JACKSON COUNTY
ALTUS - A feud between Altus firefighters and the fire chief has simmered for months and is nearing the flash point.
A “no confidence” vote against Chief Kyle Davis was taken by the firefighters earlier this year and the result was unanimous: 31-0.
In an “executive summary” dated June 14 and released publicly, the firefighters accuse the chief of behavior that has created “toxic working conditions.”
The two principal signatories of the document were Capt. Benny Barnes, president of the Altus Professional Fire Fighters Association, and Firefighter Hunter Harris, vice president of the association. Barnes has been a member of the Altus Fire and Rescue Department for 17 years. Harris has been an Altus firefighter for four years. Davis came to Altus about three years ago from Frederick.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The executive summary spotlights “the three most egregious events” by Chief Davis “prior to his dereliction of duty ... when he failed to proactively activate the Altus Emergency Operations Center” during a violent storm in May.
One of the events alleged in the document occurred 14 months ago, in March 2018; the second occurred in September 2018; and the third event allegedly occurred in February of this year.
And because the firefighters believe City Manager Janice Cain has taken no steps to hold Chief Davis accountable nor to conduct a thorough probe of the numerous grievances and complaints lodged against him, they want her fired, too.
“She’s still investigating,” Barnes said Wednesday.
ALLEDGES CITY MANAGER
IS COMPLICIT
Cain “handles all personnel matters” for the City of Altus, Barnes said. The city manager is “the only person with the power to address the constant, egregious, and near-deadly decisions that the Fire Chief continues to make,” the firefighters wrote in the cover letter of their executive summary. Yet “[b]y her inaction” Cain is complicit in Davis’ actions, they allege.
Telephone calls placed by the Southwest Ledger to, and messages left for, Fire Chief Davis, City Manager Cain and Mayor Jack Smiley, all went unanswered.
“ABUSE OF POWER”
Altus firefighters “have a problem” with Davis’s “abuse of power” and because he has “no regard for safety,” Barnes said. The no-confidence vote, which was taken “back around February,” was unanimous “due to poor decision-making” on the part of Davis, Barnes said.
Also, morale among the firefighters began to decline “because we have a chief who doesn’t back his guys on anything,” Barnes said.
The trouble worsened when Chief Davis received a 57% pay increase that was authorized by City Manager Cain, Captain Barnes said. Davis’ paycheck shot up from $67,000 per year to $105,500, Barnes said. “He realized that the city manager will take care of him ... He’s not for his own guys.”
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
DIRECTOR POSITION
And then there’s the question about the city’s emergency management director.
“We used to have a full-time emergency management director; the state funds 50% of that position,” Barnes said. But the fire chief went to the city manager “and told her, ‘We don’t need a full-time guy for that job.’” So, the city hired an interim person at a salary of $20,000 – “but they didn’t advertise for the part-time job,” Barnes said. The “temporary” hire answers to the fire chief and is still on the job, months later.
A serious charge against Davis is that he “failed to ... activate the Altus Emergency Operations Center” on May 25, 2019, when tornado sirens sounded on Altus Air Force Base “but fell silent in Altus during tornado-like activity,” the firefighters allege.
Violent winds ripped off the bay door of one of the fire stations, uprooted trees, and tossed trash dumpsters across the high-school parking lot. “One of our guys said it felt like the air was sucked out of the fire station” and firefighters’ “ears started popping,” Barnes said.
Yet Fire Chief Davis “never went to the emergency operations center” that night. “He came by one of our fire stations in a suit and tie for a few minutes, then left,” Barnes said.
If a tornado were to strike Altus, would Davis “be in charge of the fire department or the EOC?” Barnes wonders. “How could he run both operations?”
CONCERNS
The first concern listed in the firefighters’ executive summary is that Davis used firemen to move furniture into his apartment on March 20, 2018, involving three firefighters and two fire department vehicles during daytime duty hours.
Furthermore, none of the three employees were “offered compensation for their time by the Fire Chief,” the allegation declares.
The second concern pertained to power-washing the roof of Station 2 on Sept. 16, 2008. Six members of the department “were all on the roof scrubbing and washing the roof” for five hours “to complete the work assigned by Chief Davis.”
Throughout that time, the firefighters were “out of position,” their absence from their regular duties placed Altus citizens “at risk of a delayed arrival time” if a fire had occurred, and the incident posed an “unnecessary liability” if any of the firefighters, who were “not trained in roof work,” had “fallen off the roof or been injured.”
Two days later, Barnes said, Davis asked him to “assist with sealing the roof” of Station 2. Barnes said he and three firefighters “all considered the Chief’s request a lawful order” so they sealed the roof.
The sealant “has a clear warning on the side that it is to be applied only after having received special instructions, and that workers must wear gloves, eye protection, face protection, and protective clothing,” the complaint continues. Yet “none of the firefighters were informed of the risk, none are licensed to perform roof sealant work ... and none of the required protective equipment was provided.”
Boots worn by the firefighters were exposed to and damaged by the sealant, the firemen reported. “These boots are purchased at the expense of the firefighters,” they noted.
The third alleged incident occurred about 11 a.m. on Feb. 27, 2019, when multiple Altus firefighters responded to a fire at the school’s Ag barn.
Upon arrival, the firefighters “found smoke and flames coming from the barn,” they reported. Fire Chief Davis, a Jackson County sheriff’s deputy and two off-duty firefighters were seen exiting the building.
None of them were wearing any form of protective gear and all four were “coughing and had clearly exposed themselves to the products of combustion,” the complaint alleges.
“There is simply no excuse for the Fire Chief to be inside any burning structure without the proper protective equipment,” Concern #3 asserts. “To do so is a violation of OSHA (federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration) regulations, Oklahoma law, and our own City of Altus Fire Department Standards and Procedures.”
Davis “not only created a liability to the City of Altus for himself, with possible injury, smoke inhalation, cancer, and even death,” but “through his actions” he “encouraged ... other firefighters to take the same unnecessary and dangerous risks.”
Twice in recent years, Altus firefighters allege, sewage has backed up into the basement of Station 2.
Both times Davis “refused to call a professional team” and instead ordered Altus firefighters “to “stand 6 to 8 inches deep in raw sewage and push it around until it went down a drain,” they complain. “No full sanitation was completed” and bacteria from the raw sewage “was just spread around the living quarters of the fire station and firetrucks.”
Every issue listed by the firefighters is “verifiable by either multiple eyewitness accounts and/or through the verification of publicly available comments, posts, or audio/video recordings,” the executive summary says.
DOCUMENT AVAILABLE
ON FACEBOOK PAGE
The entire document can be found on the Facebook page of the Altus Professional Fire Fighters – IAFF Local #2749.
Altus firefighters have filed 18 safety grievances against their chief. Those were presented to Davis, per procedure, “and he denied every one of them,” Barnes said. “But they’re all legitimate.”
The firefighters also have filed 30 formal written complaints, he said, for alleged offenses such as bullying, intimidation, sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment.
“It’s exhausting,” Barnes said. “It’s every day. Our city officials don’t care about doing the right thing.”