Cabinet View petition coordinator vows to continue fire district fight

Cabinet View Fire District petition coordinator John Rios filed a lawsuit last month challenging the county’s assertion that he failed to gather enough valid signatures from his neighbors to form a fire district. 

Lincoln County officials have responded to Rios’ lawsuit, asking a judge to determine whether the county has sole discretion over the establishment of a fire district after it has received a valid petition. The county also is asking Rios to pay the county legal bills for for its defense. 

On Nov. 12, the county informed Rios the petition to establish a fire district lacked the minimum percentage of real property owners. The minimum requirement for a petition of that nature is 40 percent. Some petitioners sought to have their names removed, which dropped the percentage.

“The county’s interpretation is that we do not have the 40 percent of landowners within the district,” Rios said. “That’s not the way I see it. Despite those turncoats, the way I look at it, we still have 45 to 46 percent of landowners. I think it’s pretty plain. The law is written in eighth-grade English.”

Rios vows to fight on.

The county says Rios failed to follow through with the procedural process of appealing the county’s determination on Nov. 12 that the petition lacked sufficient numbers. 

Rios said the county is trying to snuff out the attempt to establish a fire district with much the same boundaries as the former Cabinet View Fire Service Area. The county dissolved the Cabinet View Fire Service Area two years ago.

It is Rios’ contention that the petition numbers were sufficient and still are. He said the latest “slapdown” is just another attempt to extinguish efforts to form a fire district that he says commissioners feel would challenge other emergency agencies.

“We don’t want an ambulance service,” Rios said. “We are emboldened by the (state) Supreme Court ruling in favor of Bull Lake. That was an outright win for Bull Lake. The county tried to put their spin on it, but it was a total reversal of what the county ruled.”

Lincoln County Commissioner Mike Cole said the county has tried to bring Rios and the Cabinet View petitioners to dialogue.

“I think we did a pretty good job of extending to them an olive branch, but nothing came of it,” Cole said. “We said, ‘Bring in your numbers and let’s go through it. Let’s compare numbers.’”

Rios said his step-father died just before the deadline to challenge the county’s determination that his petition was invalid, and he was called away for the family emergency. It was upon Rios’ return that he filed the lawsuit.