Among Chief Human Resources Officer Ed Sisson’s six complaints was an allegation about Deputy Fire Chief Joe Glover and the Fire Apprenticeship Program:
“Glover poorly managed a âFirefighter Apprenticeship Program,â unnecessarily antagonizing Sisson in the process, where one of the issues was Gloverâs alleged poor judgment in renting a BMW 5 series for in-state travel for two persons.”
Beggs & Lane attorney Russell Van Sickle didn’t start the report section on the program with Sisson’s reasons for writing that complaint. Instead, he lifted a statement for Glover’s transcript that deputy fire chief believed Sisson tried to âsabotageâ the Fire Apprenticeship Program. What followed was a detailed chain of emails involving Sisson, Glover and others –one the best set of emails records we’ve seen from the city in recent years. The emails are routine and show some disagreement over who was in charge of the training program.
In his conclusion, the attorney only addressed Glover’s concern. However, Van Sickle does not draw a conclusion on whether deputy fire chief “poorly managed” the program, which was Sisson’s complaint.
The attorney wrote, “There is no support for Gloverâs claim that Sisson tried to âsabotageâ or âundermineâ the apprenticeship program as Glover alleges. (See Glover 249:18-24) There is also no support for Gloverâs claim that Sisson both constantly interfered with the program and was not assisting.”
No mention of Glover’s management of the program in the conclusion.
However, he does address the car rental. Here is how Van Sickle described the situation:
On July 21, 2015, Glover had Grogan cancel one of the rental SUVs for the orientation, leaving one SUV for Glover to drive the remaining two candidates to Ocala. (Glover 241: 1-8) Glover did not want to take a City vehicle because he thought that the one assigned to him needed to be serviced and that could not be performed in time. (Glover 245:6-16) Glover did not think about reducing the size of the rental to reduce the cost. (Glover 245:17-21)
On July 22, 2015, Glover arrived to pick up the rental vehicle and was told that there were no SUVs, but that for the same price as an SUV he could rent a BMW 5 Series sedan. Glover did not think to ask if there was another vehicle that could be rented at a lower price. (Glover 245:22-25)
What did Van Sickle conclude: “Regarding the question of Glover renting an SUV to take the two candidates to Ocala for orientation and then his renting a BMW 5 Series, I do not find any intentional misconduct.
“According to City policy, a personal vehicle or a 115 department vehicle is required for in-state travel, but there is no evidence to suggest that there was any ill intent on Gloverâs part.”
“Similarly, although Glover could have used better judgment to take a fire vehicle when it was apparent that only three people would be travelling together, and he could have used better
judgment to ask for a vehicle less expensive than an SUV, particularly when the rental company offered only a full size vehicle for the price of a much larger vehicle, I again conclude there was no ill intent by Glover regarding the rental vehicle.”
In other words, this complaint by Sisson was concluded to be completely unfounded. Of course, a person wouldn’t know that until he read through the report to page 115.