Clovis, NM Chief fired

[NJFFSA16]

Seems to this observer...he was looking out for his firefighters.

Clovis fire chief is fired
CLOVIS, N.M. (AP) - Clovis Fire Chief Sam McCallie has been
fired.
City officials refused to say why he was fired Tuesday.
But McCallie, the fire chief for six years, said his firing was
unjustified.
"I'm tired of fighting with City Hall over issues related to
safety," he said. "Everything I was fired for could have been
resolved."
McCallie had been haggling with city officials over issues
related to what he said is an understaffed, underpaid fire
department.
City Manager Ray Mondragon addressed issues concerning
overspending the fire department's budget, communication skills and
leadership skills in a closed meeting last week, McCallie said.
McCallie said he overspent the payroll budget by $146,000 for
fiscal 2001-2002.
"I added another fighter to one shift, which I am allowed to do
without permission to enhance the city's safety," he said.
McCallie said he was able to make up for overspending with an
increase in ambulance fees by 320 percent in September 1997.
Assistant Fire Chief Ron Edwards will be the city's interim fire
chief, Mondragon said.
"We're going to wait until the smoke clears" before looking
for McCallie's successor, Mondragon said. "We don't need to make
any quick decisions regarding management."

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[raven911]

You know it is said most Fire Chiefs only have a career life expectancy of 5 years before this sort of thing happens. Especially if they do their job!

I have personally seen this happen to members of my family on 3 different occasions.

[gordoffemt]

Well, looks like we can add yet another city manager to the long list of Mutts who work as public officials. Some people just don't get it. Hopefully, for the dept., they don't get some hand-picked "yes-man" as a replacement.

Good luck to the brothers and sisters of Clovis, N.M.

[UTFFEMT]

I actually was told that an average life span for a Chief these days is less than 2 years. I lasted four (4) before the same type of situation happed to me and I was ousted out.

:cool:

[Engine5FF]

Our Chief is just starting his 17th year. He has an uncanny ability to slip out of problems like getting fired. Or maybe he just has "somthing" on the city manager?;) This doesn't exclude us from having head-to-heads with city hall... it just doesn't get us a new chief every four years.

[raven911]

Originally posted by Engine5FF
Our Chief is just starting his 17th year.

He's one of the lucky ones!