CHESTERFIELD, MO. (KMOX) - The Monarch Fire Protection District Board of Directors is under fire from a group of taxpayers.  They call themselves the Monarch Concerned Taxpayers and they don’t like the way the Board has been spending money.

Spokesman David Winchell says the board  has tripled legal costs, hosted expensive dinners and have paid between 35-and-70 thousand dollars to hire a firm to search for the next fire chief.

A big complaint at the group’s meeting last night was raises for firefighters.  Winchell says two of the three board members want to raise their pay 2.5% in 2012.  Only one board member wants to keep the wage freeze in force, which Winchell and the group supports.

“There’s not many fires in the Monarch Fire District, maybe one or two a year at the most” Winchell told KMOX.

And Winchell says the firefighters make between 80 and 85 thousand dollars a year. He says at the core of the problem, is two of the three board members are
union controlled.

“Here you have the board following the direction of the union and not the other way around” said Winchell.

The group  Monarch Concerned Taxpayers has more info on it’s website.

Copyright KMOX Radio