Dalton Fire Chief Suspended, Under Investigation

Chief Christian Tobin countered with a thick packet of documents alleging "unlawful departmental practices." 

The claims came during a contentious Board of Water Commissioners meeting on Thursday morning that lasted about 20 minutes. 

The board voted unanimously to place Tobin on four weeks of paid administrative leave.

Tobin, hired in January, had sent an email to the board saying he'd be gone by the end of the year several weeks prior to the meeting, according to board Chair James Driscoll This would make him the fourth fire chief to depart in just over year. 

Driscoll said the board will make a decision about the chief following a four-week investigation into Tobin's conduct. 

During the meeting, Select Board member Marc Strout recommended that the investigation be done by an outside firm. 

Driscoll said this recommendation was noted but no further action was taken on this recommendation during the meeting. 

At the start of the meeting, the district's attorney, Elisabeth Goodman, from Cain Hibbard and Meyers, asked the chief if he would be willing to reach an accord with the board about when he would be willing to leave and what it would take for him to leave voluntarily sooner.

In response, Tobin said he was just at the meeting to listen as this is the first he is hearing of these allegations and did not have anything to comment on. 

Tobin, who did not speak otherwise, accuses the district of illegal wages and hour practices, unlawful public meetings, improper safety practices and employee medical and respiratory protection, the misuse of district credit card funds, falsification of records for personal or others' benefit, and among other allegations.

"I suspect that the true purpose of this meeting is to create an atmosphere of intimidation and hostility and to damage my reputation through libelous and slanderous accusations. This has had a profound personal and professional impact to me," Tobin provided in a statement.

He claims that over the past few months he has worked "tirelessly to rectify unlawful departmental practices" that pose "serious legal, liability, and public concerns that could significantly impact" the district's operations. 

Whenever Tobin would raise these concerns through various, he claimed that he faced "increasing intimidation" that culminated in this public meeting. 

According to Tobin's statement, he has contacted the Office of the Inspector General, the Attorney General, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and other agencies "to address and correct these wrongdoings."

The board says it is investigating claims of harassment from three women who say they have been yelled at and sexually harassed, the hiring of ambulance personnel who are not qualified emergency medical technicians, employee complaints about conduct toward them and grant overspending.

In addition, Driscoll claims that Tobin has some unfulfilled employment agreements.

"I interviewed several employees of the department and I know three women who have been harassed, intimidated, yelled at and have raised issues with the commissioners," Goodman said.

"And furthermore, there are women who have said you talk in a sexual manner about your body parts and this is sexual harassment and the board is required to address those issues." 

There is a letter dated July 23 signed by many members of the department raising concerns about Tobin's conduct towards them, she said. 

Commissioner Michael Kubicki said when he asked the chief whether he was aware of any morale issues, Tobin told him that he was not going to talk anymore, had things to do, "slammed his door" and left for the day. 

"I'm also aware that you made the choice to hire people who were working on the ambulance who were not certified as [emergency medical technicians] and they are riding on the ambulance without certification at cost to the taxpayers of the district and also putting at risk the license for the ambulance services," Goodman said. 

More than 20 attendees including officers, firefighters, and town officials, showed up to the meeting, some of whom expressed their support for the chief. 

Resident Donald Davis said he has spoken to staff here and everybody he has spoken to said positive things about Tobin. 

"I've only been involved for a very, very short time with you guys and the Fire Department and chief. Since I've lived here for 25 years, the Dalton Fire District has been a very great group of people and moving forward with it. The fire chief, I've known him for a very short time but he seems very, very knowledgeable and I believe he's got a lot of integrity," Davis said. 

"And I think that there is probably a lot of other issues that probably will be brought up moving forward but I've never heard anybody speak irrational or harsh about this fire chief. Maybe he's is little aggressive moving forward, type of a personality some people have, but I had no problems with the former chief or the chief before him."

Thomas Irwin, who has been working with the chief investigating future options for the fire station said he has not had any negative interactions with the chief. 

Resident Todd Logan said he was confused with the long list of accusations against Tobin because there is a clear process in how to address these issues but it seems odd that these allegations are being consolidated into one meeting. 

"They weren't brought up as they came in because a lot of the people that had made those accusations feel that there will be will be retaliation against anybody that speaks out. And this is not the first time this district is having to deal with this chemistry," Driscoll 

"So there have been no really good inner communications between the Board of Water Commissioners and fire chief's office. So at that point, we decided that because everything was being done through email now that we need to have this sit down, and we needed to mediate the issue." 

After the meeting, he said the accusations from Tobin were more comments and information, some of which predated Tobin and most of which fell under his purview. "The commissioners do not run day-to-day operations or personnel information," he said. 

The meeting had been posted this week with an unusual agenda item: to discuss complaints against the chief.

Ordinarily, meetings to discuss "complaints" against an individual are held during executive sessions, and the individual's name is not included in the agenda. 

By the request of Tobin, however, the meeting was held as an open session. Tobin said in his document that this request was initially denied by Driscoll but that he insisted. Driscoll said the accusations have come in over the past couple months and that complainants were told to bring them "up the chain of command" but that didn't happen.

"Reading through this, it seems like just prior to me being terminated from that same position as the current chief, it seems like an awful lot of the same things that happened under the cover of darkness from the commissioners and the department," said James Peltier, who was fired last year. "You come up with certain things or people come to you with nameless accusations and then it's actually thrown upon you and you have no time to react."

The Fire District welcomed Tobin to the department in January following an approximately nine-month search. The search stemmed from the firing of one chief, the retirement of another, and the departure of a third. More information here. 

Tobin has nearly 25 years experience in the field and had recently retired as a deputy chief of operations for the Greater Naples Fire Rescue District in the state of Florida. He is also a veteran of the Marine Corps. He received his Massachusetts accreditation in July through the state Fire Service Commission.

During his short time in Dalton, he's championed transparency in the department's workings, started monthly community meetings and pushed for upgrading or expanding the Fire Department's facilities.

Letter: Is the Select Board Listening to Dalton Voters?