TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. — Tippecanoe County Circuit Court Judge Sean Persin denied a preliminary injunction that could have saved the jobs of paid firefighters in Wabash Township.
The judge heard arguments from both sides at a status hearing early Tuesday afternoon. Late Tuesday, the judge denied an injunction, allowing the termination of the firefighters to go forward.
"Those positions have been eliminated and they will end on June 29. Now how we move forward, I'm happy to have conversations about a lot of things at that point," township Trustee Jennifer Teising said.
The suit filed by the Wabash Township Fire Department Association also had asked for Teising to be removed from office. The Wabash Township Advisory Board and its three members, as well as the township's three paid firefighters, had been added as plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the trustee.
Teising plans to terminate the firefighters at the end of the day Tuesday, June 29. That's even after the town board transferred money to pay them through 2023.
"We've got the money. It's not a question of finances," said township board member David Tate. "It's a simple power play, a wrong power play, and we're all caught in the middle."
The board is also part of the lawsuit that asked Teising to be removed from office.
"The trust is broken," said Angel Valentin, the president of the township's advisory board. "There's no trust from the part of the board toward the trustee. There's no trust on the part of the department towards the trustee. There's also no trust on the part of the public towards the trustee. In addition to the fact that she's already abdicated quite a few of her duties, I think it would be much harder to work with a partner that does not work in good faith."
Fire crews warn a part-time or volunteer department would double response times for people in crisis.
"If we eliminate our paid guys, then our volunteers are going to have to do all the work, and a lot of them have jobs during the day so there's not going to be a lot of us available," said Deputy Fire Chief Jim Lewis.
"If you look at the time it takes for a building, a structure, a car wreck, bleeding out, heart attack, diabetes, any of those instances, it's the golden hour. It's the time that's key. We won't have that," Tate said. "It's going to put people at risk and right now, I don't think that's a concern of the trustee's decision. It's a power play and it's going to cost lives."
Teising told 13News last week that she still planned to eliminate the full-time employees to "stay within our annual tax revenue."
Teising faces 20 felony theft charges for allegedly living outside the district while collecting her township salary. Her term runs through 2022.