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County’s Top Firemen Out; One Had Been Fired In The Past By Sheriff’s Dept.
February 18, 2009
The three men at the top of Escambia County Fire Rescue are out.
Fire Chief Ken Perkins (pictured left) and Assistant Chief Robbie Whitfield were asked to resign to by Escambia County Administrator Bob McLaughlin. Deputy Chief Kurt Isakson is out as Deputy Chief, but will remain with the department as a battalion chief.
McLaughlin said he wants a new administration to finally unify the department, eliminating problems between paid staff and volunteers. The county’s paid firefighters and 15 volunteer departments were all brought together with one unified leadership back in September. But McLaughlin said the departments three leaders did not have the skills needed to move the unified department forward with paid and volunteer firefighters working together.
“The majority of the career and volunteer personnel are working toward a common goal,” Dan Brask, president of the Escambia County Professional Firefighters Local 4131 union said. “The resignation of Chief Perkins has hindered those efforts by catering to a very vocal minority.”
“It is apparent that your approach to cleaning house to take care of the issues is an easy way out to say the least,” Whitfield said in his resignation letter to McLaughlin. “One would expect more from someone in your position.”
Whitfield (pictured left) has recently come under fire from several angles, including from the firefighters union.
“The lack of professionalism, along with the political interferences in the appointment of Robbie Whitfield has created a massive divide and resentment for the future of this department,” the firefighters union said in a statement after Whitfield was announced as the county’s new deputy chief, one day before the application process for the job was officially closed.
Whitfield was fired by the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Department on December 22, 2005, for untruthfulness and misdirecting another officer that was under investigation.
Whitfield was serving as a lieutenant at the time, and he allegedly lied about a relationship with a subordinate deputy, Rebecca Johnson. Johnson told investigators that Whitfield was the father of her child. Investigators asked Whitfield for a paternity test, but he never provided a DNA sample. Whitfield later appealed the termination, but that appeal was denied by a Santa Rosa County judge in October 2006.
Perkins’ resignation letter was more subdued than that of Whitfield.
“I don’t necessarily agree but understand where a ‘clean house’ solution may seem to be the easiest solution,” he wrote to McLaughlin.
Battalion Chief Jim Sanders has been named as acting county fire chief. The county plans to begin a search for a new fire chief immediately.
Pictured top: Former Escambia Fire Chief Ken Perkins addresses the Walnut Hill Ruritan Club. Pictured middle: Former Assistant Fire Chief Robbie Whitfield addressed the Walnut Hill Volunteer Fire Department. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
8 Responses to “County’s Top Firemen Out; One Had Been Fired In The Past By Sheriff’s Dept.”
For Very Concerned Firefighter – Dan Brask’s comment about a “very few” deal with a few within the volunteer leadership who are hindering the unification. Even the County Administrator mentioned that a few volunteers are against unification, and it needs to stop. I think everyone knows the career guys have the union, and the volunteers have the Association. Maybe something needs to be done about giving the volunteer black hat a voice, something the Association doesn’t do.
Chuck is 2 years from retirement so thanks but no thanks. Although I do have to say to” concerned ” that I kinda envy him because being a volunteer was alot more fun than being paid. There was a different comraderie than you have with your fellow paid guys. Nobody showed up every third day belly aching about low pay. You took alot better care of your equipment than these greenies that they’re hiring nowdays. Oh look now I’m belly aching.
If Robbie Whitfield was cleared of the charges would he not have been reinstated at the SRSD? If the Escambia BOCC had of done a background check would they still ordered Witfield’s placement as Escambia Fire 2? If Mark O’Brien had not ran his article on Kevin White’s quick pick would this all have happened? How can anything be settled when one side is forced to play by the rules, and the other side has no rules? Was Mr. McLaughlin told by the BOCC to do what he did? Are some of the county commisioners trying to micro manage?Will an outside person be interested in getting in this mess? Will a paid FF ever be willing to work with a volunteer? Will a volunteer ever be willing to learn from a paid FF? Is there anyone that could satisfy all these people? Would Chuck be interested in the job?
These are a few of the questions I have. Maybe someone could help me understand.
Chuck, if you will read the post again you will see that I said that MOST of the career firefighters are on the job for the right reasons, this means that the ones that are not there for the right reasons are the few. I also went on to point out that some of the volunteer firefighters are against all career FF and anything they say, this also is the few. This is also a very bad attitude to have. My intent was to point out that the problems are far from being only one sided. As for the job that the career or volunteer FF do when answering calls, I think BOTH do a fine job, if I didn’t, I would have no part of it.
As for the statement on being held to the same standards, your department may hold EVERYONE to the standard that all FF should be held to (including ethical standards), but it has been my experience that some departments do not. This also holds true for both career and volunteer departments.
As for Mr. Brask representing the majority or not. I feel that he may very well represent the majority of the union members and this goes with his position. This article is about Escambia County Fire and Rescue, therefore, the members are a sum total of the career FF (whether union members or not) and the volunteer FF. Of this membership the union members are not the majority. Mr. Brask stated that “The resignation of Chief Perkins has hindered those [consolidation] efforts by catering to a very vocal minority.” From this statement one would assume that he is speaking for the majority (and yes I know what assuming will get you).
As for the audit you spoke of, I would welcome it. My training is in order as it was when audited earlier. The audit did find some mistakes, but stated that they were mistakes only and not a purposeful deception. Most of the mistakes came from differing information on documentation and accepted training. This is one more reason to let’s move forward with good communications in both directions.
And finally, please review the last statement in my earlier post, “It does not matter whether you are career or volunteer, if you cannot work to move forward without letting the past get in the way or trying to belittle someone just because he or she either draws a paycheck or not, it may be time for you to move over and let others try to move ahead.” Please notice that I included both career and volunteer in those that may need to move over. If the shoe fits.
Afterthought: there may be some merit in your statement about “over swelled egos” (mine included); if it were not for those egos none of us may be able to accomplish the tasks at hand. I have known you for many years and while I may not agree with all your posts, I find them, for the most part, pretty well thought out. I have also adjusted my thinking after reading some, but obviously not all, of them. Keep them coming.
Concernerned firefighter,your whole post is an oxymoron. On one hand you want all firefighters to come together and on the other you say I am only a paid guy for the check. If you look at any article on north escambia you will see a “good job guys” from me to paid or volunteer. I under stand that alot of volunteers are in it for the service to mankind and I commend them. The problem is that they want to say that they are the same as paid crews but dont want to be held to the same standards ( and you know that they are vastly different) I say that most paid and volunteer firefighters will never get along due to overswelled egos on both’s part, just my experienced opinion. Also, the union president does not represent the volunteers only dues paying members of his IAFF local so , no, he is not representing a minority. He is representing his majority. I personally would like to see another audit done by the clerk of the court to see if the volunteers have finally gotten the training that some of them were falsely claiming to have so that they could get their stipends.
I understand that Whitfield was cleared of all charges by the FDLE. If someone is cleared, then accusations should not follow them and be used against them. It would be interesting for some of the press to investigate the facts then publish them all. Then the readers could see all the facts for themselves. But even then would they be totally factual?
Dan Brask, President of the Escambia County Professional Firefighters Union, was quoted as saying “The resignation of Chief Perkins has hindered those [consoldation] efforts by catering to a very vocal minority.” Let’s look at the numbers. While I am sure that all the union members do not necessarily agree with everything the union does or says and all the volunteers do not necessarily agree with everything the Volunteer Association does or says, the membership of the union, I understand, is less than 100 persons and the volunteers are over 400 persons. It looks like Mr. Brask may be representing the minority.
While most of the career firefighters are genuinely on the job for the right reasons, a few are there only for the paycheck and “what can it get me?” and “how can I make the volunteers look bad?”. The main reason the volunteers volunteer, is to help others, most of the time people that they do not even know, and provide the services that they, their families, and neighbors need without costing the tax payers more than they can afford. Many of the volunteers have 10, 15, or more years experience (some as many as 20-30 years). There are a few volunteers that feel that career firefighters and anything involving career firefighters is a bad thing and have nothing good to say about either.
The biggest difference between a good career FF and a good volunteer FF is that the career FF can respond quicker given the fact that they are either at the station or in the district on the apparatus while volunteers respond from home, sleep, work, etc. Volunteer numbers are larger and can generally place more equipment and personnel on the scene. At this point in time, Escambia County cannot afford to be without either group.
Firefighters should be firefighters, whether career or volunteer. When a fire claims the life of a firefighter, it does not differentiate between career or volunteer, it just claims the life of a brother firefighter. It is time the hatchet be buried and the firefighters quit back biting and work together for the benefit of those we serve (the citizens of Escambia County). It does not matter whether you are career or volunteer, if you cannot work to move forward without letting the past get in the way or trying to belittle someone just because he or she either draws a paycheck or not, it may be time for you to move over and let others try to move ahead.
The access to information from around the world on a minute by minute delivery is changing the world. Maybe one day the “good ole boy” mind set will be only in the past. Taxpaying citizens in all areas, including rural ones want accountablility. The excuses of ignorance are not acceptable anymore, “I didn’t know” just dosen’t cut it. Even in small businesses with very small employee bases, certain things need to be in place, even when it is extra paperwork. Formal job descriptions that include proper hiring practices, policy and procedures manuals, standard operation procedures manuals, all sound like big city stupid paperwork, until someone gets a big city lawyer involved. It is just ashame it takes so long and such drama filled, newsmaking instances to force people to accept change. Who knows, if change were not always met with such resistance, how great our area could be? It should be the general concensus of every human being to leave this world better, not stuck in the past or wallowing in regrets.
Why did our county leadership allow this to go on for so long? That’s right; this is a fine example of the Good Old Boy system at work. The neither county administrator nor the BOCC had the intestinal fortitude to do what’s right and now there is plenty of blame and finger pointing going around in the Whitfield/Perkins debacle. If proper hiring practices had been utilized, we wouldn’t have this quandary within fire department leadership; so maybe, just maybe the county will conduct full and proper pre-employment screenings and actually hold interviews prior to appointing the next chief and his or her staff.