Pensacola black community outraged over treatment of fire chief and deputy chief

A local civil rights leader told Inweekly in a phone interview Sunday morning that the black community is outraged over Pensacola City Hall placing Fire Chief Matt Schmitt and Deputy Fire Chief Joe Glover on administrative leave pending an investigation.

Ellison Bennett, a national board member of the National Movement for Human and Civil Rights, said he had been Robert Hill’s morning show on WRNE and attended several community events since Schmitt and Glover were notified on Feb. 2 to turn in their laptops and keys and find their own ways home from city hall. The civil rights leader said everyone is upset about the treatment of these two men.

“I went to a function last night. I’m telling you; people are outraged,” said Bennett.

Pensacola City officials have not said what the investigation concerns. Inweekly requested on Friday interviews with City Administrator Eric Olson and Chief Human Resources Officer Ed Sisson. The paper was told Sisson was out of town, and Olson declined to talk with Inweekly.

PNJ reporter Will Isern did reach Assistant City Administrator Keith Wilkins and was told that Schmitt and Glover were not the focus of the investigation. However, Wilkins didn’t know what it is concerning.

Bennett isn’t buying Wilkins’ explanation.

“First of all, I have received a lot of information over the years concerning racism at the Pensacola Fire Department,” he said, “Firefighters came to me 10 years ago after they found hangman’s nooses in their lockers. A former chief of the fire department would come on the intercom system and say, ‘All you coons, come to the meeting.’ It was just awful. I wanted to approach the city council back then, but the officers were told, ‘Well, if you all be quiet, and give us the hangman’s noose, eventually we’ll give you a promotion.’ I didn’t agree with it then, because when this nonsense happens, you have to address it head on.”

He believes that the two fire department leaders would not have been placed on leave if they hadn’t filed EEOC complaints against the City Administrator Olson and Chief Human Resources Officer Sisson. Glover’s complaint concerns not being paid at the same level as his two predecessors, even though he is more experienced and has a college degree. Schmitt believed that he was a victim of retaliation after he complained to Olson that Sission was discriminating against Glover.

“If Glover and Schmitt had never filed the EEOC complaints, none of this other would be happening,” said Bennett. “Or if the chief had been like old chiefs in the past, and said, ‘Hey, even though you got the qualification, we’re not going to promote you to deputy chief.’ That’s what it boiled down to.”

Bennett said he tried to call Mayor Ashton Hayward on Friday, but was told he wasn’t in the office.

“The citizens of Escambia County and Pensacola are fed up with the ‘good ole boy’ network,” he told Inweekly. “They’re very disappointed in Ashton Hayward. He sings a good song, and plants trees down A Street, but it’s the way you treat people on a daily basis that people are concerned with.”