A two year-old incident involving a Fort Smith firefighter that resulted in his demotion in 2015 has become a point of interest in the midst of the controversy surrounding a municipal recall effort being spearheaded by the Fort Smith FOP and the Firefighters Local, and some are questioning the timing and intent of the release of the information.
According to Fort Smith Fire Chief Phil Christensen after another allegation about the same firefighter from the same time period recently emerged, he forwarded the email and information to Fort Smith city administrator Carl Geffken. Inside Fort Smith has learned that Geffken then forwarded the information to all the members of the Fort Smith Board of Directors as a “heads-up” in September 20.
Shortly after the email was sent to the BOD members on September 20, select members of the local media were informed of the situation via email. At least one local television station’s report had erroneous information in their story. The firefighter in question was disciplined and demoted for “failure to follow rules and regulations”, not because he had “sex in some of the city’s fire stations”.
One source close to the situation said on Thursday that timing of the story and the manner in which the media was informed about the incident shows “a clear and deliberate effort to discredit members of the fire department ahead of the recall and petition effort.”
“You would think they would have at least waited until they start circulating petitions,” said the source. “All this happened two years ago and there wasn’t a word about in the media. Suddenly a ‘new’ allegation comes to light and the sound bites make it sound like this happened over the weekend.”
“If it wasn’t important enough to warrant media coverage in 2015, why all of a sudden the same incident a hot topic in 2017?”, asked the source. “So was it covered up the last time or intentionally leaked this time?”
Inside Fort Smith was not one of the media outlets that received the forwarded email about the allegations.
Inside Fort Smith has also learned the forwarded email from Geffken was sent to at least one media outlet through a now closed email account. Apparently, multiple emails were sent to that same media outlet about the situation on Tuesday.
In addition, Inside Fort Smith has learned that anonymous complaints have been filed against Darrell Clark, head of local firefighters union, for holding “secret meetings” with his members and for visiting various stations on his time off in an effort to poll his members about whether they wanted to support the recall.
There are only nine people, counting Chief Christensen, who should have had access to the original email from Christensen, including Geffken. The information that was leaked to the other media outlets had to come from one of the seven city directors, Geffken or Christensen since they were the only individuals on the city e-mail chain.
Clark responded to a post on Facebook on Friday and said the charges from the anonymous complaints and those levied in other Facebook claims made against him by a city director contained “several eerie similarities”.
On yet another Faceook post, in answer to comments made on the Fort Smith FOP page about the BOD ading two new members of the Civil Service Commission, Clark stated “What I care about is that the BOD members that support this civil service rule change are willing to take any steps necessary to get their way, regardless of the negative impact made to the uniformed employees of Fort Smith. ”
Chief Christensen said on Thursday that the ‘new’ allegation concerned the same firefighter that was demoted and was from the same time period in 2015 as the original incident. Christensen said he was “ongoing in investigating the matter” and that he had sent the email to Geffken about the ‘new’ allegation as part of the mandated chain of command. Christensen refused other comment and referred Inside Fort Smith to a statement on his personal Facebook page.
The following is the entire statement on Christensen’s Facebook page and gives more information about the 2015 incident:
“With the recent news media reports about a Fort Smith Fire Department employee disciplined for having sex while on duty, I felt it was my obligation to let the citizens of Fort Smith know more about the facts.
Mid 2015, a complaint was sent to Fire Chief Richards (retired) from a firefighter’s estranged wife with allegations including having sex while on duty. A full investigations was conducted, with Garrity Rights given and strict orders issued to the accused. In September 2015, a pre-determination hearing was conducted by a Board of five members of the Fort Smith Fire Department (FSFD) to review and hear information regarding the possibility that one or more rules as outlined in the FSFD Operations Manual had been violated. It was the conclusion of the Board that the possible violations of the majority of the accusations were not sustained. After reviewing the information of the Board’s findings, the Fire Chief determined that no other actions would be taken on those possible violations.
A majority of the Board did conclude that a violation of a Section under General Conduct and Responsibilities, did occur and was sustained. The Section states that “All members shall give careful attention to orders and instructions and follow those orders and instructions.” There was a serious violation of that rule, and will not be tolerated by the FSFD.
Any supervisory member of the FSFD that has the responsibility to issue orders must follow orders given to them. The accused FSFD member was in a supervisory position, and had failed to set a good example to those under his supervision by not following orders given. As a result of his actions, he was thereby demoted in rank.
The most recent allegations brought forth, were from the same time period as the previous investigation. Again, an investigation into the allegations are currently being conducted.
I can assure the citizens of Fort Smith that any inappropriate actions taken by any of their firefighters will not be tolerated. At any time during any investigation there is found evidence of wrong doing, that member is dealt with accordingly. This department will not boast on the decisions made toward disciplinary actions of any member, but instead will try to instill the Fire Department values of Duty, Honor, Courage, and Brotherhood through coaching and mentoring. This department invests in its employees, trying to shape the future of the FSFD through succession-planning, so the citizens of Fort Smith will have an ample supply of ready-for-supervision firefighters.
While this story is an embarrassment to the City of Fort Smith, its citizens, the Fort Smith Fire Department, and its members, I will not allow it to become a disgrace for the community. Your firefighters have done far greater things for this community, and will continue to do so.
As the current Fire Chief, I take all opinions of our firefighters and of this department, good and bad, personally. I am ultimately responsible for the safety and well-being for you as a citizens, and for the actions or inactions of our firefighters…meaning the “Buck stops here”. So please, direct your fustrations of this or any incident towards me and not this department, your firefighters, the accused, or the accuser. I have an open-door policy for my firefighters, and I always extend it to the citizens. If any citizen ever has any comments, complaints, questions, or concerns about the Fort Smith Fire Department, my door is always open.
Have a safe day!
Phil Christensen, Fire Chief
Fort Smith Fire Department”
