Former Monroe, OR, Firefighter Receives $125K Settlement

Roselyn Baker is not a firefighter anymore.

That part of her life came to a screeching halt when she reported a complaint to her boss, the Monroe Rural Protection Fire District's chief, and was fired the same day, two hours later.

Following her termination, nearly half of Monroe’s firefighters resigned.

It’s been almost a year, and in that time, the district has racked up more than $8,000 in legal fees and paid Baker a $125,000 settlement after she filed a tort claim, alleging retaliation, wrongful termination and other misdeeds.

The Fire District conducted an investigation, but the results were not released, with officials citing attorney-client privilege.

The decision to close the investigation to the public was one made by the district's board of directors, according to Chief Chris Barnes.

In the aftermath of the controversy, the district has updated its employee handbook and incorporated “relevant training” to prevent future incidents, Barnes said, adding staffing levels have returned normal.

But for Baker, the actions signal a lack of accountability.

“They sacrificed the integrity of the department to keep the people at the top,” she said.

What happened?

Earlier this year, several volunteer firefighters resigned from the Monroe Rural Fire Protection District following the termination of a staff firefighter after she had issued a complaint to Chief Barnes.

The genesis of the complaint traces back to the January winter storm that blanketed the mid-Willamette Valley with a layer of ice. Barnes and Baker, who was an acting-in-capacity lieutenant, responded to a call at a Benton County home, according to a letter she wrote to Barnes.

During the Jan. 16 incident, Baker put her portable radio on the back of her pants, attached to her duty belt and bent down to evaluate a patient.

Wanting to call more medics to the scene, Barnes approached Baker from behind and grabbed her radio, yanking it several times before freeing it from her belt, the letter, dated Jan. 22, said.

“The action of approaching me from behind and removing the radio from my belt made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I am more than capable of removing the portable radio from my belt in a timely manner if you are unable to find yours,” the letter says.

Baker specifically asked Barnes not to touch her or her belt unless her life is under immediate threat or if she has given explicit permission.

Within two hours of delivering her written complaint to Barnes, she was fired, according to the tort claim, filed two weeks later on Jan. 30. Tort claims against governmental agencies are often precursors to lawsuits.

Copies of both the dated letter Baker brought to Barnes and her last check are included in the tort claim.

After learning of the termination — one of only three paid positions at the district — five volunteer firefighters resigned and signed a letter sent to the board of directors, indicating they had no confidence in Chief Barnes' leadership.

Resigned volunteer firefighters indicated they would return if an investigation were launched and Barnes were placed on administrative leave.

They got half of what they wanted: An investigation was conducted, but Barnes was not placed on administrative leave. Shortly after the board's vote to conduct an investigation, the only remaining paid staff firefighter also resigned because of Baker’s termination.

With the changes in staffing, some resigned firefighters expressed concerns about the district's ability to get to calls fast enough.

However, Barnes maintained in an email that no call times were affected.

Today, staffing is normal. Four paid positions, two part-time and two full-time, are filled, he said. Volunteers total 16, with two recruits finishing up at the academy, he added.

A legal battle

The tort claim filed with the district describes battery, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, whistleblowing retaliation and wrongful termination at the hands of the fire chief.

In response, Monroe Rural Fire Protection District has paid over $8,300 in attorney fees from January to July, according to invoices from Local Government Law Group obtained in a public records request.

The first charge appears Jan. 23, a day after Baker’s termination.

Barnes declined to comment about the settlement Baker received, but Baker said she accepted a $125,000 settlement in August.

Before that, she was asked to come back to her position. Mid-Valley Media obtained the letter that was addressed to her lawyer.

“After careful consideration, the district is willing to allow Ms. Baker to return to work immediately, in her same position without any loss of pay or benefits,” the Feb. 15 letter penned by Spencer Rockwell of Special Districts Insurance Services reads.

“I have been asked by the district to assist them in this matter,” the letter says.

At the time, the investigation was not yet complete looking into the allegations Baker made, the letter acknowledges.

An investigation

In February, the board of directors voted to investigate the allegations against Barnes.

Mid-Valley Media attempted to obtain the records from Monroe Rural Protection Fire District, but the request was denied, based on an Oregon state law that exempts documents produced under attorney-client privilege.

“The investigation was completed by a third-party and at the control and direction of the District’s legal counsel. The investigator issued a report to legal counsel. The report is an attorney-client privileged document, unconditionally exempt from disclosure, and not subject to an analysis of the public interest,” Mark Wolf of Local Government Law Group wrote in a letter to the Benton County District Attorney, to whom Mid-Valley Media appealed after its public records request was denied.

When asked why the records were not released, Barnes said the decision to conduct the investigation the way it did was made by the board of directors. He couldn't speak to it.

When asked what he thinks the public should know about the investigation, he gave the following reply by email:

“That the board of directors fulfilled their obligation as elected officials, by investigating the matter and based on the findings of those results, made decisions that best suited the district and the public,” he said.

When asked if any new trainings or changes were put in place to prevent future incidents, Barnes replied: “The board has adopted a revised and current employee handbook in collaboration with HR Answers, a Special District Association of Oregon affiliate. MRFPD has instituted additional training in relevant topics.”

A small town

Inside a Corvallis coffee shop, Baker’s hands clasped over a to-go paper cup. She doesn't socialize much in Monroe anymore, she said. She doesn’t eat out at restaurants or even do much shopping there because she doesn’t want to run into anyone from the fire department.

Monroe, a town of 763 according to the 2023 U.S. Census, is a place where people don’t ask very many questions, she said. She thought residents might come to the public meetings to see why firefighters were resigning. But they didn’t.

On social media, some residents shared that they thought Baker was complaining because she got fired, she said. No one seemed to ask questions there either.

“Some people had their minds set. People in Monroe don’t ask questions unless it benefits them or their agenda,” she said.

Some of her interactions in the small town felt outright hostile.

A former member of the Fire District called a local TV news station to show up to Baker's doorstep, without any warning. She knows who it was because she asked the newscaster who sent her the news tip, she said.

“It felt like a direct attempt to humiliate me by invading my privacy,” she said.

Disillusioned

It’s been almost a year since the day Baker was terminated, but the details are still fresh in her mind.

Baker purposely went to deliver her complaint with two other firefighters, who stood in earshot, she said. The chief had a track record of being defensive, and she didn’t want to be alone when she brought in the note.

She remembers joking with her coworkers that she was going to get fired for raising a complaint, she said. Then she was.

“I just wanted to keep my head down and do my job and maybe ask someone not to touch me, you know, that's it. That's it. I wasn’t even asking for him to get written up,” she said.

When five volunteer firefighters resigned, saying they would return if Barnes was put on administrative leave, Baker thought that the board might grant their request. But they didn’t.

Being a firefighter is a difficult job; you have to put faith and trust in your team, she said. You are being asked to put in time and effort and may even be risking fellow firefighters' lives at times.

Instead, she felt like firefighters, including herself, were treated like they were disposable.

“If you want people to actually care about the job they're doing and put in that time and effort, you take pride in it. You have to treat them right. You have to protect your employees,” she said.

Watching it all unfold, Baker is now left with a feeling that is difficult to describe.

“I feel like I got betrayed,” she said. It almost sounds too dramatic, she said, but it’s the only word that can really describe the heavy emotion, she said.

Before events unfolded, she looks back at her time at Monroe Fire as rewarding. She wouldn’t go back and change that just because of what happened in the end, Baker said.

At the same time, if she had a daughter, she wouldn’t want her to be a firefighter directly because of her experience, she said.

Looking for a fresh start, Baker enrolled in dental hygienist school.

She hasn’t tried to apply to any firefighting jobs since. It feels like something she has in her “back pocket,” but for now the feelings are too fresh, and frankly she has become disillusioned.

“There was no integrity, no accountability, she said, “ I lost faith in the system, and I didn’t want to risk it again.”

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