Trustee Steve Morgan said that an investigation revealed that Bultman “hacked into computers at the administration building and the clerk’s office and obtained information that was confidential that nobody was supposed to have and he shared it with some other people.”
Some of the information Bultman accessed had to do with pending litigation by township resident Shannon Hartkemeyer, who has sued the township over release of records, Grove said.
“A number of them (the documents) had to do with the Hartkemeyer litigation. He admitted sharing some of it with David Downie and with Kevin Potter,” Grove said.
Potter is a former candidate for township trustee. Downie is the former fire chief. Trustees fired Downie in May, finding him guilty of disciplinary charges stemming from confrontations with township officials and failure to discipline an employee.
After meetings and interviews with township officials, Bultman accepted responsibility for his actions, Grove said.
Township attorney Jack Grove said the investigation began about three months ago, as the township began looking at security issues, believing their system had been compromised. The investigation involved the FBI and the Butler County Sheriff’s Office.
Township officials initially had no reason to believe Bultman was involved, until a report run by an information technology company disclosed Bultman’s involvement, Grove said.
“At the conclusion of my investigation, we were unable to come up with enough evidence for a criminal charge. It was turned back over to (the township) to deal with administratively,” said Lt. Mike Craft of the Butler County Sheriff’s Office.
Hartkemeyer said Thursday she had no idea what documents Bultman was looking at, or when he looked at them.
In his letter of resignation, Bultman admitted wrongdoing and apologized for his actions.
“I apologize for any problems that I may have caused due to my unauthorized access into confidential information. I will not ever distribute any of the classified information nor will I ever discuss anything that was disclosed during any of the investigations, or during my time with the Fairfield Twp. fire department,” Bultman wrote.
Reached for comment, Bultman said he had nothing to add to his resignation letter. He has been with the department since 1996 and was the assistant chief for a year and a half, he said.
“We’ve got a great department and we’ve got a great interim fire chief over there,” Morgan said, referring to Trish Brooks, a former fire chief from Forest Park.
Township attorney Jack Grove called Bultman’s a “breach of trust.” Bultman had been in the running for to be the chief.
“The timing of all this is very complicated because the trustees were beginning the interview process” to hire the chief, Grove said.
Trustee President Mark Sutton said, “The only word I can use to describe it is very disappointed. Other than that, I can’t really comment, because there’s still a pending investigation.”
Trustee Terry Scharnhorst said, “We’ve got a fire department that’s well trained and staffed by a lot of really wonderful people. If you find something isn’t going right, you have to make a change. If you find you have a fire chief who is putting people’s lives in danger, and an assistant chief that’s hacking into computers and picking up personal information and disseminating it, you have to take steps.”
He added, “We’re not proud of this. We’re not happy to have to take action as we did.”
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