On probation since August, the chief can stay until at least June 3, his 20th anniversary at the agency.
By NORA KOCH
Published May 4, 2004
EAST LAKE - East Lake Fire Rescue's Board of Fire Commissioners voted last week not to renew the contract of fire Chief Jeffrey S. Parks.
Parks, 40, who was promoted to chief in 2001, said he was broadsided by the 3-2 decision, though he had been on probation since August. The board agreed he can stay in the job until at least June 3, his 20th anniversary with the department.
The three commissioners who voted against Parks on Wednesday cited a bevy of reasons for his ouster. They ranged from a raise he gave himself when he became acting chief in 2000 to a board-approved trip Parks took to attend a three-day gathering of fire officials last month in Maryland.
But the two commissioners who voted to keep Parks said they were baffled by the decision. They said he deserves to keep his job as chief of the East Lake Tarpon Special Fire Control District.
"I'm very upset about the way the majority of the commission handled this," said Commissioner Wilbur F. "Bill" Cannon. "I think it was totally wrong. . . . They did it to show that they had the power and it was going to be done their way."
Cannon and Commissioner Daniel J. Bobel voted to keep Parks in his job at the board's regular meeting Wednesday. Chairman Charles O. Dedman and Commissioners James L. Galloway and James M. Nobles voted to not renew the contract.
The board will meet at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at district headquarters, 3375 Tarpon Lake Blvd., to discuss selecting a new chief. The meeting will be open to the public.
Cannon said he thinks Wednesday's action stemmed from an incident in July when an off-duty firefighter angered commissioners at a meeting. Some board members wanted Parks to fire or demote him, but Parks, who said he followed procedure, gave the man a verbal reprimand and noted the incident in his file.
In this case, Parks "decided to completely ignore our instructions," Dedman said.
Cannon said "if (firing or demotion) had been done, we would have ended up with one heck of a costly grievance filed."
The incident in July is only one on a list of problems that built up during Parks' tenure, Dedman said. In 2000, after Parks was named acting chief, he told an employee to increase his salary from $65,301 to $73,157 a year, according to information from the district.
Parks said that was standard procedure when an employee moved up but later admitted it was a "misjudgment" to boost his own salary without the board's approval. Since then, the board has incrementally increased his pay to its current rate of $85,910 a year.
Dedman also criticized Parks' decision to attend a training symposium in Emmitsburg, Md., where about 200 senior fire officials from around North America gathered for three days to discuss "various facets of fire service leadership," according to a news release from the district. Although the board had approved the expense in the budget, Dedman said the department was accepting bids for repair work to one of the stations, and Parks shouldn't have left.
Parks joined the department in 1984 as a firefighter-paramedic. In 1992, he was named assistant chief, and in 2000, he was named interim acting chief when Chief Ronald Taylor retired. In October 2001, the board named him permanent chief.
In his post, he oversees 37 employees at three stations. The district has a $3.6-million annual budget, serves 28,000 residents and receives about 3,000 calls a year.
Before he was put on probation, Parks said he had no idea some commissioners considered his performance poor. Last spring, he was given an "above average" grade in his annual review, according to minutes of the regular meeting held May 28.
Three months later, the board convened for a special meeting to review the chief's contract, which had expired the previous October. In discussion, some commissioners said they were concerned that "the chief did not call attention to the fact that the contract was expired," and Nobles "felt the commissioners should have been consulted before any discipline had been meted out" in the July incident, according to the board's minutes. Parks' contract was renewed for a six-month probationary period.
During that period, he was to meet with commissioners and draw up a list of goals to address the problems identified by the commissioners, which included discipline within the district and communication with the commissioners.
The three commissioners who voted not to keep Parks each said in interviews Monday that the chief did not improve in those areas during probation.
"We've given him ample time to correct some of the problems they've been having, and he didn't meet our expectations," Galloway said.
On the other hand, Cannon said not renewing the contract after probation was "drastic," and he saw Parks improve his communication with the board through e-mail and providing additional reports at meetings.
Parks said the board verbally agreed to draw up a contract that would let him stay in his position until he finds a new job or the board finds a replacement for him.
For Parks' part, he hopes that somehow he can convince the board he deserves to keep his job.
"I just feel like we're moving in the right direction, and it's heartbreaking to give it all up."
