\nSpecial to the Lehigh Acres \u00a0Gazette
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Don-Adams-e1329229828992.jpg\" "\\"Don")
<\/a>Steps that could lead to a formal call for the termination without cause of the Lehigh Acres fire chief were taken Wednesday night by the district\u2019s commission.<\/p>\n
Chief Don Adams is the target of accusations by resident Cathy Kruse, who said she reviewed the chief\u2019s emails and Internet use records. Kruse requested the examined items through a public records request. It appears he is doing personal business while at work, Kruse said. For the record, Kruse has registered to run for Fire Board Seat #1 in the upcoming November election.<\/p>\n
A question also was raised whether the chief was visiting inappropriate sites.\u00a0 The district\u2019s Internet policy allows firefighters wide use of its computers as long as they don\u2019t visit such sites.<\/p>\n
The chief denied abusing the department\u2019s resources, that he was doing personal work on the district\u2019s time, and visiting inappropriate sites.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a man of faith. I know there are several people who would like to see me fall. They have a vendetta against me,\u201d Chief Adams said.<\/p>\n
Commissioners asked Kruse to submit a formal complaint with her backup information, which she said she would do.<\/p>\n
The questions pushed back the commission\u2019s plan to review the chief\u2019s job performance Wednesday. That was tabled until the formal complaint and backup material are considered.<\/p>\n
One commissioner has to make a sworn, written statement to start the termination process, said Richard Pringle, the district\u2019s attorney.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll look at the evidence and then decide what to do. We don\u2019t have any evidence to move forward,\u201d Commissioner David Adams said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t do anything with hearsay on something this critical,\u201d added Commissioner Linda Carter.<\/p>\n
Chief Adams told the board that he uses the department\u2019s Internet to check emails and other information from Columbia Southern University in Alabama, where he teaches a long distance course on organizational leadership. But he said he makes those checks when he\u2019s on lunch time or other personal time and does not grade papers while working.<\/p>\n
The commission also decided that it wants the company providing Internet services to the district to review all Internet use in the department. The goal is to see if popups leading to inappropriate sites also show up on computers used by firefighters and others. Chief Adams said his computer history shows such popups, but explained that they pop up on his computer when he leaves it on and unattended sometimes for hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not as if I was surfing the Internet,\u201d Chief Adams said. \u201cI put in every hour deserved by this organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kruse asked for the public records a year ago and is just bringing them out now for whatever reason, the chief said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took me six months and several hundred dollars to get the information,\u201d Kruse said.<\/p>\n
Kruse is running for a commission seat this year, but said she began questioning the department\u2019s leadership about four years ago, when layoffs were predicted and several top officers began leaving one by one. Two family members were threatened by the layoff possibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaxpayers aren\u2019t getting the leadership they\u2019ve been paying for,\u201d Kruse said. \u201cWe\u2019re headed downhill and have been for a while,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Larry Becker agreed more information is needed before the board decides its next step. But he gave the chief his own vote of confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe what you are saying. A man of your faith would not visit these sites,\u201d Becker said.<\/p>\n
In other business, the board did approve the $6,716,874 SAFER\u00a0grant, Staffing For Adequate Fire and Emergency Response from\u00a0FEMA<\/p>\n
By Don Ruane Special to the Lehigh Acres \u00a0Gazette Steps that could lead to a formal call for the termination without cause of the Lehigh Acres fire chief were taken… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,57],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10061"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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