Mo. Fire District Fires Four High-Ranking Officers

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Nov. 22--CHESTERFIELD -- The Monarch Fire Protection District fired four high-ranking officials over the weekend with little explanation.

The district's three-member Board of Directors held a closed meeting on Saturday. On Monday, board members had little to say about what happened and why, but word began filtering out about the decision.

The district has scheduled a meeting at 7:30 p.m. tonight at its headquarters, 13725 Olive Boulevard, in Chesterfield, to publicly announce the vote results.

A group called Monarch Concerned Taxpayers released a statement Monday identifying the terminated employees as Assistant Chief Les Crews, Deputy Chief Cary Spiegel and battalion chiefs Fred Goodson and Mike Davis.

Reached on Monday, Spiegel responded, "I don't know," when asked why he'd been fired. He declined to comment further. The three other employees could not be reached.

Though the district would not discuss the personnel moves in detail on Monday, it did release a statement saying the district had a "no tolerance" policy against discrimination.

Last week, the district lost an appeal in a discrimination case that awarded $200,000 each to two former female employees. The women claimed they had been subjected to a hostile work environment.

The board president, Kim Evans, declined to say whether the court case played a role in the terminations.

"This is a very sensitive issue," she said.

Another board member, Robin Harris, an airline pilot, did not attend the meeting Saturday because he was traveling. But Harris listened in by phone. He, too, declined to confirm who was fired, but he said he was upset that two of the employees were escorted from district headquarters in Chesterfield by police.

"The two officers have exemplary records," Harris said. "They have never expressed any hostile, aggressive or angry behavior. To have them escorted off the property by police seems excessive and demeaning to me."

Rick Gans, a former board member and current spokesman for Monarch Concerned Taxpayers, said the fired employees were often at odds with the district's powerful firefighters union. The union has supported the two directors -- Evans and Steven Swyers -- who were at the meeting Saturday.

Rick Barry, the union's attorney, said the union had no influence on the decision.

"The board's decision arose out of management rights," he said.

Gans said the firings left the district with almost no leadership. The chief, Clifford "Chip" Biele, is retiring Nov. 30. The district has spent more than $30,000 searching for a replacement but has yet to name one.

Harris said the board could make an announcement about a new chief as early as next week.