Huntsville Fire Chief Discharged
By BEN GARRETT -- Independent Herald Staff
HUNTSVILLE - The conflict between Mayor George Potter and some of Huntsville's aldermen has reached a boiling point after the October 3 discharge of the town's fire chief, Dean King. King, who has served as fire chief since 1998 and has been a part of Huntsville's firefighting force since 1993, was notified early Friday morning that he was being discharged and would be replaced within the hour.
Since that time, all of Huntsville's 18-man firefighting force has resigned, leaving the town's fire protection in jeopardy.
By some accounts, fears of what might happen turned to reality when backup was requested for East 63 Volunteer Fire Department on a Norma Road house fire early Monday morning (Oct. 6).
The home's owners requested backup from Huntsville Fire Department but Huntsville never responded to the scene. By the time that Mid-County Volunteer Fire Department arrived from Helenwood to provide assistance, flames were coming through the roof. The house was completely destroyed.
It remained unclear as of press time whether Huntsville was paged by the county's E-911 dispatcher to respond to the fire.
Meanwhile, Mayor George Potter said that Huntsville is safe.
"The town is fine," said Potter, when asked if the town had enough firefighters standing by to respond to a fire call. "Helenwood and Fairview have agreed to back us up."
In the meantime, the future of the fire department remains unclear.
King said he had just returned from lunch on Friday, Oct. 3, when Mayor Potter approached him and said that he needed to speak to him.
"He told me that I was going to be mad at him but that he had to let me go because the town couldn't afford to pay my salary," King said.
Though King didn't know the mayor's decision was coming, he wasn't surprised. A source had reportedly warned King eight days earlier that the mayor intended to fire him.
Potter told King that he was being replaced by former Huntsville firefighter Daniel Murley.
Speaking by telephone from his office, Potter said last week that King was "laid off" because the town was returning to an all-volunteer fire department.
"It's all about money," Potter said. "None of the other county governments has it (a paid department). I'm doing the same thing that the governor is doing and everyone else has done. The state has cut all cities 10 percent, plus the economy has cut us another 10 percent or more, and it's just a matter of money.
"I've seen my secretary sit and cry because she can't pay the bills and I'm not going to let that happen," he said. "I've run a business all my life and I know you can't spend more money than you're bringing in. I'm not going to sign any checks if the money isn't there."
Potter said if the town were to keep a paid fire chief, taxes would have to be raised.
Vice-Mayor Gary A. Sexton has disputed those claims, saying the fire department operates under a separate budget than the rest of the town, one that has already been approved by the state.
"The state has to approve budgets for the town," Sexton said. "They wouldn't have approved the fire department's budget if the money wasn't there to pay the fire chief."
In fact, according to figures presented to the Independent Herald, the fire department is one of the most efficient departments within the town. While the general fund, according to King, overspent $40,000 last year, the fire department underspent $14,700 last year and underspent nearly $20,000 this year.
"We've never overspent in the five years I've been fire chief," King said.
King also disputed the mayor's claim that he was simply "laid off," saying that he offered to try to run the department "as best I can" without pay while searching for another job but was told that his replacement was already on his way.
Meanwhile, according to Sexton, the fire department has vastly improved over the past five years, at no additional cost to taxpayers.
In 1998, when King was appointed chief, Sexton was the only other member of the fire department. Over five years, King built the fire department from two persons to an 18-man firefighting force that maintains the county's best I.S.O. rating (six), according to Sexton.
"He did it from scratch, with no extra money," Sexton said.
The fire department also has the county's only First Responders unit, with four EMT-IVs trained and two more currently in school. King said all six volunteered and paid for the course, which costs just short of $2,000, out of their own pockets.
"It didn't cost the town anything," King said.
The fire department is also working on the county's first fire department-based search and water rescue unit, which would be employed in the case of mishaps on the new Flat Creek Reservoir.
Additionally, the fire department, under King's tenure, has started a carbon monoxide safety program. Using a detection device purchased for the town by Citizen's Gas, members of the fire department responded to carbon monoxide alarms in Huntsville residences or businesses, or simply check the carbon monoxide levels at the request of homeowners.
"Just last week, me and (Alderman) Ken (Jeffers) went to a house that had a level of 1900 (parts per million) in the basement," King said. CO levels begin to get dangerous at 250 ppm. King said he and Jeffers were able to locate the source of the problem and fix it.
But for Sexton and Jeffers, the main point is the fire department's efficiency in responding to fires. The department, Sexton pointed out, has a response time of 4.2 minutes, which he says is "remarkable for a volunteer department." Department members also put in 3,487 raining hours which, according to I.S.0. Review Committee member Michael Stokes is, "unseen at most paid departments."
On the town's last I.S.O. review, the department received a 6/9, meaning a rating of six inside the city and nine outside the city limits but within the district. King said that the department missed a rating of five by only 2.4 points, "which is very close." So close, in fact, that the town has asked I.S.O. inspectors to return in December for a follow-up.
"We are positive that we have the points needed to get to a five-class I.S.O.," King said.
Each class a department drops saves homeowners money on their fire insurance policy, the amount of which depends upon their insurance provider and the size of their house. Now, however, not only is the Class 5 rating in jeopardy, but so is the Class 6 ratin the town currently holds.
With the level of efficiency the fire department has shown, Sexton says there is only one reason why the chief was discharged.
"He (Potter) is trying to get back at the aldermen, but he's hurting the entire town," Sexton said.
At the board's September meeting, the aldermen elected to cut the mayor's unauthorized spending from $500 per purchase order to zero, due to the town's lack of funds. Sexton feels the discharge of King, as well as town maintenance employee Jessie Strunk, who also served as volunteer captain of the fire department, is a move made in direct retaliation.
Sexton also says the mayor violated the town's charter in firing the chief. The vice-mayor referred to Charter ¤7-305, which states, "The chief may be suspended up to thirty (30) days by the mayor but may be dismissed only by the board of mayor and aldermen."
In response to the chief's discharge, Sexton said that he and another alderman signed a statement asking for a special called meeting to reinstate King. The mayor refused to allow the meeting to be called, says Sexton, which also falls in violation of the town's charter. Charter ¤1-105 states, "Special meetings shall also be called by the recorder on the written request of any two aldermen."
But, says Sexton, King "will be reinstated at the next board meeting," which will be held on Monday (October 20). For King, it can't happen to soon.
"I left a good paying job and took a big pay cut to come and do this," King said. "This is how I support my little girl. If he (the mayor) is tring to play politics, he's doing it with my entire family."
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