Applause Erupts as Shawnee Township, OH, Fire Chief Cleared of Wrongdoing

SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP — The sound of applause filled the garage behind the Shawnee Township Police Department late Monday afternoon after the township’s board of trustees voted to dismiss all charges of wrongdoing laid against Fire Chief Austin Miller.

The special meeting began on Monday morning on a markedly different trajectory as the board opened the meeting with the intent of terminating Miller’s employment with the township. The termination was to be due to three charges recommended after an investigation by attorney Catherine Burgett: insubordination, dishonesty during the investigation process and failure to investigate or pursue allegations of misconduct and harassment by a firefighter.

The insubordination allegation was centered around an alleged failure to complete multiple assigned tasks within a prescribed time frame. These included the posting of a memo to firefighters prohibiting the playing of pickleball during business hours, the termination of a probationary firefighter, the creation of a savings plan that would reduce the department’s budget by $5 million and the addition of fire department lettering to the chief’s vehicle.

The dishonesty allegation came out of Burgett’s interview with Miller during the investigation, in which she questioned him about a May 7 directive from the trustees to terminate the employment of a firefighter still employed on a probationary basis due to failure to pass the paramedic exam. Miller instead extended the probationary period, saying the firefighter had more to learn. Burgett maintained that because the firefighter had failed the exam to the point where he would have to retake the needed classes to pass it, she did not feel that Miller was forthcoming in his rationale.

“To tell me that the reason the probationary period had been extended was because firefighter Steyer had more to learn was not truthful,” she said.

The third charge was related to another firefighter using a term that involved the N-word, an action that, while not directed at any specific individual, prompted a writeup and mandated remedial training. However, while the original writeup cited the perjorative term explicitly, Miller changed the writeup to describe the incident as using inappropriate language.

“Anytime you’re doing documentation, it’s important to be accurate,” Burgett said. “Moreover, changing words and softening words like that has been found by courts to be circumstantial evidence of tolerating harassment and discrimination in the workplace.”

The argument from Miller’s defense attorneys, Dalton and Al Smith, was that Miller was denied due process during the entire procedure, being unable to cross examine his accusers since his attorneys maintained that the trustees themselves were the complainants and because they were the arbitrating body in the hearing and could not be questioned.

The other point stressed by Smith was the timing of the investigation and report. During testimony, Burgett said that her investigation, consisting of interviews of firefighters and the review of pertinent documentation, was completed by July, but no report was submitted to the board of trustees until November.

“In July, I made a verbal report to Ben Albrecht [an attorney advising the township], and then I did not hear anything else until, I believe, at the end of October or into November, when I was asked to prepare a written report,” Burgett said.

Later during testimony, attorney Dalton Smith continued to press Burgett on who would have given the directive to prepare the report months after the investigation itself concluded.

“That was a directive, evidently, that had come from the Shawnee Township trustees,” he said.

When Burgett replied that she did not have direct knowledge of that, Smith countered with, “Would you agree that there’s no other legislative body that could have proceeded on those charges?”

“I do,” Burgett replied.

Further questioning found that the report, dated Nov. 13, took about a week to prepare, which meant the report would have been started Nov. 6, Smith said, the day after trustees Ted Ciminillo and Clark Spieles lost their re-election bids to Kenny Gross and Paul Neff.

“That provides a heavy motive, a heavy bias,” Smith said during the hearing. “Obviously that ties into something that we’ve already talked about here today, but we are not going to be given an opportunity to cross-examine the trustees as to why that delay took place.”

After Burgett concluded her testimony, two executive sessions were held, the first with the trustees conferring with their legal counsel and the second conferring with Miller and his legal counsel. After those sessions, it was announced that a settlement had been reached and that all charges would be dropped.

“I want to thank everyone: my wife, my family, the firefighters, especially the incoming trustees and Dalton and Al Smith for sticking with me through this process and seeing it to the end,” Miller said after the hearing. “I’m so, so grateful to this community for supporting me.”

“It’s been an honor representing Chief Miller,” Dalton Smith said. “We’re overjoyed with the result today and we think justice was done.”

While the trustees did not offer comment during or after the hearing, Miller said a joint statement from all parties will be released sometime before the new year.

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