Suspended Fire Chief Gets to Respond

A fire chief, Bruce Vaughan, was recently suspended due to allegations that were made by the Mayor of the city, Jack Everson. Vaughan was suspended without pay on Friday and will now have the opportunity to meet with a Human Resource Director, Tammy Bochard. Bochard will talk with Vaughan and talk about a list of the offenses and allegations that have been made. He will also be told about Everson and his opinion, which is that Vaughan be terminated from his position.

After the meeting, Bochard will set up a report, which will have to do with the evidence Everson provided about the allegations, along with what Vaughan had to say about the allegations and offenses. This will ultimately help Bochard to come up with a conclusion on whether or not Vaughan should be terminated, as Everson recommended. Bochard may end up agreeing with Everson and if she does, Vaughan is only given 10 days to appeal the decision.

Everson accused Vaughan of gross neglect of duty, not obeying orders, and for being incompetent. He immediately suspended him without pay. Everson looked into Vaughan and his behavior after many complaints and concerns came in about the Chillicothe Fire Department and its failure to conduct testing on air tanks that had been due for testing for several years. Everson also wrote in the letter that Vaughan did not tell him there was any failure with the equipment and that he did not take the leadership that he should have taken, especially since he is the fire chief. Everson also states that he gave Vaughan an option, which was to retire early over the past weekend. Vaughan did not want to retire early which is why he was suspended from his position and may end up terminated after Bochard reviews everything.

At this time, the Assistant Chief, Jeff Creed, will be filling in as the fire chief. And, while the firefighters may have been dealing with a lack of leadership before, it seems as though they are very confident in their current leader, Jeff Creed. The firefighters have respect and trust for Creed, knowing he will listen to what they say and what concerns they might have. In fact, after being promoted to assistant chief, it is believed that the fire department became much more proactive than it had been in recent years, prior to his promotion. With that said, even if Vaughan is terminated, the firefighters know that they have a good chief and leader to look up to.