MARK HAND
The News & Advance, Lynchburg, Va.
(TNS)
The city of Lynchburg on Tuesday released the results of a study that examined ways for the fire department to improve its culture and hiring processes, a 104-page document that will likely serve as a guide for the city's new fire chief, who is scheduled to start on July 1 .
Raftelis, a consulting firm, was commissioned to conduct the assessment as the city sought to fill vacancies in the top leadership positions of the fire department and improve recruitment of firefighters and paramedics. According to the city, the study cost $189,500.
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Jonathan Ingram , a vice president at Raftelis, wrote in a letter to City Manager Wynter Benda that accompanied the report that these leadership vacancies, along with “legal matters and a period of heightened public scrutiny,†created “the urgency and the opportunity for an honest, independent look at the department's culture, processes, and personnel systems.â€
Lynchburg and its fire department faced unfavorable publicity last November when a video purportedly showing a Lynchburg firefighter and an audio recording purportedly of another city firefighter went viral on social media. In both the video and the audio recording, the firefighters used racist language. The audio recording also included the firefighter threatening the life of a woman.
Soon after the release of these recordings on social media, Fire Chief Gregory Wormser was placed on administrative leave. Last December, the city announced that Wormser, who had worked for the fire department for 30 years and as chief for seven years, had retired.
Lynchburg then began searching for a new fire chief. On Monday, after completing its search, the city announced that Brad Creasy , with more than 30 years of experience in fire and emergency services, had been selected as the new chief.
Ingram was joined by Raftelis Senior Advisor Tom DeMint to present the findings to city council at its work session meeting on Tuesday. DeMint, a former fire chief in Colorado , has worked with Raftelis for five years.
A survey was sent out to the 200-plus employees of the LFD in February, asking questions about the department's climate and culture. The survey had a 77% response rate, which the Raftelis officials said was extremely high.
Raftelis officials also met with as many LFD personnel as they could at the city's eight fire stations. The consulting firm held 31 sessions in March, during which personnel were invited to give honest assessments of the fire department.
The report provided a list of recommendations that Raftelis believes can serve as a practical work plan for both city leadership and the new fire chief.
At the work session, DeMint told council members that only 42% of survey respondents said they trusted leadership in the upper levels of the fire department. Only 38% of survey respondents said they believe communication within the LFD was effective. Raftelis also found perceptions of unfair and inconsistent discipline across the department's ranks.
Empowered firefighters, visionary leaders and a shared mission define high-performing departments
Given the behavior of certain fire department employees and the community's perception of racism inside the LFD, Raftelis concluded the fire department could be doing a better job of recruiting a more diverse workforce. In a city with a 26% Black population, LFD's workforce is only 7% Black, according to the study.
“That gap will not close through the current passive recruitment model,†the study said. “It requires intentional, sustained outreach to communities the department does not currently reach, and it requires a department environment that retains diverse employees once hired.â€
Raftelis recommended creating a new command-level civilian human resources manager. This position would function as a strategic partner to the fire chief, augment city human resources capacity rather than replace it, and bring consistent expertise in fire service personnel management to the department's day-to-day operations, according to the study.
The new position would have an estimated annual cost of about $102,000, based on the City's General Employee pay structure at grade.
Raftelis also recommended creating a second new full-time position in the fire department: a training coordinator at the lieutenant or captain level, with an annual salary of $80,000 and annual benefits totaling $28,000.
Benda said the city will ask city council to amend the FY’27 budget to fill these two new positions, rather than wait until the FY'28 budget.
The city manager pointed to the comments from Raftelis officials about how critical these new positions are to the fire department's success. Filling these positions in FY'27 also will help Creasy succeed in his new job as fire chief, Benda said.
Chain of command
The report pointed to fire personnel's complaints about the involvement of certain city council members in departmental matters as an issue that creates “accountability gaps within the department.â€
As a city that operates under a council/manager form of government, all government functions and operational authority for the fire department run through the city manager, not directly through elected officials, the report noted.
“When elected officials engage directly with department personnel on operational or personnel matters, it creates ambiguity in the chain of command, undermines the city manager's authority, and provides employees and others with an alternative channel to seek favorable responses to issues that should be resolved within established processes,†the report said.
Vice Mayor and Ward III Councilman Curt Diemer took issue with this finding, saying it is his right to meet with fire department personnel.
Diemer said he came to the first meeting held by Raftelis at the invitation of fire department personnel. But Raftelis intentionally did not invite members of city council to the meeting so that fire department personnel could speak honestly without fear of retribution. Diemer said he was asked to leave but chose to stay in the room.
Benda said he is not putting any restrictions on members of city council speaking with fire department personnel. As for why Raftelis did not want Diemer or any other elected official at the meeting, Benda said it was “the chilling effect it has on their [LFD personnel] ability to feel like they can communicate freely and openly.â€
In response to Diemer's comments, Ingram emphasized that it is fundamentally important to understand that, in a “paramilitary organization†such as a fire department, personnel act as employees, not constituents.
“It is not the purview of an individual firefighter to invite anyone to a meeting that is ultimately led by the department,†Ingram said.
Members of city council should not meddle in the day-to-day responsibilities of the fire department that flow through the fire chief and the city manager, he said.
In their concluding remarks, the Raftelis officials said the recommendations in the report cannot be implemented overnight. They will take at least five years to implement and include multiple budget cycles.
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