Ocean City Wright Fire Control District commissioners voted this week to suspend Fire Chief Billy Lord for 45 days and Assistant Fire Chief Scott Funchess for 30 days without pay following an investigation of their alleged inappropriate behavior.
Attorney Mark Bonfanti of Allen, Norton & Blue, the same Tallahassee law firm that handles the City of Pensacola’s labor issues along with Beggs & Lane, conducted a three-month investigation of the chiefs. The labor attorney presented his summary of the findings during three-hour public meeting at the fire district’s headquarters.
Bonfanti recommended the suspensions after he concluded that Lord and Funchess repeatedly used inappropriate language in the workplace, including racial and homophobic slurs.
Earlier this year, Pensacola Ashton Hayward had Beggs & Lane conduct a three-month investigation of allegations made by his Chief Human Resources Officer Sisson against Fire Chief Matt Schmitt and Deputy Fire Chief Joe Glover. Mayor Hayward fired the men in May.
There are several differences between the Ocean City investigation and Pensacola Fire Department investigation. Bonfanti’s report is much more concise and better organized. He interviewed 23 witnesses and had all the interviews transcribed by a court reporter. He clearly reported his findings and made recommendations, which he explained.
The report of the Pensacola fire chiefs rambled. Many of the allegations were unfounded, but that report didn’t clearly state that. The interviews of several city employees, such as Sisson and City Administrator Eric Olson, were not transcribed. Some submitted their responses in writing.
Bonfanti made a public presentation of his findings. Neither Russell Van Sickle of Beggs & Lane nor Mayor Hayward publicly presented the Pensacola report’s findings. The documents were uploaded to the city website with no public discussion, other than a city council meeting that the mayor, Olson, Sisson, and Van Sickle did not attend. The city no longer has the report on its Transparent Pensacola page.
Read Ocean City-Wright report.
Read our story on the Pensacola Fire Chiefs dismissals that ran in June 2016: Fired Chiefs.