Mayor Pam Iorio says she has heard protests from both firefighters and the union about Aria Green's style.
By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD and SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published October 1, 2004
TAMPA - After just a year and a half on the job, Tampa Fire Rescue Chief Aria Green is being forced out amid mounting grumblings and talk of a no-confidence vote from the firefighters' union.
Green, 53, the city's first black fire chief and a 26-year veteran of the deparment, announced Thursday that he will resign effective Sunday.
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, who chose Green for the job in June 2003, said she called for his resignation after hearing complaints.
"I regularly talk to people in fire rescue, as well as the union leadership," Iorio said. "I would say there has been a certain level of dissatisfaction."
Green has a reputation as a by-the-book manager with a fierce work ethic but a wallflower temperament, with little taste for the backslapping, gladhanding style of his predecessor, Pete Botto.
"He was not into the political game," City Counicl member Kevin White said of Green. "He was just about getting the job done, trying to show results, without the fanfare."
Iorio named department veteran Dennis Jones, the city's airport fire chief for nearly eight years, as Green's replacement, effective Monday.
The mayor's decision to remove Green from his $124,197-a-year job comes just a month after she finished his performance evaluation for his first year as chief. On a scale ranging from successful to excellent to outstanding, Iorio rated Green "outstanding."
"I appreciate the dedication and hard work of Chief Green," she wrote. "He is committed to making Tampa Fire Rescue one of the best in the nation."
In an interview Thursday, Iorio praised Green for his work ethic and dedication. But she said it's important that rank-and-file firefighters, as well as the union, enjoy good relations with management.
"We have not had that over the past year with Tampa Fire Rescue," Iorio said, but she declined to give specifics.
White, the City Council member, said Green stayed largely out of sight even in the black community, and most people probably would have had trouble identifying him as the fire chief.
"It hurts that our first black fire chief is ousted. That hurts terribly," said White. But he added: "If you're asking, will there be a huge hue and cry from the black community? I have not seen it."
Fire Rescue Capt. Al Suarez, a former president of the firefighters' union, said department morale was poor under Green. This year's annual firefighters' awards banquet, which often draws hundreds of people, was canceled for lack of interest.
"It's a banquet that always sells out. They sold hardly any tickets at all," Suarez said. "It's things like that that stem from down morale."
* * *
Green's path to firefighter was a winding one, but once he joined the department, he quickly emerged as an eager, bright talent.
He graduated from high school in Winthrop, Mass., and worked as a janitor and gym instructor at Boston Young Men's Christian Union through the early 1970s before attending Penn State University as a pre-med student, according to his original application with the department.
He also worked at Penn State as a janitor and water systems analyst, then moved to Tampa, where he worked for a construction company and on the janitorial staff of University Community Hospital.
Green joined the fire department in March 1978, the start of a long career marked by stellar performance evaluations and recognition from supervisors who saw in him a future administrator.
When Iorio named Green fire chief, she called it an historic promotion. Not only was Green the first black person to lead the department in its more than 100-year history, he was far better educated than the typical firefighter or city administrator.
He has a bachelor of science degree in adult technical education from the University of South Florida. He also earned master's degrees in theology and pastoral counseling from the Life Christian University in Tampa, and in public administration and management from Troy State University in Alabama.
Retired assistant fire chief David Keene, a 31-year veteran, said Green has long been known as a "highly intelligent, motivated, moral, hard-working person."
But he never joined the union, and political wrangling never interested him, Keene said.
"He was not a politician," Keene said. "Here's a guy who was just a hard-working individual who expected others to do the same."
Keene said Green wasn't given enough time to prove himself.
"I was there eight years as assistant chief, and I know, it takes three or four years to really make a mark and understand everything," he said. "It's sad that a good man like Aria Green has to leave so soon after he started."
* * *
Shortly after Green took over, he made clear his intentions: To create an efficient, well-oiled department where work expectations are high and irresponsibility isn't tolerated.
In July, he got rid of six supervisory positions and said the nearly $300,000 in savings would be used to hire seven firefighters. Then, Green suspended without pay a fire rescue captain who responded with his crew to a reported South Tampa apartment fire but never got out of the truck to inspect. An hour later, flames shot from the attic at Camden Bayside, causing $200,000 in damage.
Green apologized to Camden Bayside residents and started a re-evaluation of the department's response policy.
In January of this year, the firefighters' union filed a grievance that accused Green of denying a 22-year veteran a promotion because Green was miffed over work firefighter Steve Brand did years earlier on Green's fence. The city rejected the grievance as unfounded.
Larry Parker, current president of the firefighters' union, said the department "wasn't going in a progressive direction" under Green. Asked for specifics, Parker was ambiguous, citing "advancements in manpower, training or equipment needs."
Parker denied that the union pressured the mayor to fire Green.
"We express our concerns to her, but by no means do we have her in our pocket," he said.
Suarez and Parker both said there had been talk of the union taking a no-confidence vote against Green.
But City Council member Rose Ferlita said she wonders if ousting Green was the best move.
"Although I understand there are some morale problems, I'm not sure asking for the resignation of Chief Green is the way to go," Ferlita said. "I think the first step would be to try to get them to work together."
Green's office referred calls to City Hall.
Green's successor, meanwhile, spent Thursday fielding calls and interview requests from local media.
Dennis Jones, a fourth-generation Hillsborough native who grew up in Tampa, joined the department just six weeks after Green. A married father of three, including a 4-year-old and a son who just passed the Bar exam, Jones was still a bit shellshocked at his sudden career boost.
Jones, 47, was one of the finalists for the chief job that went to Green last year. He said the offer from Iorio, which came Wednesday night, was "a complete surprise."
"It's a big decision," he said. "But it's what I've always wanted - to go as far as I could, as fast as I could."
