In December 2012, the board of the Inter-Canyon Fire Protection District, in Jefferson County, was astonished to hear it had run out of money to fight fires.
There was no money, either, to continue its job as the first medical responder to crashes on U.S. 285 in the Denver foothills. The district was broke.
Eventually, the board learned it had been oblivious for three years while the volunteer fire chief, Dave MacBean, embezzled $643,000 — in a district with a $900,000 annual budget. MacBean was later convicted of theft and embezzlement and sentenced to eight years in prison.
In an interview with the Canyon Courier in 2014, though, MacBean said he wasn’t solely to blame.
“(The board) did not request receipts as part of the accounting process,” MacBean told the newspaper. “There was a lack of checks and balances.”
Voters later ousted the board chairman at the time, Mike Reddy. But Reddy was re-appointed to the board last month. And another member who sat on the board throughout the scandal is still there, perhaps because voters have never had a chance to vote on his retention since the scandal. That means two of the five directors who failed to pay attention are making financial decisions for the district once again.
The story highlights a frequent problem when it comes to Colorado’s numerous special districts, which hold their board elections in May.
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