Broken Arrow's interim city manager has fired the town's fire chief.
City Manager Dave Wooden ruled on Friday that Fire Chief Jackie Carner had violated city policies and been insubordinate.
Carner had been placed on administrative leave on May 29 and had a predetermination hearing on Wednesday. He had joined the Broken Arrow Fire Department in July 2008 and was a probationary employee.
Deputy Chief Steve Jarrett will be the interim fire chief in the town of about 75,000 people located in Tulsa and Wagoner counties.
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BROKEN ARROW — Ending nearly a month of speculation about the fire chief’s future, the city fired Jackie Carner on Friday. Carner had been on administrative leave with pay since May 29 for undisclosed violations of city policy.
The decision to terminate the fire chief’s employment, effective immediately, was announced late Friday afternoon. Officials would not elaborate on the alleged violations, although they said for the first time that insubordination was among the reasons for Carner’s firing. City officials offered no further comment, calling it a personnel matter. Carner did not return calls Friday.
"One person close to the situation told the Ledger the latest flap centered around the chief’s disagreement with a plan to close one fire station and take several ambulances out of service."
Yeah anytime they will not release the reasons raises a couple red flags in my book. The local union supported him, his guys supported him and city council was not involved in the situation. Will definately have to follow this story.
So I guess standing up for the safety and well being of your troops, when bone head city managers want to close firehouses and reduce manpower is "insubordination" in Broken Arrow!
It definitely be good to know more of the details. It sounds like the city manager wanted to cut manpower and equipment to save money without regard to public safety.