PRESS RELEASE (March 5, 2026)

Wellington Fire Protection District

PRESS RELEASE

March 5, 2026

To the voters of the Wellington Fire Protection District,

Last fall, we referred a ballot measure to be allowed to raise revenue to offset capital expenses by way of a ½ cent sales tax. In June of last year, we conducted a survey that was intended to not only gauge voter appetite for a sales tax, but to also get a feel of how the Fire District is perceived amongst our constituents. We were very happy to learn that our results were overwhelmingly positive for both metrics, so we proceeded with the ballot measure.

On July 29th of last year, a member of our community filed a Campaign Finance Complaint with the Colorado Secretary of State, alleging we violated the Fair Campaign Practices Act by “spending public funds on a survey related to a ballot measure”. Our only options were to accept the allegation and attempt to remedy or challenge it with the Secretary of State. Since we were confident that we were conducting our business within the parameters of the law, we challenged the allegation. Unfortunately, this allowed the complainant to repeatedly state, both on a website created specifically to oppose the ballot measure, and on various social media platforms, that we were “under investigation for alleged misuse of District funds” by contracting with a vendor to conduct the survey.

After a thorough investigation, the Colorado Secretary of State has dismissed the allegations due to lack of sufficient evidence to support them. Unfortunately, the ballot measure failed, but the District felt it was important to clarify that the District’s actions were all in compliance with the law based on the recent decision by the Secretary of State. While the District would have preferred this clarification to have come prior to the election, the Secretary of State’s process is thorough and did not allow for that.

Your trust in us to do our jobs both professionally and ethically is of utmost importance to us. We want to assure our taxpayers and residents that we take the responsibility of managing your money very seriously and would in no way expend those funds outside of the confines of the law. We were pleased to learn from the Secretary of State investigation what we already knew, that we conducted ourselves professionally and lawfully.

Respectfully,Chief Todd Germain