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After 45 years as a volunteer fireman, Pete Sullivan was dismissed last fall by the new paid chief in King George. |
By CATHY DYSON
After 46 years as a volunteer--and being named firefighter of the year 14 times--Pete Sullivan was kicked out of King George Fire and Rescue on charges that he stole a drill and loaned an oxygen meter to a resident.
He was dismissed by Fire and Rescue Chief David Moody in October. The action came a month to the day after the Board of Supervisors put volunteers and paid emergency-services workers under one organization and gave Moody control over them all.
Sullivan appealed the decision to County Administrator Travis Quesenberry, who said he found no reason to overturn Moody's ruling.
Neither Moody nor Quesenberry would comment because it's a personnel issue.
Yet three separate groups that investigated the charges against Sullivan--including King George County Sheriff Moose Dobson--reached the conclusion that the charges were unfounded.
The sheriff looked into the case at Moody's request and said there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute. He discussed his findings with Commonwealth's Attorney Matt Britton.
"He agreed that we just didn't have a criminal case," said Dobson. "I had no proof that anything had been stolen to start with, or that Pete Sullivan had stolen it or accidentally picked up the wrong [drill]."
The incident has rocked the volunteer membership and removed from service a man who in 2006 ran two of every three calls in King George.
"My character was destroyed, my name was smeared, and my years of service to King George County were rendered as a waste of time," Sullivan wrote in his appeal. "My life as I knew it was destroyed."
GET RID OF THE LEADER?
Sullivan, 63, coordinated the county's emergency services for a decade--for free--before he became the volunteer fire chief.
He also helped set up the Fairview Beach fire station. He developed emergency-response plans when the county became home to a massive tire dump in 1978 and added the Birchwood power plant in 1996.
Sullivan and his supporters, in King George and beyond, believe Moody wants to get rid of volunteers and have an all-paid staff.
Moody said that wasn't the case.
"Volunteers save our county taxpayers millions of dollars in labor costs each year, so we recognize the importance of our volunteers," he wrote in an e-mail, "but we also ensure that all staff, both volunteer and paid, follow the department's rules."
Volunteers claim Moody targeted Sullivan because of his standing among members.
"If you want to get rid of a group of people, who do you get rid of first? Their leader," said Ronald "Sparky" Ridgely, chief of the Colonial Beach Volunteer Rescue Squad and a friend of Sullivan.
Ridgely spent 32 years in labor relations for a utility company. He's often called by businesses and fire and rescue departments for advice on personnel disputes.
He said he has never seen a case like this one.
"There's just nothing there," said Ridgely, who also serves on the Colonial Beach Town Council. "For the love of God, I do not understand it. I don't think that anybody who knows the facts does."
A CONSOLIDATED FORCE
As localities shift from all-volunteer organizations to a combination of volunteer and paid workers, disagreements are typical.
Stafford County had clashes in 2005, when it consolidated 14 organizations under a paid chief.
A 2001 King George study recommended the same approach. The county started drafting an ordinance in April 2008.
Opinions were split from the start. Moody, operating on a directive from supervisors, aimed to apply the same standards and accountability to everyone.
Volunteers didn't want to turn over equipment they'd raised money to pay for or lose their autonomy as individual organizations with their own elected officers.
Harry Wehr, whose fire experience includes 26 years in New York City, told the supervisors at a public hearing last year that the consolidation would create a dictatorship. He said it also would destroy the volunteer fire service by making members nothing more than free labor.
"Those are the points I made, and every one of them came true," Wehr said.
He quit as a volunteer when Moody told him he'd have to take a test to see if he qualified to be a safety officer, a position he'd held for more than two years in King George.
"I was told my 50 years in fire services didn't count. Well, if you can't respect my experience, I don't need you," Wehr said he told Moody.
King George has fire and rescue stations at the courthouse, Fairview Beach and Dahlgren. It has 21 full-time paid emergency-services workers and 12 part-timers, Moody said.
It also has 62 active volunteers, Moody said.
"We could not conduct our mission without them," he added.
MISSING EQUIPMENT
The charges against Sullivan pertain to two pieces of equipment: a screwdriver/drill and a meter that measures oxygen in the blood.
Sullivan, a contractor, said he owns several drills like a DeWalt model the fire department had. He kept a drill in Command 1, a truck issued to him.
He used it to put up house numbers for residents or to do work around the station.
Meanwhile, a drill was missing from a fire engine. Moody checked the serial number on the drill in Command 1 and discovered it belonged to the department.
When Moody called Sullivan in on Oct. 16, 2008, it was the first time the drill was mentioned. Sullivan gave The Free Lance-Star a recording of their discussion.
"It's my gut reaction that this was stolen," Moody said about the drill.
Sullivan said he must have mixed up one his drills with the fire department's. Then he asked Moody whether, if he had stolen it, he would be stupid enough to keep it in a county-issued vehicle.
Eight times during the 29-minute meeting, Moody referred to numerous pieces of equipment missing from fire stations. He called Sullivan "the main ringleader" behind the missing items.
But the only specific items he mentioned were the drill and an oxygen meter.
While on a call in spring 2008, Sullivan loaned a pulse oximeter--a device that fits on a fingertip--to a woman having trouble breathing. She refused to go to the hospital, so he left the meter and told her to check her oxygen level. If it dropped to a certain level, she would need to call an ambulance.
Sullivan agreed with Moody that he shouldn't have done that. Moody pointed out the problems that could arise from leaving medical equipment with an untrained person.
Plus, Moody said, the woman prepared Sullivan's taxes for years.
"One could argue and say, 'That's a you rub my back, I'll rub yours,'" Moody said. "You understand the perception of that?"
Moody also said he'd heard from many people that Sullivan liked to cause trouble. Moody was trying to unify members while Sullivan was going to stations "and talking to troops," Moody said.
"The last thing we need right now is a whole lot of controversial stuff trash-talking, stirring the pot, stirring crap," Moody said. "We just don't need that."
'TOTALLY FABRICATED'
Two groups of firefighters, along with the sheriff, looked into the charges against Sullivan.
Wehr, the former New York fireman, conducted a hearing at the request of King George Fire and Rescue President Jason Hollowell.
Wehr's three-member committee interviewed several fire and rescue members and concluded the charges were "totally fabricated."
Hollowell called together the board of directors, and the group made the same ruling.
In a Nov. 3, 2008, letter, Hollowell apologized to Sullivan and recommended that his suspension be lifted.
In the midst of the controversy, fellow volunteers voted Sullivan firefighter of the year for 2008--after he'd been dismissed. They held the banquet at the Citizens Center because Sullivan was banned from all fire department property.
When Moody dismissed Sullivan, he told him he was doing him a favor by not pressing criminal charges. But, he added, all he had to do was call the sheriff's office and say, "We want to press charges to the fullest," Moody said during the recorded meeting.
The sheriff's office knew all about Sullivan, Moody said, and would issue a search warrant.
Dobson said that wasn't the case.
"The only information we gave to Moody was that we don't have a criminal case to prosecute," Dobson said.
FUTURE FOR VOLUNTEERS?
Moody told Sullivan he could appeal his decision to his supervisor, the county administrator.
Sullivan did.
"This matter was fully and fairly handled through the [county's] personnel process," Moody said.
Sullivan and his supporters take issue with that process. Sullivan and Quesenberry had a brief meeting in January, then Sullivan got Quesenberry's letter in early July--more than eight months after his dismissal.
"The Supreme Court doesn't take that long to render a decision," said Ridgely, the Colonial Beach chief.
On July 7, Sullivan, his sister and Wehr spoke during the public comment portion of the supervisors meeting.
Supervisor Cedell Brooks Jr. was the only one who acknowledged Sullivan, and he thanked him for coming before them.
Brooks also said he wanted to look into the claim that at least 23 volunteers have left King George because of problems with Moody.
So did Supervisor James Mullen.
On July 21, Brooks asked for an update, but didn't get a direct answer from staff.
"For some reason, whenever I bring up this fire thing, we don't want to talk about it," Brooks said.
Chairman Joe Grzeika gruffly ended the conversation, saying the board will address the matter publicly at its meeting Tuesday.
Moody is putting together a report, along with David Sawdy, current president of the volunteers.
Sullivan hopes there's a future for volunteers in King George County, and that he'll be allowed to go out on fire calls again. He has also asked for a public apology from Moody, a letter clearing his name from the supervisors and "a reasonable monetary contribution" to cover damages to his reputation.
"That doesn't seem like a hell of a lot to ask," Sullivan said.
Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425
Email: cdyson@freelancestar.com
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Pete Sullivan estimates he and his family have given more than 400 years of service to King George Fire and Rescue.
His father, William, is 93 Pete's wife, Judy, was an emergency services technician for 25 years. Both of their sons, Billy and Kevin, were volunteer firemen, along with Ellen's daughter, Janet. Pete's father-in-law, Mack Frye, was the first fire chief |
King George County has 62 active volunteers, according to Fire and Rescue Chief David Moody. He said nine new members are going through orientation. Pete Sullivan, the former volunteer chief Moody dismissed, and his supporters claim that at least 23 volunteers have left King George because of Moody.
Gil James Jr., former fire chief at Fairview Beach, said 14 members have left the station because of Moody.
Six confirmed their reasons for leaving in e–mails to The Free Lance–Star: James, Mike Dobson, Kourtney Guinn, Chuck and Jon Stover and Billy Sullivan, Pete Sullivan’s son.
Billy Sullivan was removed from duties by Moody after his father was dismissed. The Sullivans said Billy, the No. 3 officer at the station, was told he wasn’t taking care of the building.
“We had a good active membership at that station, we got out on every one of our calls and we were like a big family,” said Jon Stover.
Then Moody “started coming down to the beach, snooping and trying to stir up any kind of trouble he could,” Stover said.
Once, about 10 volunteers were hanging out at the firehouse after chores and equipment checks, Stover said. They played games as they waited for calls.
Stover said Moody charged Billy Sullivan with having an “unauthorized video game party.”
Two other former volunteers, Harry Wehr and Wayland Carter, described a contentious atmosphere in buildings that used to feel like a second home. That’s why Carter left King George for Port Royal.
“I feel like this is a place where I don’t have to watch my back every five seconds,” Carter said.
The Port Royal Volunteer Fire Department has picked up four volunteers from King George, said President J.P. Wilkerson. The Caroline County station regularly gets King George volunteers who live closer to Port Royal.
The Colonial Beach Volunteer Rescue Squad has given eight applications to former King George volunteers, said Chief Ronald “Sparky” Ridgely. He expects to pick up six to eight new members.
Billy Sullivan and Kourtney Guinn joined Newburg Rescue Squad and Fire Department in Charles County, Md.
Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425
cdyson@freelancestar.com
