Polk County, Florida – Commissioners have strong word’s regarding the leadership or perceived lack of leadership in the Polk County Fire Rescue Department at yesterdays meeting. One commissioner was prompted to say “I think we have a problem, I think we have a management problem in our fire department and Mr. Beasley that starts with you”. Years of overwhelming management complaints have taken a toll on their patience.
The Polk County Commission met for it regular meeting Tuesday morning, but it wasn’t your regular meeting. Shortly after Murphy Handly, Polk County Fire Rescue Chaplain, gave the invocation we started to realize this meeting was not going to be your typical meeting. The forth person to speak during public comments was the Tashana True, a family member to Polk County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Charlie True who was terminated last Friday, who pointed to a past perceived unjustified firing of Polk County Fire Rescue Captain Jerry Riner and the again believed unjust firing of Battalion Chief Charlie True. “They were great bosses with huge hearts. These guys had exemplary records. I’ve heard so many stories of what these men have done to help save people lives. They have given up so much to do the career they chose and for it to be taken away, for what? And who is it actually benefiting? What is the root to all of this? There are questions that we as citizens need to know.” said Tashana in her address to the commission. This immediately prompted board Chairman Bill Braswell to say we have short agenda today and I think we will get thru it quickly and then have an extensive conversation on this later on”.
The past four days have been eye opening for some and same old same old for others. On Friday January 5, Polk County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Charles True was reportedly terminated for insubordination, which is a catch all for recent high profile terminations within the department. His termination and subsequent appeal by the local IAFF3531 fire fighters union is currently in process, so commissioners could not speak directly on the matter. Commissioners did speak about their frustration over the last years. The below video is a clip of some of their comments. Bill Beasley is the Polk County Manager.
The end result was the commissioners agree to finding an organization, unbiased third entity, to review the PCFR department from top to bottom.
The entire commission meeting can be found here on Polk County Government website: HERE
We will have more on Battalion Chief Charlie True’s termination in a separate article later on today.
