After more than half of the volunteer fire department showed up to Wednesday’s Wellington City Council meeting to protest the recent appointment of Damion Smith as new fire chief, the council rescinded the appointment and named Matt Perea as the next chief.
Former Fire Chief Johnny Powell had resigned from his position, leaving the council to consider a replacement. Councilman Marvon Willson attended some of the weekly firemen’s meetings in order to become familiar with the department. After conducting a survey within the department as to who the firefighters thought would be a good replacement, the council felt there was a division within the department.
“It was determined that city officials would counsel with each other over the names that were gleaned from the survey, in an executive session,” said Mayor Joan Powell in an email statement to the Sun Advocate. “During that executive session, it became a greater concern that the division could widen over the choices that were presented.”
The council decided that a neutral former firefighter may be the answer for a fresh start. However, many firefighters expressed at the meeting that they felt undermined and unsafe because Smith was not certified.
“With the number of currently certified individuals on the fire department, to me it makes no sense to go outside the fire department to pick a candidate,” said firefighter Pete Yakovich during the public comment period. “At the time that [Chief] Johnny [Powell] had left we were told, ‘Hey let’s keep everything in house.’ I think that the city has demonstrated that they’re unwilling to do that, especially by picking an outside candidate.”
More questions
Along with questions regarding the hiring process, some firefighters also expressed concerns regarding safety and leadership.
“His record in the last week has been pretty poor,” said firefighter Brett Davis. “I think he would be a great secretary. That’s kind of the role that he’s been portraying. I know that he may be good with paperwork… but where there’s so many issues and he was present at the meeting when we brought them up and he hasn’t done anything to calm them. He’s still never done anything to address the fire department as a whole.”
Hard feelings
“It makes me physically ill to say the words Wellington City Fire Department right now,” added firefighter George Anderson as he addressed the council. “We had a dang good fire department. Now we’ve got nothing. That’s the way I feel about it, we’ve got nothing. You had three people, any one of them had better qualifications, were certified and you just walked over the top of us, stomped us into the ground, set this city up for liabilities I can’t even think about.”
After hearing the concerns of the department at the meeting, the council went into executive session to discuss the information shared and decided to rescind their decision on the fire chief and appoint somebody new.
“It was decided that the choice would then be the man that was most favored from the survey that was previously taken with the Fire Department,” said Mayor Powell in the statement to the Sun Advocate. “With that said, it has been determined that Matt Perea will become the next Fire Chief for Wellington City.”
“Wellington City recognizes the value of a great fire department,” the mayor continued in the statement. “These men and women spend hours and hours in training. They take their jobs seriously. They work side by side in various situations and have a great trust in each other. Wellington City very much wants to see this continue. There was a division growing in the fire department and city officials are hoping to see that this will end with the appointment of Matt Perea.”