for me, but I have made it clear to them that are things I can't talk to them about, and I think they all understood that."

She then turned her attention to Herff, telling him "everyone knows that you were terminated as a fire chief." After serving as a firefighter for about 28 years, Herff took over as chief in August 2004 and continued through mid-November 2005 at which point the district announced a "mutual agreement of termination" and continued to pay Herff's approximately $94,000 salary through Aug. 20, 2007.

Johnson was trustee at the time and claims she and her fellow board members fired Herff. Herff maintains he merely retired on his own terms.

"You are absolutely wrong. Period. Absolutely not and shame on you. End of statement about what happened with me and this fire district. You are wrong, 1,000 percent wrong," he said before calling Johnson's contributions to the district into question. "You don't do anything. All you're doing is screwing with this department because you have no idea what you're doing."

Takoy then directed any further discussion to the closed-session portion of the meeting.

Before entering closed session, both Herff and Takoy said they were surprised by the normally quiet Johnson's outburst.

"Never saw that coming," Herff said. "I had no idea."

Takoy said he thought the three had been working well together and was also caught off guard. He declined to comment further, saying he hopes all three trustees can work the issues out amongst themselves and focus on the best interests of the district.