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Decatur Personnel Board meets for demoted firefighter’s appeal hearing

Decatur Fire employee Kevin Jackson’s appeal hearing revealed disputes over the severity of his demotion and interpretation of events.

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The Decatur Personnel Board held a public disciplinary appeal hearing on Wednesday for Kevin Jackson, a Decatur Fire & Rescue employee of 20 years who was demoted in June from lieutenant to firefighter. 

Last week, the hearing was moved into an executive session behind closed doors due to possibly embarrassing or difficult content in testimonies from lower-ranked firefighters employed within the city.

Jackson was double demoted after the city’s compliance hotline received a tip that he had made a crass comment in front of witnesses and other personnel at the scene of a critical care call in November of 2023. 

After the alleged comment, Jackson’s unit left the scene to assist at what they believed to be a structural fire at a nearby apartment complex. Patrick Jackson, acting incident commander at the scene, said in his testimony that of the four units dispatched to the fire, only one was manned by a lieutenant and the other three were headed by driving engineers.

Though a verbal conversation was never shared, Patrick Jackson said that he and Jackson had a mutual understanding that it was best that his unit head to the structural fire. He also testified that he never heard Jackson make the comment for which he was demoted. 

Some of the questions from legal representation and the personnel board discussed the length of time that firefighters are supposed to stay at the scene of a critical care call and how many units are required. Still, testimonies presented different understandings of the policy. 

Decatur Fire and Rescue Chief Tracy Thornton stated that it was a policy at the time of the incident that two units be present at critical care calls for 20 minutes to ensure that thorough care is administered. Patrick Jackson said he believed it was more of a goal for the department.

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Thornton testified that Kevin Jackson’s unit stayed on the scene for five to six minutes and Patrick Jackson said it was at least twice as long. 

In a letter to Jackson following an investigation. Mayor Tab Bowling detailed reasons for his demotion. Among them, he included not only the comment allegedly made on the scene, but also a generally negative demeanor which hurt morale and inappropriate use of social media.

Jackson had received positive performance reviews from his supervisors, but during his testimony, Thornton spoke about how the methodology behind these performance reviews needed finetuning. Bowling said that despite these performance reviews and a possible reworking of the methodology behind them, he still believed the double demotion was called for.

Thornton emphasized that the trust was broken between Jackson and the Fire and Rescue Department but that with time and rebuilding of relationships, Jackson could work his way up to a position of leadership again.

Mary Claire is a reporter at APR.

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