Innisfail firefighters are frustrated and confused over the abrupt and controversial firing last month of their popular chief.
In a show of solidarity, 25 uniformed firefighters appeared at town council on Sept. 26 to declare their objections to the decision by Helen Dietz, the town's chief administrative officer (CAO), to fire Dean Clark on Sept. 7 without cause. Clark was hired 18 months ago after the 2014 termination of Dan Ross, the community's first-ever full-time fire chief.
“There were guys that wanted to step down, they were that frustrated. A lot of it was that we felt the department has come leaps and bounds in the time Chief Clark was here,” said Tim Ainscough, assistant deputy chief who made a presentation on behalf of the firefighters to town council.
“They are advertising again and we are concerned about what we are going to get. There are qualified people out there but when they look at the history of three chiefs in two and a half years, are we going to have good people applying?”
However, Mayor Brian Spiller said last week the CAO, who has the authority under the provincial Municipal Government Act to hire and fire without council approval, has the full support of himself and the rest of council.
“She has my full confidence. I can't speak for all of council but I do know when she informed us (of) the pending release of the fire chief, and the reasonings she gave us, she had full support,” said Spiller, adding that neither he nor administration can publicly release the precise reason why Clark was fired due to provincial privacy laws.
“Town council has one staff, our CAO, and the CAO has complete authority over all the other staff,” added Spiller. “She doesn't need our permission to hire or fire. She needs our permission to create new positions but to remove a person or discipline a person it is all in her purview. She usually keeps us apprised of what is going on but she doesn't ask for our permission.”
In his presentation to council, Ainscough said the local fire department made “significant advances” in training and professionalism during the 18-month tenure of Clark.
He pointed out to council members that under Clark the department had implemented new preceptor and recruitment programs for new members, with the latter including physical and aptitude testing. He also pointed out the department made improvements to inspections, pre-fire planning and safety, as well as “significant gains” in having a majority of the department membership meeting training requirements that were stipulated in the council-approved Remuneration Policy.
“The CAO is within her duties. The fire chief reported to her. She is the one that hires or fires the fire chief,” conceded Ainscough. “But I think there is some miscommunication between the department and the town office on what we accomplished, and that is what we really want to bring forward to make sure the town understands that we have done a lot. We've gone leaps and bounds and a big reason for that is Chief Clark pushing us to improve on all of these policies, procedures and response times.”
“There has been no consultation with us and we are nervous at what this new direction is going to be,” he added. “Hopefully it's not going to be lowering levels of service. Hopefully it will be increasing levels of service.”
Although Ainscough said the preference among department firefighters is to have Clark reinstated he conceded, “that ship has sailed and that is not going to happen,” despite the former chief's popularity in the community. In the meantime, Spiller said the decision by administration is a “done deal.”
“What's happened happened,” said Spiller. “We are not going back on the situation. We can't change our mind or redo it. We stand behind our CAO, and you have to.”
Tim Ainscough, assistant deputy chief
"There were guys that wanted to step down, they were that frustrated. A lot of it was that we felt the department has come leaps and bounds in the time Chief Clark was here."
