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A former KVEC Captain says Scott Bergheger won the Chief election four times before Dan Tillman was installed as Chief instead -- and KVEC's own bylaws don't appear to allow that. Save KVEC is investigating, based on one witness's firsthand account and a public statement made separately in 2019; independent reporters are welcome to pursue this story as well. See the timeline below for what's documented, what's been said, and what's still unresolved.
KVEC is incorporated in Iowa as a not-for-profit organization. Its bylaws, reviewed in full for this investigation, set out three officer positions -- Chief, Assistant Chief, and Secretary -- which together make up the organization's Board of Directors. Every member is required, under KVEC's own mission statement, to abide by the bylaws.
On elections, the bylaws are narrow. A Chief election is triggered when the position is vacant, and whether to declare a vacancy is left to the Board's discretion. Beyond that, the bylaws contain no provision allowing a completed election to be overturned, no process for invalidating already-cast votes, and no mechanism for installing a candidate other than the one who received the votes. If such a provision exists elsewhere, Save KVEC has not located it.
This entry documents what the governing document says. It does not describe what happened in practice -- see the next two entries for a witness account and a public statement.
James Hamelton Jr., a former KVEC Captain, says he was present at the disputed elections. According to Hamelton, Scott Bergheger won the Chief position four separate times. Hamelton says Dan Tillman objected to Bergheger becoming Chief and went to Gabe Rose's office at the Keokuk Fire Department. Following that meeting, Hamelton says, Tillman was installed as Chief instead of Bergheger. Hamelton's account is that the bylaws' election procedures were not followed in the process.
This is presented as Hamelton's firsthand testimony, not as an independently verified record of events. Save KVEC has not yet corroborated the specific mechanics of how the outcome was changed, who made the final call, or what Gabe Rose's role was beyond what Hamelton describes.
Separately from Hamelton's testimony, Scott Bergheger said publicly in 2019 that he was voted in as Chief four times and that Gabe Rose voided the votes. Save KVEC did not solicit this statement -- it is included here because it was made publicly, and because it independently describes the same basic pattern Hamelton describes: repeated wins, followed by the result being set aside.
Two independent accounts describing the same pattern is notable. It is not, on its own, proof of how or why the votes were voided, or under what authority.
The bylaws provisions on file describe only two things happening to a Chief seat: it is either filled by a vote, or it is vacant. They do not describe a process for setting aside a vote's outcome. If Hamelton's account and Bergheger's public statement are accurate, whatever happened to reverse the election results is not something KVEC's own governing document appears to authorize.
That gap -- between what the bylaws permit and what two people say actually occurred -- is the center of this investigation.
What Save KVEC is trying to determine:
- Who invalidated the elections, specifically?
- Under what authority -- a bylaws provision, a board vote, or something else?
- Were ballots retained, and do they still exist?
- Were minutes kept of the disputed election(s) and of any meeting that followed?
- Who counted the votes, and is there a record of the count?
- What was the actual process by which Dan Tillman was installed as Chief?
- Was the Keokuk Fire Department, as an institution, involved -- or was Gabe Rose acting in some other capacity?
What would help answer them: meeting minutes from the relevant period, physical or recorded ballots, vote tally sheets, emails or written correspondence discussing the election or its aftermath, officer/membership records showing when Tillman was installed, and additional witnesses who were present for any of these events.
A note on sourcing: this investigation separates documented facts (the bylaws), one witness's firsthand testimony (James Hamelton Jr.), and one public statement (Scott Bergheger, 2019) from each other throughout. None of the above should be read as a finding of fact about who did what. Gabe Rose and Dan Tillman are welcome to respond to what's described here -- any response will be added to this investigation.
Save KVEC has opened a formal investigation into this disputed Chief election, based on James Hamelton Jr.'s firsthand testimony and Scott Bergheger's 2019 public statement. If you attended a KVEC Chief election during this period, have meeting minutes, ballots, vote tallies, or correspondence from that time, or have direct knowledge of how the outcome was decided, Save KVEC wants to hear from you.
You can submit a witness statement describing only what you personally witnessed, choose independently whether Save KVEC can contact you and whether your statement can be published, and submit anonymously if you prefer. Every submission is reviewed before anything is published.