By Brandon Formby
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas — An overwhelming majority of Irving firefighters have no confidence in Fire Chief Mario Molina’s leadership, according to an Irving Professional Fire Fighters Association vote announced Monday.
More than 91 percent of department employees who voted in the referendum conducted over three weeks in March and April said they don’t believe the chief can continue leading the department.
“Basically the members are asking for his resignation,” said association president Roy Todd Harvey. “Unfortunately, that’s where we’ve come to.”
Molina could not be reached for comment late Monday. City Manager Tommy Gonzalez, who hires and fires the fire chief, said by email that the city values all firefighters, including Molina.
“Let’s not forget this city has one of the best fire departments in the state,” Gonzalez said. “Like any family, we need to continue working together and improve every day.”
Harvey said the department’s rank-and-file employees for years have had issues with the chief, including concerns about what Harvey said is a “threatening” leadership style. He said there had been talk about no-confidence votes twice before, but no vote was taken.
Personnel issues
Harvey said the decision to finally hold a vote came after a heated Irving City Council work session last month during which city leaders discussed how Molina handled some department personnel issues. Mayor Herbert Gears said at that March 2 meeting that Molina and his wife privately visited with him and offered to revisit the disciplinary decisions in exchange for a long-term contract.
“When he was willing to negotiate a contract in return for those guys’ employment, that right there was the biggest issue on top of the issues we’d been dealing with over the years,” Harvey said.
At that meeting, Molina said he told the mayor that having a contract would give him more job security.
“We are here today because I didn’t continue down that path,” Molina said at the meeting.
Association members must work for the Fire Department, although employees are not required to join. Most do become part of the association. Harvey said the association mostly ensures that employees have fair pay and benefits and that their safety is constantly considered by the department.
The association’s political arm is considered a powerful force in City Council elections. The association has endorsed Gears, who is facing former Mayor Joe Putnam and former City Council members Tom Spink and Beth Van Duyne in this year’s election.
A total of 266 firefighters cast votes of no confidence. About 4.8 percent - or 14 association members - said in the vote that they are confident in Molina. About 3.4 percent abstained from voting. A handful of association members did not cast votes.
Molina’s résumé
Molina was hired away from Carrollton’s Fire Department in late 2006 and took the top job in Irving in 2007. Molina started in Carrollton in 1989. He was an apparatus operator, captain paramedic and battalion chief-paramedic before he was named assistant chief in 2005.
Molina leads about 312 employees who have an average of 17 years of service in Irving, according to a March list of all city employees. He makes $157,248 a year, which is the fifth-highest base salary at Irving City Hall.
Age issue
Two of the personnel decisions on the March 2 council agenda centered on an age discrimination complaint. Molina said he fired a battalion chief and recommended demotion for Assistant Chief Ricky Boyd because they made or did not stop discriminatory comments about another employee’s age.
The next day, firefighters applauded when Molina dropped his demotion recommendation for Boyd. Harvey said the terminated battalion chief has been rehired. Harvey said association members believe firefighters shouldn’t escape discipline, but he said many believe that Molina’s disciplinary decisions are often “heavy-handed.”
Some association members also said that Molina retaliated against Boyd and the battalion chief because they had questioned the chief’s leadership in an association meeting last year.
“If discipline is warranted, we support that,” Harvey said. “What we are against is the level of discipline.”
Harvey said the rehired battalion chief received “more appropriate discipline for what he did” but declined to give specifics.
Officials also discussed at that March council meeting a firefighter who resigned when faced with termination for taking pictures of bodies at a crime scene in 2009 and disseminating them throughout the department and to friends and family. Harvey said that former employee has not been rehired.
Gonzalez placed discussion of the fire chief on the March 2 agenda of closed-door items after Gears scheduled an executive session discussion of Gonzalez’s contract. Molina exercised his right to have his matter discussed in public. The council did not take action on either the Gonzalez or Molina item at the meeting, which was attended by about 150 firefighters.
During the meeting, Molina said Gears and City Council member Roy Santoscoy put undue political pressure on him to reverse his disciplinary decisions for two Fire Department employees. Gears countered that Molina offered to go easier on the disciplined employees in exchange for a contract.
Harvey said association members did not take the vote lightly.
“We’re certainly not happy to be in this situation,” Harvey said. “We hate it that we’re here, but the guys just don’t feel like he can lead us anymore, and you can see that by the results of the vote.”
BY THE NUMBERS
The vote
Whether Irving firefighters have confidence in Chief Mario Molina:
No - 266
Yes - 14
Abstained (turned in ballots, but didn’t answer yes or no) - 10
Copyright 2011 THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS