Former Fulton County Fire Chief Defends His Record

MeReasons cited by the Woodinville Fire & Rescue firefighters union for the recent vote of echo similar complaints of the chief’s management style that seem to have dogged his career since his first job as a fire chief in Fulton County, Ga., and later Renton.

Daniels defends his track record, stating he met the goals clearly set out by his superiors in Fulton, Renton and Woodinville.

After 19 years as an assistant fire chief in Seattle, Daniels in 2001 became fire chief of the Fulton County Fire & Rescue Department, which services unincorporated areas near Atlanta. Almost immediately, firefighters there complained about what they considered Daniels’ heavy-handed management style, according to Wayne Hines, president of International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 3920.

“We tried to get him fired out here for the degrading, demeaning way he treated firefighters,” Hines said. “When we tried to talk to him about problems we had with the changes he was making, he’d say, ‘I’m the fire chief, I’ll do what I want.’ That’s not a way to manage a department.”

Hines claims Daniels’ mismanagement of department resources included spending $100,000 for a software program to train fire officers that was rarely used and today is broken and shelved. Hines said Daniels’ lack of people skills contributed to local cities choosing to create municipal fire departments rather than contract with the county for service.

“He basically cost us those contracts and as a result, we’ve ended up closing four fire stations,” Hines said.

Daniels left Fulton County to become fire chief in Renton in 2006. His clashes with firefighters there led to the IAFF censuring Daniels at its national convention in August 2010, after Daniels was already chief in Woodinville.

“The Renton firefighters had already begun the process when Daniels took the job in Woodinville,” said Ricky Walsh, vice president of IAFF’s 7th District, which includes most of the Western states.

Renton firefighters’ complaints were nearly identical to Fulton County firefighters: mismanaging department funds, creating discord and reducing the number of fire engines, which the union said resulted in longer response times.

Daniels explains that at each job he made decisions based on what was needed at those fire departments.

“What the three departments share in common is that significant changes in each community required significant change in the way each department was managed,” he wrote in an email exchange with Patch. “The County Manager in Fulton, the City Manager in Renton and the Board in Woodinville all set clear objectives for me in addressing how those changes were to be made. I met those change objectives in Fulton and Renton, and am meeting those objectives now in Woodinville.”

Daniels added that change can be difficult and uncomfortable for people. And that many of the changes he made at fire departments he’s managed were necessary because of needed budget reductions.

“It’s important to take a balanced view of the changes experienced by the Fulton County, City of Renton and Woodinville fire departments,” Daniels wrote. 

He suggested anyone who talks to the city manager in Renton or the current Fulton County Fire Chief—who was a deputy chief under Daniels—would get a very different perspective on Daniels job performance than the one given by the firefighter unions.

When asked if he would resign as a result of the vote of no confidence from Woodinville firefighters, Daniels said no.

“I don’t intend to quit just because things are challenging,” he wrote. I intend to work even harder.”