Former Captain: KVEC Bylaws Don't Explain How Election Winner Lost Chief Seat

A former KVEC Captain is alleging that a Chief election was overturned outside the process laid out in the organization's own bylaws — and a public statement from the man who says he won that election lines up with his account.

James Hamelton Jr., who served as a Captain with Keokuk Volunteer Emergency Corps, says he was present when Scott Bergheger won the organization's Chief election four separate times. According to Hamelton, Dan Tillman objected to the outcome and went to Gabe Rose's office at the Keokuk Fire Department. Tillman was installed as Chief shortly after, Hamelton says — not Bergheger, the candidate who had won the vote.

KVEC's bylaws, reviewed in full as part of this investigation, describe Chief elections as triggered only by a vacancy, with the timing of that vacancy left to the Board's discretion. The bylaws contain no language authorizing an election to be overturned once completed, and no process for installing a candidate other than the one voted in. The organization is incorporated in Iowa as a not-for-profit, and its bylaws bind every member by way of KVEC's own mission statement.

Separately from Hamelton's account, Bergheger said publicly in 2019 that he had been voted in as Chief four times and that Gabe Rose voided the votes. Save KVEC did not solicit that statement. It's included here because it was made publicly, and because it independently describes the same basic pattern Hamelton describes: repeated wins, followed by the outcome being set aside.

What isn't yet documented is how, exactly, the votes were set aside — whether by a Board decision, unilateral action, or some other process — and under what authority. Save KVEC does not currently have meeting minutes, ballots, or vote tallies from the disputed election(s), and has not confirmed what role, if any, the Keokuk Fire Department played as an institution versus Gabe Rose individually.

Save KVEC is opening a formal investigation and is asking anyone with direct knowledge — current or former members, officers, or anyone who attended a KVEC election meeting during this period — to come forward. Submit a witness statement → or read the full investigation →.

This article reflects a witness account and a public statement, not a finding of fact. Individuals named here have not yet had the opportunity to respond to Save KVEC directly; if they do, their response will be added to this article and the related investigation page.