Largo fire Chief E. Caroll Williams got a job evaluation last week. It was more negative than any previous evaluation since he became chief, which is not surprising given the well-publicized problems that have plagued the Largo Fire Department in the past few years.
But a reading of the 14-page evaluation raises some questions.
This was Williams' first evaluation in two years. It seems odd, and probably a disservice to Williams, that City Manager Steve Stanton let two years pass between evaluations during a time when the department was experiencing problems.
And most of the evaluation is positive. Page after page of the typed, single-spaced review praises Williams' successes, ranging from enhanced training of paramedics to reducing response times to promoting harmony with the union that represents firefighters. Even sections that criticize Williams for not achieving certain goals set for him are couched in careful, diplomatic terms that sound more positive than negative. The department has had "a mixed degree of success in achieving the delineated goals and objectives," the report says. Williams "has not been as successful as he should be."
The evaluation even appears to blame outside forces for what are clearly failures of leadership in the department. For example, Stanton notes that he and Williams have talked for five years - five years! - about the need to diversify the work force in the Fire Department, which has only a handful of minority employees. But Stanton does not blame Williams for that recruiting failure. He blames "various personnel issues . . . regarding inappropriate comments made by various members of the department concerning race . . . and gender" and the "human tendency" to share such perspectives with co-workers.
In other words, Stanton blames the department's discriminatory culture, which is widely known outside the department, for the inability to attract minorities. Who, if not the chief, is responsible for that culture?
In one section, Stanton says even supervisors in the Fire Department have continued to misbehave when it comes to workplace conduct that he has declared loudly and publicly is unacceptable, but he says that is "for reasons I have not totally been able to identify." Was it because the fire chief inadequately conveyed the message?
Stanton goes to some length to praise Williams, who he says "exemplifies all the proper characteristics of a modern fire professional committed to maintaining discipline within his department," and he thanks Williams for his "loyalty and dedication."
Although the evaluation is lengthy, it hardly sounds like a review of the leader of a department that every objective observer would have to say has had some very troubled years. Stanton promises to review the department in six months to see how it has progressed toward reaching its goals. But after Stanton delivered such a mixed message to his fire chief, and therefore to the city work force, we won't be surprised to see slow or no progress down the road.
