The Fayetteville Observer
SANFORD, N.C. — The chief of the Carolina Trace Volunteer Fire Department resigned today amid allegations that he made a racist comment three weeks ago, fire officials confirmed.
The alleged slur led some of the department’s firefighters to sign a petition calling for the immediate ouster of Fire Chief Todd McNeill. The petition was read to the department’s Board of Directors on Tuesday night, but no action was taken.
This morning, firefighter Robert E. Dufresne took the issue to the media. By early afternoon, Dufresne said, McNeill and board Chairman Frank Layton had called him to announce McNeill’s resignation.
McNeill and Layton could not be reached for comment. A woman who answered the phone at the fire station told The Associated Press that McNeill “is no longer the chief.”
The issue began at a Lee County Firefighters Association dinner at the Carolina Trace fire station Jan. 21. Carolina Trace is a gated golf community south of Sanford in Lee County.
After the dinner, Fire Lt. Russell Ingram said, McNeill told a story in which he used the ‘N’ word while referring to a Sanford funeral home. Ingram is black and McNeill is white.
Ingram said McNeill quickly apologized to him.
“He looks at me and apologizes and says, ‘You know I’m not racist.’” Ingram said.
McNeill also works as a firefighter for the Sanford Fire Department. Sanford Fire Chief Wayne Barber would not discuss whether McNeill could face discipline there, as well. Barber called the matter “a personnel issue we would have to deal with.”
The emotionally charged issue has led other firefighters to resign from the Carolina Trace department, including former Lt. John Cain and former Capt. Brian McLean.
Both stepped down Tuesday night, during the department’s board meeting, saying the board again failed to take sufficient action against McNeill.
“We gave them multiple, multiple, multiple chances to do the right thing and they didn’t,” McLean, a disabled Marine veteran, said this morning, before McNeill resigned.
The board first discussed the issue last week during a specially called meeting. It took no action then, other than to order McNeill and all other department officers to take sensitivity training, Dufresne said.
When the board met in regular session Tuesday, he said, it initially didn’t want to let firefighters speak. At the end of the meeting, Dufresne said, he was allowed to read the petition calling for McNeill’s resignation.
According to the petition, McNeill’s alleged remark has created a hostile work environment, demonstrated toxic leadership and has led to a loss of confidence in McNeill’s ability to effectively oversee the department.
“Mr. McNeill’s shameful language as well as the board of directors subsequent mishandling of the incident is a slap in the face to our department members, to the public for whom we serve, and to the community we represent,” the petition reads. “We will not work for a ‘leader’ who holds bigoted views and lacks the self-discipline to conduct himself in a professional manner.”
Before McNeill resigned, three firefighters stepped down and five others said they had planned to leave the department, said Dufresne, a former Army Special Forces soldier.
Dufresne said roughly 35 firefighters work for the department, about 10 of whom are paid.
Dufresne and other firefighters acknowledged that McNeill had done good work in his eight years as chief. But Dufresne and Ingram said it’s not the first time racial comments by McNeill or other firefighters have been heard.
McLean, one of the firefighters who resigned Tuesday night, said he worries about the fallout the issue might have in the community.
He said he is deeply troubled by the matter, partly because his wife is Hispanic.
“I feel very, very disrespected,” he said. “Race in this day and age... we need a change in this country and it does not start like that.”
Copyright 2016 The Fayetteville Observer
All Rights Reserved