By Leslie Dixon
Sun Journal
OXFORD, Maine — The Fire/Rescue Department say they have no chief.
“He needs to resign. As of last night we have no fire chief,” Lt. Mark Blaquiere told the Sun Journal Tuesday morning.
Fire Chief Wayne Jones was handed a two-page “Letter of No Confidence” from the Oxford Fire/Rescue Department at its monthly meeting Monday night requesting his resignation as of Dec. 5.
On Tuesday, Blaquiere said officers and others in the department will refuse to take any further orders from Jones.
The chief has been unavailable for comment.
Interim Town Manager Rebecca Lippincott, who was appointed last week to fill the vacancy created by the unexpected resignation of Town Manager Derik Goodine last month, had no comment on the issue. She was at the monthly department meeting Monday night to introduce herself as the new interim town manager and was also handed a copy of the letter, said Blaquiere.
According to the letter, dated Dec. 5, the officers and members of the Fire/Rescue Department have no confidence in the ability of Jones to lead the department. Blaquiere declined to say how many members supported the letter.
“Since your arrival, you have demonstrated a lack of local knowledge and demonstrated poor communication skills with the officers and members of this department,” the letter states. “Chief Jones you have failed to demonstrate the ability to work within a call company department.”
Blaquiere said there are 30 members of the department and, though no formal vote was taken, the feeling has been shared since the chief was hired in June of 2015, moving to the Oxford department from Westbrook, where he served as deputy chief and was a longtime firefighter.
He still resides in Westbrook, according to Blaquiere.
According to Bill St. Michel, the current fire chief in Durham and two-time past president of the Maine Fire Chiefs’ Association, there is no protocol to handle a situation in which officers and department members refuse to recognize a chief’s authority.
He’s not aware of any similar situation ever happening in Maine.
The situation, he said, “could be very awkward in an emergency situation” because state law establishes that the fire chief is ultimately responsible for every fire scene. And employment law sets authority of the chief and of the department’s operation with the city manager.
“I would assume, and I would definitely hope, that everyone would act in the best interest of the citizens involved in an emergency situation,” St. Michel said, despite their differences over leadership.
Members of the department must work together when responding to an emergency, and best “address the issues after that,” he said.
“Ultimately, the responsibility to take action — corrective action or protective action — would lie with the manager or the selectmen because the chief is an employee of the town,” St. Michel said.
“It really sounds to me like the situation between the officers and the chief is not going to be resolved, so municipal leadership needs to take action and resolve it before it escalates any further than it has” in the interest of public safety, he said.
On Tuesday, Scott Owens, chairman of the Oxford Board of Selectmen, said he was unaware of the specifics of the situation.
“We’ll have to get involved as we get our facts. We can’t allow this to go on,” he said.
Owens said the town manager — not selectmen — has the ability to fire members of the department.
This is the second attempt in a year to remove the fire chief.
Members of the Oxford Fire Department issued another “letter of no confidence” signed by seven department officers that was given to Jones last January. That letter cited a lack of local knowledge, poor communication and accused him of putting the firefighters in danger because he takes too long to make decisions.
It was written after firefighters expressed concern that their former chief — Scott Hunter, who is now a selectman — was not hired by then-Town Manager Michael Chammings. Instead, Chammings hired Jones.
According to Blaquiere, the January letter was hand delivered to each selectman’s mailbox, but when asked by the Advertiser Democrat about the letter at the time, none of the selectmen said they received it. No action was ever taken on that letter.
Blaquiere said one of the major issues is that there is no communication between the chief and others in the department. On Tuesday, Blaquiere said Jones leaves memos on the memo board rather than talking to department personnel, refuses to help drive the equipment which he should do as a “working” fire chief, and refuses to address safety issues, among other things.
“We can do the job without him. He’s not our chief,” said Blaquiere.
Blaquiere said the department will be run by senior members starting with the lieutenant, captain and deputy chief.
“We are not taking orders from him anymore. We don’t care if he sits in his office,” said Blaquiere.
Copyright 2016 the Sun Journal