By Earle Kimel
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
VENICE, Fla. — The City of Venice is seeking to terminate the employment of a 14-year veteran firefighter for city rules violations, roughly 10 months after he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.
The majority of the grounds for dismissal against Venice Fire Deptartment Lt. Gerry Collins, 41, involve his failure to report within 72 hours that he was charged with driving under the influence on Oct. 16 by Pinellas Park Police and reportedly attempted to avoid the charge because he is a firefighter.
The city ultimately found out about the DUI charges through a courtesy call from Pinellas Park.
Because of that, the city claims Collins’ actions were “detrimental to the best interests of the City of Venice, its citizens, supervisors or co-workers,” according to a “Notice of Pre-Determination Hearing and Statement of Charges,” prepared by Venice Fire Chief Shawn Carvey.
That hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m., Nov. 7 before Carvey and Administrative Services Director Alan Bullock, after which Carvey would make a final recommendation to City Manager Ed Lavallee.
“This is the first time this has ever happened in fire services since I’ve been here,” said Carvey, a 20-year member of the department. “And I hope it never happens again.”
The hearing is being held in accordance with the city’s contract with the Suncoast Professional Firefighters & Paramedics IAFF Local 2546. Collins also is a union representative.
According to the Pinellas Park Police incident report, shortly after midnight on Oct. 16, Collins’ SUV was in the middle southbound lane of 49th Street, at the traffic light of 86th Avenue. The vehicle did not move through several cycles, and Collins appeared asleep at the wheel.
He subsequently failed field sobriety tests — but not before asking that he not do them, because he was a Venice firefighter — and refused to take a breathalyzer test.
In doing so, according to the statement of charges, Collins violated five separate city personnel procedures and rules including: a general violation of published city or departmental rules; any activity detrimental to the city; conduct unbecoming of a city supervisor or employee; disorderly, immoral or indecent conduct, causing any negative reflection on the city; failure to report an arrest for driving under the influence within 72 hours of the arrest.
Of note, the Oct. 16 incident is the third offense documented by the city against Collins since his hire as a firefighter/paramedic on Jan. 7, 2002.
The other two, however, were essentially for reporting late for duty without properly notifying his supervisor. The first offense, recorded on Nov. 10, 2014, resulted in an oral reprimand. For that offense, Collins noted, “I do not agree with this letter.”
In the second offense, on Aug. 21, 2016, Collins did not report for his shift at 8 a.m. and when called, said he wasn’t woken up by his alarm, then took sick time for the day because of a bad back.
Collins was promoted to fill one of two lieutenant openings in January. Any city firefighter with state certification and enough years in the department is eligible to take a promotional exam.
The promotional list is then ranked, based on test results. According to the union contract, Carvey said, he had leeway to promote any of the top three finishers on the test. Carvey said Collins was one of the top two finishers on that test.
Copyright 2016 Sarasota Herald-Tribune