12/16/2008 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 12/16/2008 containing the base salaries of the Fire Chief, Assistant Fire Chief, and secretary. The decrease equaled the amount of his salary. When he spoke to the Chief about the situation, the Chief said he was ordered not to tell him. When he inquired about the possibility of demoting down to Captain, he was told the city had been looking into this for some time, and it was their position he would have to demote back to fire fighter. They had been looking at it for some time but had never mentioned it to him. It was not until the following week that he was officially told by the Safety Director about his demotion. It is interesting to note that the reason he was given for unfiinding the position of Assistant Fire Chief was that, since they were laying off union personnel, they also had to lay off an administrative person. It is this treatment and poor management that the Captains and Lieutenants had anticipated when they decided not to test for the position of Assistant Fire Chief. Since his promotion in July of 2007, there have been many things said about him. The Mayor said, "We had a very bad experience quite recently. We went to fill the position of Assistant Fire Chief. No Captain wanted to take the position, no Lieutenant wanted to take the position. Afire fighter with no management experience whatsoever on the department scored highest on the test and became the Assistant Chief, and I think it continues to be difficult for that person to have the experience, the leadership ability, and the experience that he needs to do the job well when he came straight out of the ranks." The Safety Director has repeatedly stated that she does not want someone with a high school education administering the Fire Dept. budget. Since his promotion, he has endured being told he was cherry-picking his benefits package when he questioned the Safety Director in regards to her change in his benefits from what he had been told in his promotional interview. Recently due to the situation, he asked the Human Resources Director for a clarification in regards to these benefits and quoted the city salary ordinance, 2008-149, which states in Section 13, paragraph H, "The Chief of Police, Chief of Fire, and Assistant Chief of Fire shall be entitled to any and ali benefits afforded the members of their respective departments." He was told that, even though it states he is entitled to these benefits, it doesn't say he "shall receive them." It's up to the administration as to whether or not he receives them. He has been reprimanded by the Safety Director in front of his subordinates to the point that a Captain felt uncomfortable and left the room. He was then told in a follow-up a-mail that being able to take criticism without acting petulant is a sign of maturity and peevish behavior is unbecoming. He responded to the a-mail and was then told to look up the term "lambasting" in the dictionary before using it. Which he did, and it meant what he wanted it to say. The Safety Director also stated inane-mail that, as his probationary period was about to expire, she was not satisfied he was fully aware of the administrative requirements of the position and had hoped he would be able to complete the payroll operations for the month of June. Unfortunately, this a-mail was sent on June 2, 2008, almost five months after the expiration of his probationary period. And, had the Safety Director ever given him an evaluation, as she herself stated she was supposed to, she may have known that he was already able to perform the payroll functions. In a book entitled Effec~,ive Supervisory Practices published by the International City/Council Management Association, it states one of the duties of a supervisor is "developing and maintaining a motivating climate so that employees will be productive." He can say from experience that this administration has done more to discourage a motivating climate than any administration since he was hired. He has been working on his Associates Degree and recently completed a speech 14