Darryl Reed, who has served as volunteer chief of the Mapaville Fire Protection District for nearly 33 years, has been fired, and an interim fire chief has been named.
The district’s board of directors voted May 21 to “terminate the relationship between MPFD and Fire Chief Darryl Reed, effective immediately,” and to hire Andrew Brown, a former volunteer captain with Mapaville Fire, as interim chief.
Board chair Ron Beckett and members Sherri Hensley and Mike Lawhorn voted yes to fire Reed, while board secretary Annette Acre and member Marvin Boehme abstained from the vote.
Then, the board voted 4-0 to hire Brown, with Acre abstaining.
The current chief job pays no salary, although the chief may receive some pay (typically about $2,000 per year) for going on fire calls and participating in training, according to district records.
“It is unfortunate and sad, what has been going on here,” Beckett said May 23, referring to ongoing controversy that has pitted Reed and several firefighters against the board and other staff. “But, in order to move forward in a positive way, the board had to make this decision. I wish we could have resolved this without all this conflict, I really do.”
Reed, 70, said he is still in the dark about exactly why he was ousted.
“I’ve never gotten a reason why I was fired. In 33 years, I’ve never had a complaint about my performance,” he said. “I’ve been talking about retiring for several years now; that’s no secret. If they had just come to me and said, ‘It’s time to retire,’ I would have been happy to sit down and talk with them, work with them on finding a new chief.”
Reed said he suspects personal conflicts with board members had a lot to do with his firing.
“There is too much personal stuff being brought into what should be strictly business,” he said.
The district plans to hire a full-time, paid fire chief. Acre said there have been at least four applicants, with a June 1 deadline to submit applications.
Brown, 61, said he does not plan to seek the full-time chief position.
He has more than 34 years of fire service experience. In addition to his time as a volunteer captain with Mapaville, he worked for the Ladue Fire Department as an assistant chief, until retiring.
Getting a handle on things
Six firefighters have left the district in recent days: volunteer Capt. Brad Hartman; full-time paid firefighter Chris Bargetski; part-time paid firefighters Brandon Hartman, Jeremy Byers and Wendy Cauley; and volunteer firefighter Kyle Byers. Several volunteers and cadets have left as well, although Brown said those numbers don’t affect the district’s firefighting capacity.
“Cadets don’t have operational function because they’re under age,” he said. “And some of the volunteers don’t have the accreditation or certification the fulltime guys do, so they’re limited on what they can do.”
Before the defections, the district had three full-time and 15 part-time paid firefighters and about 15 volunteers, as well as cadets.
“But the district is in good shape as far as staffing is concerned,” Brown said. “We have a pretty good pool of firefighters who remain, and I’ve had six people from other districts approach me about coming to work here part time.”
Reed said some firefighters told him they left Mapaville out of loyalty to him.
“It’s nice to have that kind of support,” he said. “But I told them, ‘If you feel like you need to stay, you stay.’ Those firefighters are my family.”
Brown said the first order of business is simply getting organized.
“We have been scrambling to update the list of who’s active and who’s not, and to get an application process set up,” he said. “As soon as I get an application packet together, we’ll get them going.There’s been interest from a lot of people in coming here – or ones who used to be here in coming back – now that we have a more positive atmosphere.”
Brown said he has spoken to all the crews about their needs.
“They’re putting together what you might call a ‘wish list’ of things they’d like to see,” he said. “I am looking forward to meeting with them, seeing what they come up with, and how much of it is possible, both financially and technically.”
Brown said he helped with a similar leadership transition at Ladue Fire while he was there.
“I’ve got two goals (at Mapaville Fire),” he said. “The first is to get this train back on track, and then to get back to being retired.”
Healing wounds
How quickly the Mapaville district can heal from the shakeup will depend in part on the outcome of a lawsuit and a recall petition.
Reed filed a lawsuit in the Jefferson County Circuit Court against the district and its board of directors alleging “purposeful, calculated and malicious” violations of the Sunshine Law and asking the court to order penalties of up to $1,000 for each knowing violation and up to $5,000 for each purposeful violation.
A recall petition was filed in March with the Jefferson County Clerk’s office, seeking an election aimed at removing Annette Acre from the board.
Former Mapaville firefighter Cauley, who submitted the petition, said more than 400 of the required 505 signatures have been collected for the petition, and she hopes to have the rest soon.
If enough valid signatures are collected and the petition is certified, an election would be held later this year to fill Acre’s seat, with the district picking up the cost of holding the election. If the court case goes in Reed’s favor, the district would pay the penalties as well as legal costs associated with the case.
Reed said he is proud of what he accomplished for the district over his three-decade career.
“I worked to get a tax issue passed so we could build a new building,” he said.
“We got new trucks, new rescue tools, a breathing air compressor. We have paid cash for a lot of the equipment we have, and I made sure we have money in the bank to use in case we blow a pump or something, as well as for future maintenance. I’ve always tried to be fair to everybody. I have made mistakes, but I’m very proud of everything I’ve done.
“But let me be clear: It’s been the people who are the backbone of this district. I couldn’t give the firefighters here enough credit. It takes a group effort.”
Brown said he is looking forward to putting the drama behind him.
“My job is to work out ways we can move forward as a professional fire district,” he said. “The bottom line is to be able to protect the homes and families in this district.”
Also at the May 21 meeting, the board voted to adopt its first-ever set of bylaws, appoint Acre as the district’s custodian of records and name Adam Cook to be the district chaplain.
Mapaville Fire covers a 22-square mile area in central Jefferson County, including about 3,000 residents in the Pevely, Hillsboro and Festus areas.