Lankford declined to comment after the meeting.

Board member Dave Zumwalt also declined to go into specifics after the meeting, except to say that the firefighters only had Steele’s side of the story.

The third member of the board, Max Keller, declined comment Saturday.

Firefighters had argued that the state’s Sunshine Law explicitly requires the board to post a notice of the meeting and an agenda of topics to be discussed. The board, they allege, frequently failed to comply with those requirements.

Missouri’s Open Meeting Open Records law states that a public body must post a notice 24 hours before a public meeting at its principal office and that the notice must include the time, date and place of the meeting, a tentative agenda and whether the meeting is open or closed.

Zumwalt acknowledged that he was not sure about the specific requirements for posting meeting notices, but he maintained that proper notices were posted on the door of the fire station. Additionally, the board would sometimes use a free-standing sign at the curb by the department’s Racine station to make people aware of the meetings and publicized meetings in the newspaper.

Asked to respond to the firefighters’ allegations about violating open meetings laws, Zumwalt said he did not know on what they were basing those claims.

Policy breach?

Another issue of contention was access to a “lock-down” room, where department gear and other materials are stored inside the Racine station.

The lock-down room was created, Steele said, because there were problems with missing gear in the past. A room enabled the department to maintain an inventory of what equipment it had and who had it at a given time.

Under department guidelines, only the chief, the deputy chief and the lieutenants had keys to the room. They also were responsible for maintaining a log of what was taken out when and by whom.

Steele said he based this arrangement on what other departments do, and that anyone could call the officers if they needed access to the room.

But Weston and others alleged Saturday that Zumwalt violated that policy by breaking into the lock-down room on one occasion. They also alleged that Zumwalt, who is technically both a firefighter and a board member, lent department gear to his son while the latter was training in firefighter school.

Zumwalt acknowledged that he once used a screwdriver to pry open the door to the lock-down room and gain access, although he said he had tried to find a key first and that board members had asked for their own set of keys several months ago but were never supplied with any.

Zumwalt said he was trying to retrieve an antique fire extinguisher that had been converted into a lamp. The lamp was given to the department some years ago, but Zumwalt said he wanted to return it to the owner and that he needed access to the room immediately because someone was there to collect the lamp.