The Fort Lewis Mesa Fire Protection District hired a new fire chief in December, a move the district hoped would stabilize an agency that has experienced months of turmoil and personnel turnover.
But accusations have been made that key portions of Fire Chief Chris Gibbons’ resume – notably that he previously served as a fire chief in Missouri – may be false.
The dispute over Gibbons’ credentials has heightened scrutiny of the fire district’s hiring process at a time when the agency is attempting to recover from months of instability, resignations and leadership turmoil.
As a taxpayer-funded district, the accuracy of the fire chief’s resume is considered by some to be a matter of public trust.
Gibbons’ resume says he worked as a firefighter in Bismarck, Missouri, from 1985 to 2014, and served in a chief capacity of the Bismarck Fire Protection District for 20 of those years, during which his resume says he was fire chief for an unspecified amount of time.
It also credits him as a prolific grant writer who raised more than $20 million over his career and as a published author with Clarion Fire and Rescue Group, an industry organization that produces media, training, events and education for fire and emergency services professionals.
Emily Horvath, a former board president, has accused Gibbons of falsifying parts of his resume.
“During his time at Bismarck, he was never the chief, so he had that listed as essentially his only job other than (writing) articles,” she said. “And I never had any luck whenever I was looking online for those articles.”
Horvath also questioned why Gibbons would list being a chief from 1985 to 2014.
“Why would you put on your resume that you were a chief from 1985 to 2014?” she asked. “Like, you’re clearly not a chief at 12 years old.”
Garrett Vogel, the newly appointed president of the Fort Lewis Mesa Fire board, said the board asked Gibbons about those allegations and that his explanation “checked out.”
Gibbons’ resume lists only that he worked for the Bismarck Fire Protection District during that time period, not that he served as fire chief the entire time.
Vogel also said the board asked Gibbons about the implication that he had been employed as a firefighter since age 12. Gibbons told the board he put his start date at Bismarck Fire as 1985 because he started as a junior firefighter.
“We’ve done a very thorough vetting process and checked references,” Vogel said. “We have spoken to people he served with at different fire departments, and we feel comfortable with our decision and stand behind him.”
When asked if anyone from the Bismarck Fire Protection District could verify his previous leadership roles, Gibbons pointed to Vogel – who has no involvement with the Bismarck fire department.
Gibbons refused to provide The Durango Herald with any contact information for people in Bismarck who could confirm he held the role of fire chief.
The Herald contacted four people listed as references or who provided letters of recommendation included in Gibbons’ application materials.
Charlie Crawford, president of the Bismarck Fire Department, according to Gibbons’ resume, said he knew of Gibbons but had never met him. However, public Facebook posts, seen after the initial conversation, show multiple interactions between Gibbons’ and an account belonging to a person named Charlie Crawford.
Crawford could not be reached a second time to explain.
Danny Hale, listed as a board member for the Bismarck Fire Protection District, wrote a letter of recommendation for Gibbons but declined to answer questions about Gibbons’ employment history. Jared Meador, the current fire chief for the city of Desloge, Missouri, also declined to answer questions.
None of the people contacted confirmed that Gibbons had ever served as a fire chief in Bismarck.
“No, he was never the chief,” said John Colwell, who served as fire chief of one of Bismarck’s fire departments starting in 2008.
Colwell said news that Gibbons had been hired as a fire chief several states away prompted laughter among some people in Bismarck who knew him.
“We all got quite the chuckle,” Colwell said. “He’s a pathological liar.”
Gibbons declined to answer whether he had ever served as fire chief in Bismarck, as well as other questions from the Herald, including questions sent to him in writing Friday afternoon.
News coverage from The Daily Journal, a multicounty newspaper that regularly covered Bismarck-area fire agencies in the 2000s, does not identify Gibbons as fire chief in any articles reviewed.
Instead, Gibbons is described in roughly a dozen articles published between 2004 and 2011 as serving in roles including assistant chief, deputy chief and board treasurer. During that same period, the fire chief is consistently identified as Mike Gibbons, Chris Gibbons’ father.
Mike Gibbons served as fire chief throughout much of the 2000s, according to archived reporting and interviews, including with Colwell.
Vogel attributed the discrepancies to what he described as a complicated and contentious period in Bismarck’s fire service history.
There were three different fire departments operating out of the same building at the same time, Vogel said. There was a big dispute going on between them, and multiple people were using the title of chief, he explained.
The current Bismarck mayor, Seth Radford, said there had been two fire departments in one building in the 2010s and records from the Missouri Association of Fire Chiefs confirm that three entities were registered in Bismarck during that period: the Bismarck City Fire Department, the Bismarck Fire Protection District and the Bismarck Rural Fire Protection Association Inc.
However, even under this explanation, records still do not show Gibbons as fire chief, although the mayor, Radford, did say he recalled Gibbons having been chief at one point or another.
Coverage from The Daily Journal documents conflicts between the Bismarck Rural Fire Protection Association and the Bismarck Fire Protection District during that time. In those articles, Chris Gibbons is again identified as board treasurer – not fire chief.
“Lying is in his nature, because he’s been doing this for a very long time,” said Ginger Ramsey, Gibbons ex-girlfriend. Gibbons broke up with her in early January after they both moved across state lines to set up home in La Plata County. She is now back in Missouri.
Ramsey said she was shocked when she saw the resume Gibbons had used to obtain the job at the Fort Lewis Mesa Fire Protection District. He’d never been a fire chief, she said, and had definitely not raised the multiple millions in grant money his resume claimed.
The Herald was unable to independently verify Gibbons’ grant-raising claims or the published articles listed on his resume. Vogel confirmed Gibbons had provided him with copies of the articles and that he would share them with the Herald if Gibbons gave permission.
When asked Friday whether Gibbons had permitted them to be shared, Vogel said Gibbons had not yet responded.
Serious concerns regarding the truthfulness of Gibbon’s resume, the board’s hiring process and Gibbon’s ability to meet the demands of the job were voiced by Horvath, the former board president, at Tuesday night’s board meeting.
An audience member accused Horvath of attempting to retaliate against the board after they had all but forced her to resign in December following contentious disagreement over the hiring of Gibbons. She was on the board during much of the hiring process, and resigned several weeks before Gibbons was formally hired.
But Horvath said it is not retaliatory but out of concern for a district that needs stability and experienced leadership more than anything.
“It is beyond frustrating that I am not being taken seriously and I’m being accused of just retaliating because I’m mad – I’m not,” she said.
Horvath also disagreed with Vogel’s characterization of a formal vetting process.
“They (the rest of the board) essentially didn’t want to do a very in-depth reference check,” she said. “They essentially just wanted to do a Zoom interview, bring him out, and if they liked him, do a reference check.”
She said board members relied heavily on reference letters attached to Gibbons’ resume. In her experience as a director of nursing, she said she never relied on references that come attached to a resume. They can be written by anyone, and when candidates submit them proactively it can be a red flag, she said.
“To me, like, that’s (the alleged falsifications) a major character concern,” Horvath said in an interview with the Herald.
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She is worried about the implications for the safety of the people who rely on the fire district for emergency care, and says right now the district needs a completely competent leader.
Others want Horvath to sit down, stop stirring up discontent, and give Gibbons a chance to show he can do the work.
“I met Chris, and he stayed at my house when he was here and I found him to be a very honest and honorable man when we talked and stuff,” a former volunteer firefighter said during public comment at Tuesday’s board meeting. “… Give Chief Gibbons a chance, the board has done their part diligently.”
And that is what the board intends to do, Vogel said.
Horvath, who has reached out to the La Plata County commissioners, said she has reached a wall in her crusade to draw more public scrutiny to Gibbons’ fitness for the position.
Under Colorado law, the county does not have authority to interfere or monitor fire district operations.
jbowman@durangoherald.com
