By Ron Leszcynski
The Dallas Morning News
GARLAND, Texas — Garland Fire Chief Dan Grammer was removed from his post Friday after 34 years with the department, more than half of those as chief.
City Manager Bill Dollar said in a news release that the move was made “as a result of a review of the Garland Fire Department and its leadership.” Dollar appointed Assistant Chief Raymond Knight interim chief. Knight will lead the department until the City Council names a new chief.
Grammer announced the change in a departmentwide email early Friday. The message said that he didn’t know whether he would continue with the department or retire but that he would be “incognito for the next several weeks.”
Under state law, if he stays, he is to be reinstated to his previous position, battalion chief.
“I want to thank you for your support over the years; it has been a privilege to serve with you,” he wrote. “I know you would like to call, wish me well, share your thoughts and all that, but I will not be accepting calls for a while.”
Grammer said in the email that Dollar did not feel the chief supported him because certain budget forms were not turned in. Grammer also said the city manager disapproved when Grammer brought assistant chiefs to a recent meeting with new council members.
The two were at an impasse two years ago when Garland Fire Fighters Association members said three days off that went with a temporary 1.15 percent pay reduction Dollar suggested would create staffing difficulties. The chief’s budget presentation was delayed a week before a reassignment of arson inspectors helped solve the staffing issue.
As chief, Grammer oversaw the debut of six stations in eight years. Bond elections in 1991 and 1997 funded the replacement of two of seven stations and created Stations 8 through 11. When the last new station opened in 2005, it completed a citywide coverage plan Grammer had proposed a decade earlier.
The department grew in 2008 to include a $17 million fire administration building and training facility.
As assistant chief of administration, Knight oversaw training in his most recent assignment of a 30-year career.
Copyright 2011 THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS