Immokalee Fire Chief Fired
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Published on Friday, 21 November 2008 03:05
The Immokalee Fire Control Board fired its chief of 12 years, Ray Alvarez, at its November monthly meeting Thursday night. Mr. Alvarez, who many at the public meeting said expected the move, was on vacation and was not in attendance. (The board, pictured above, from left: commissioners Lee, Brown, Olesky and Mathews)
The board appointed Fire Marshall Leo Rodger, a 27-year veteran of the department, as its interim chief and formed an advisory committee of three area residents to help initiate the search for a premanent head of the department.
The board also voted to accept the resignation of its vice-chair, Ophelia Dimis, who had sent a letter of resignation earlier in the month. The three residents who will be assisting with the search for a new chief had all expressed interest in filling the vacancy on the board. They are Dennis Longley, of Ave Maria, Dick Rice, the executive director of the Immokalee Chamber of Commerce, and Theresa Aviles, an Immokalee resident.
The meeting of the fire control board was held in Ave Maria to give town residents a chance to participate. There was a brief discussion about the requirements for lowering the fire protection class, which would lower insurance premiums in the town. The key requirement would be to have four firefighters able to respond within five minutes. Currently, there are two firefighters at the interim sub-station in Ave Maria and response by other firefighters is about 12 minutes.
The vote to terminate the chief, effective immediately but with pay until the end of November, came at the end of the meeting. The motion was made by commissioner Joe Mathews who said he had made previous motions before that were defeated. The vote was 3-1, with commissioners Albert Lee, Pam Brown and Mr. Mathews voting in favor and commissioner Ski Olesky voting against. Mr. Oleski said he was "appalled" that the action would be taken without the chief being there and complained of the meeting's "chief bashing all night long."
There were many remarks made during the meeting about the chief's management practices by members of the board and by firefighters who attended the meeting, as well as complaints about what firefighters said was the chief's lack of concern for poor living conditions in one of the fire stations.
Many members of the public who attended also expected the chief's resignation. One, Mark Primmer of Fort Myers, a former Immokalee firefighter, came to the meeting expressly to put his name into consideration as the next chief. Mr. Rogers also said he wanted to be considered for permanent appointment to the job.
The firefighters in Immokalee have been at odds with the chief on a number of issues over the years and took an active role in supporting candidates for the board who they thought would be more sympathetic to their views. The chief's fate apparently was sealed when Pam Brown won election to the board.
click here for story from Naples Daily News
