The Wisconsin State Journal
FITCHBURG, Wis. — Randall Pickering, the Fitchburg fire chief at the center of a controversy over a department slush fund, has resigned.
Pickering, 59, chief since 2002, said in his Dec. 15 resignation letter he is moving to a house outside the city limits and will no longer be eligible to serve on the department.
Pickering’s contract requires a 30-day notification, so his last day will be Jan. 15, he said.
The letter does not mention the slush fund but pressure had been building on Pickering to resign. In August, the leader of the firefighters union called for his resignation, and Mayor Shawn Pfaff publicly voiced strong disappointment with Pickering’s actions.
Tuesday, Pfaff said that he was planning to call for Pickering’s resignation this week, and that Pickering may have gotten wind of his intentions.
Asked in an interview Tuesday whether his resignation was connected to the slush fund controversy, Pickering said only that he has been building his house for more than a year. “I have to believe that for political motivations, some people are going to want to spin (my resignation) a certain way,” he said.
The slush fund came to light in July when the Dane County Sheriff’s Office released findings from a 15-month probe. Investigators determined the fund was unauthorized by senior city officials but found no criminal wrongdoing because firefighters did not benefit personally from the money.
The money came from the sale of used fire equipment to other fire departments and to Fitchburg firefighters. The profits, sent to the special fund instead of the city budget, were then used to buy new items for the fire department. About $25,000 passed through the fund over nine years, according to the city.
For several months, Pfaff has led a city investigation of the fund’s operation for violations of city policy, and the fallout from that continues.
Pfaff said he asked three of the five members of the Fitchburg Police and Fire Commission to resign or face possible ouster by the City Council. He notified them on Friday and gave them until 10 a.m. Tuesday to resign. None did.
The three — chairman Thomas Shellander and members Tom Marquardt and Cora Higginbotham — were on the commission in 2011 when Pickering used $321 from the off-the-books fund to buy jackets for the five Police and Fire Commission members. He also spent money from a separate city fund to buy them shirts. The two other current members were not on the commission at the time.
Pfaff has maintained the three commission members became ethically compromised when they accepted the clothing and now cannot be relied on to rule with impartiality on fire department matters. Pfaff filed a petition with the City Council on Tuesday containing his allegations against the three. A hearing will be held before the City Council.
In an interview, Shellander said he did nothing wrong. Commission members had asked the city for jackets with city logos on them so they could wear them to public events where they represented the commission, he said. They had no idea the money was coming from an unauthorized fund, he said.
Shellander said it wasn’t just Pickering who secured the jackets. “The mayor, city administrator’s office, police chief and fire chief all collaborated to get the jackets,” he said.
Shellander said he gave his jacket back. He thinks Pfaff’s motivation is political.
“It can’t be the acceptance of jackets,” he said. “What Shawn is trying to do is pack the (commission) with his cronies to achieve some political end. I’m not sure what it is, but he wants us out of there.”
Shellander speculated Pfaff wants to change fire service in Fitchburg in a dramatic way and wanted Pickering and the commission members out of the way to do that.
“The mayor, I think, has been in secret talks with the city of Madison to merge departments or to have Madison take over fire service in Fitchburg,” Shellander said.
Pfaff called that “utter nonsense,” saying Shellander’s comments prove he has “become a rogue advocate for the fire department.” Commission members are to hire, fire and discipline, not advocate for a department, he said.
In a press release jointly released Tuesday by the three commission members, Higginbotham said Pfaff created “a political disaster” for himself. “I am confident that he will not serve another term,” she said.
Marquardt said the mayor “should be held accountable for this type of political maneuvering.”
As for Pickering’s resignation, Shellander said it’s “a doggone shame.”
“He built one of the finest fire departments in the state,” he said.
Pickering, in his resignation letter to the commission, said the department is recognized across the country as a highly effective model of combining volunteer and full-time firefighters.
“Having the opportunity to serve your local community as fire chief is a very special honor, and one I will hold in my heart with cherished memories,” he wrote.
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