By Mike Linn
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
PINE BLUFF, Ark. — Two heads of Pine Bluff Fire & Emergency Services have left the department within the past three weeks, causing concern among firefighters who say the department has been mismanaged for more than a year.
Former Chief Don Horton, who went to Pine Bluff from Richmond, Va., resigned April 26 after only 16 months on the job. He left the job to work as the new fire chief in Portsmouth, Va.
Then, on Friday, interim Fire Chief Skipper Hipp retired for health reasons. He had been with Pine Bluff Fire & Emergency Services, formerly the Pine Bluff Fire Department, for almost 34 years.
Capt. Bryan McPherson said he is concerned that bad practices and wasteful spending at the Fire Department are taking a toll on the city.
McPherson, the department’s emergency vehicle technician, wrote a four-page letter to the three aldermen who sit on the city’s public safety committee.
“Get the Pine Bluff Fire Department back in line,” McPherson said in the letter, which was given to Aldermen Wayne Easterly, Bill Brumett and Irene Holcomb.
“Pine Bluff at one time not long ago had an extremely good fire department known everywhere. Don Horton brought a few good ideas ... to Pine Bluff, but he took the camaraderie and fire fighting skills away.” In the letter, McPherson said Horton created eight positions to help the city meet the suggested standards of the National Fire Protection Association. By doing so, however, Horton took firefighters off the trucks and gave them other jobs such as safety officer, public information officer and deputy chief, McPherson said.
Lt. Shauwn Howell, a spokesman for the Fire Department, said he would review McPherson’s concerns if and when he receives a copy of the letter.
“In any department or organization, you’re going to have some who are happy and some who are sad,” Howell said. “People are always going to have their opinions, good or bad.” Easterly agreed with Howell. “Anytime you have a department or organization that large, there’s always going to be something the union people, or the [Fraternal Order of Police] don’t like,” Easterly said.
Mayor Carl Redus Jr. and Horton did not return phone calls Monday seeking comment.
Hipp said Redus interviewed senior assistant chiefs Tellis Rushing and Jim Brown on Monday for the interim chief’s position. The mayor had not made a selection by 4 p.m., according to an official with the Fire Department.
Fabian Fontenot, the vice president of the Pine Bluff Firefighters Association Local 14, a firefighters union re-established after Horton was hired, said he’d like to see Redus hire a chief from within the department.
“When you get hired, a lot of guys envision becoming the chief one day, and with [Redus] going outside the department, it kind of takes that ambition away from you,” Fontenot said.
“I fear that if we bring in another chief from outside the department, he’s going to use this opportunity as a stepping stone or to beef his resume up. I don’t want that. I’d like to see a guy who has worked his way up the ranks in our department.” Fontenot said the union, which is holding an emergency meeting tonight, plans on speaking with Redus soon.
Fontenot also said he is concerned that three firefighters who are due promotions will have to wait until a new chief is hired.
One of those firefighters, Mike Davis, has been working as an acting captain for almost a year but hasn’t received a captain’s salary, Fontenot said. The deadline to fill that captain’s position is May 12, and after that date Davis would have to retake tests to become eligible again, Fontenot said.
Hipp agreed that firefighters are concerned about not getting promoted in a timely manner. He said he retired because the building he works in downtown affects his sinuses, especially since he underwent gallbladder surgery in January.
“My wife told me my health is more important to her than money and that it’s time for me to go,” Hipp said.
Copyright 2009 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.