An investigation involving a Ross volunteer fire company and missing funds remains stalled a year after it began, township police say.

Since December 2003, five members of the Evergreen Volunteer Fire Company have resigned in protest over an investigation into $8,000 that some say disappeared after an April 2003 fund-raiser.

Ben Hess, Jeffrey Carpenter, Jason Harrold, Justin Lubarsky and Russell Coda said they left the company because some other members refused to cooperate with a police investigation into the matter, including declining to take a polygraph test. The resignations left the company with 28 active members.

Ross Detective William Barrett confirmed that an investigation is under way but has been inactive since October.

"It's an open investigation but inactive due to the lack of compliance from high-ranking officials within the fire department," Barrett said.

Fire Chief Frank Mann disagrees. A 28-year veteran of the company, he said his members were within their rights to decline a polygraph test.

"As far as the police go, every man they asked to talk to, they talked to. But some people won't take a polygraph test, and I understand that. I am not going to force someone to give up their rights," he said.

Barrett said the police conducted interviews and polygraphs and reviewed the records associated with the fund-raiser. "We went over everything and there is a substantial amount of money unaccounted for," he said.

In April 2003, the company held its annual fund-raiser -- a "gun bash" at which guns are raffled off -- at the fire company garage.

Tickets were sold for $20 each, which included admission, food and a 50/50 raffle. Hourly raffles were also held, and the money from both was taken to a counting room.

According to Carpenter, the most recent member to resign, $20,000 in tickets were sold but only $12,000 was deposited. Barrett agreed that money appears to be missing from the ticket sales.

"The best we could come up with was that there was a theft, and it was limited to an area in the counting room and the money that one individual had collected," he said.

In addition to the police investigation, the company formed an independent audit committee to conduct interviews and review documents.

"The investigation was completed and the conclusion was that more than $8,000 was missing," Carpenter said.

In June 2003, the company's board of directors voted to alert the police department and its insurance company. An earlier vote to chalk up the situation to poor record keeping failed to pass.

With the police investigation under way, the company decided to have an outside auditor -- Steve Reubi, first assistant chief at Berkeley Hills Volunteer Fire Company in Ross -- conduct another audit.

Mann said Reubi's audit found that no funds were missing from the fund-raiser. "They couldn't find anything other than some bad math and minor mistakes," he said.

Carpenter countered that the auditor did not receive a complete set of documents pertaining to the fund-raiser.

"The report stated there were insufficient documents and that he was unable to determine if all the revenues stated were, in fact, all the revenues the company received," he said.

But Bill Schneider, who succeeded Hess as president at the beginning of the year, said the matter has been settled. "It's at a dead end. I'm not overly concerned about it. In my opinion, it was a miscalculation of figures. I don't understand what their problem is. It boils down to somebody who has hard feelings is trying to make waves."

Barrett said the investigation began to slow in October and a letter was sent to the company in December to alert its members that without cooperation the case could not be solved.

"I can't understand why a victim does not want to cooperate with the police," Barrett said.

Many of the December 2003 resignation letters echoed Barrett's sentiments. Hess, who resigned as president in December and as a member in February, declined to comment, but in his letter in which he resigned as president, he noted that the company's failure to comply with the police would be to its detriment.

"[It] has possible future consequences for the Evergreen Fire Company, including increased insurance premiums based on our loss history or potential loss of coverage altogether based upon being identified as a bad risk," he stated.

Hess has posted copies of his resignation letters and a statement on his Web site. Carpenter also has information posted.

Hess's statement reads, "I have grown very weary of explaining the real reasons for my decision to resign as president of Evergreen Fire Company and ultimately as a member. Posting these documents here, for anyone to see, will remove all rumor, speculation and innuendo about the subject."

Mann views the postings as a reactionary tactic. "I won't mention names, but some of those who resigned [have] resigned for false reasons. They tried to make changes in the organization and they got a little upset when it didn't happen. If you can't change the system, then it's time to discredit the system," he said.

The company has held other raffles since April 2003 and has implemented tighter controls.

"All money was turned into a cash room and receipts were issued, and each individual side raffle was accounted for, but that's not where the problem was," Carpenter said.

Barrett does not anticipate that the case will be closed soon.

"Unless we catch some other kind of break, the investigation will stay open but inactive," he said.

Mann, however, is optimistic that the case will come to an end. "An open investigation is a good investigation," he said. "It will be closed because there is nothing to keep it open."