Tension mounts over CVFD $

 “And that is the end of that discussion.”

In an unusually sober and stern discussion, Campbellsburg Mayor Rex Morgan said that in accordance with a contract between the city and the Campbellsburg Volunteer Fire Department, no funds would be distributed to the fire department unless the department turns in quarterly statements. And that decision he said, rests solely with him.

“Any statements we have that were turned in and dated, in according to the contract, the fire department will receive the disbursement,” Morgan added. Those reports, Morgan said Tuesday, are due on the 10th of a month after a quarter ends, for example, April 10 for the first quarter of 2012.

“That’s consistent with what was signed by both parties,” city attorney Bill Brammell said.

After Morgan declared an end to the discussion, three representatives of the fire department, including CVFD Chief David Noe, left without comment.

Tuesday morning, Morgan said the three-page contract between the city and CVFD was signed in 2011. Prior to Morgan and Noe signing the contract, Morgan sought approval from the city council to enter into the contract, and they voted 4-0 to do so.

Because the contract was not yet in place for the first quarter in 2011, Morgan said, the city gave the department $5,000 as budgeted. “After that, they did not turn anything in,” he said. “(Then) they were wanting back pay for the previous quarters.”

“The contract is three pages long,” he said later. “There’s nothing in there that’s deceiving, nothing that’s complicated.”

Noe said Tuesday that the discussion about payments began after the city’s May meeting and a discussion about a “discrepancy list” for repairs to the fire station.

But he acknoweldged there was an “ongoing issue” with the quarterly reports. “We were late on one or two of our reports,” Noe said. “But since then, they’ve been turned in on time and paid us for the ones that have been turned in on time.

Conflicts between the fire department and the city are becoming routine — former Mayors Carl Rucker and Jan Fletcher also scuffled with the department about providing financial statements.

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