MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) -- State labor officials have cleared the Muscatine Fire Department of alleged workplace violations, Fire Chief Steve Dalbey said Thursday.
An official complaint filed by an anonymous fire department employee on Aug. 11 included five allegations of deficient staff training and undermanned staffing of the department's two stations.
The Iowa Division of Labor Services' Occupational Safety and Health Bureau investigated the 36-member force, Dalbey said. An investigator met Thursday afternoon with local fire officials.
Dalbey said the first knowledge he received of the investigation was when the state investigator visited the department Aug. 13.
``She presented the allegations to us, told us that we did not have to talk to her and, if necessary, that she could get a court order for our records,'' Dalbey said. ``I told her we had nothing to hide and we gave her records of our training program and other documentation.''
After receiving the records, the investigator conducted confidential interviews with several fire department employees over two shifts, Dalbey said.
Dalbey said that although no violations were discovered, the investigation raised his personal awareness of concerns within the department's rank-and-file.
However, he defended his management style, saying that many of the issues brought up as part of the state's investigation were already being addressed by the department.
Although tight city budgets limit Dalbey's flexibility in hiring additional staffing, he said that it has not adversely affected the department's response time for fires and medical emergencies, nor placed firefighters in unduly dangerous situations.
``We work with what we're given,'' Dalbey said. ``If you have a job that needs to be done, obviously having 22 people available to do it is better than having just two people.
``But as a management policy, we don't require people to work in an unsafe condition.''
Information from: Muscatine Journal
