By Dean Narciso
The Columbus Dispatch
JACKSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Jackson Township trustees agreed unanimously late last night to fire one firefighter and suspend two others, for spreading details about a police call in February that involved the fire chief and his wife at their Grove City home.
The hearing dragged on for more than eight hours and was attended by more than 100 firefighters from as far away as Colorado in a show of support for the township firefighters, whose union by state law is not recognized by the township.
“We will arrive in masses to show support for our brothers who are merely being used as examples by an unfriendly administration,” said K.J. Watts, district vice president of the Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters.
The trustees fired Scott Harr, president of Local 2672 of that union, and gave Sean Garvey a 20-day suspension and Jon Kirkpatrick, who struck a deal before the hearing, a three-day suspension.
Besides testimony, none spoke during yesterday’s hearing. They couldn’t be reached late last night after the township decision was made.
Smarting after being passed over for a promotion and rejected by a boss who said they weren’t like-minded, Garvey had the perfect motive to retaliate, a lawyer for Jackson Township said during yesterday’s hearing.
Garvey had just finished dinner at the firehouse Feb. 21 when he opened an anonymous interoffice letter telling him to check out a dispatch report on the station’s computer.
He said he printed the report, but found the information “extremely personal” and quickly threw it away.
“I wanted no one to know I had it,” Garvey told Patrick Kasson, the township’s attorney, during yesterday’s hearing.
But Kasson pointed out that Garvey had admitted to lying when initially asked by the deputy chief and township administrator about the incident. Kasson said Garvey wanted township Fire Chief Lloyd Sheets gone.
Garvey testified that he initially lied because he believed that having the report would be a violation of federal health-privacy laws.
The report stemmed from a Feb. 13 medic run to the chief’s home following a 911 call in which yelling could be heard in the background and a man states that a woman has overdosed on pills. A 911 call the previous night from Patty Sheets, the chief’s wife, stated her husband had grabbed her by the neck.
In both runs, Grove City police determined there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone.
Days later, the report with details of the incident began circulating around the city and within the department.
In addition to passing the report to others, firefighter Harr was accused of endorsing candidates unpopular with the fire chief, affixing union bumper stickers to fire station property and repeatedly lying to his bosses.
Throughout the hearing yesterday, Sheets, who has been chief since June 2006, sat quietly, shaking his head and glancing back at his wife a row behind him.
William Moul, the firefighters’ attorney, said the trustees’ verdict would decide “whether or not Jackson Township is going to continue to be run through a management of intimidation and fear — that’s what’s here.”
Both Garvey and Harr, who had unblemished employment records after 17 and 21 years respectively, earned annual base salaries of $55,466.
Moul said each should have received punishment for lying but not firing.
Supporters of the firefighters have said the township is out to break the union. Two of the three firefighters involved have leadership positions in the union, which isn’t officially recognized by law because of its size.
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