I was forced to resign, says former fire chief

Declaring he had “zero tolerance” for sexual harassment in his department, former Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Chief Jeff Collins said Friday he was forced to resign to further the county administrator’s political agenda.

Collins submitted his resignation last week amid accusations he hadn’t done enough to address sexual harassment complaints. He tried to take back his resignation, but county officials did not reinstate him. Michael Mackey has been named interim chief.

Collins addressed his departure during a press conference at the offices of The Berman Law Group in Boca Raton. His lawyers declined to say whether they will file a lawsuit against the county.

“My termination was used only as a pretext to further a political agenda,” Collins said. “I’ve personally terminated and disciplined several employees throughout my career because of sexual harassment. I have a zero tolerance for such reprehensible behavior.”

Collins said he was coerced and intimidated into resigning his position during a meeting with County Administrator Verdenia Baker and two other topranking county officials. He said he wasn’t given access to legal counsel nor an explanation for why he was being compelled to step down.

He declined to elaborate on exactly what Baker’s political agenda might have been.

Baker said she would not discuss the specifics of Collins’ resignation because of the potential for litigation, but she took issue with Collins’ description.

“There is no political motivation at all,” she said.

Collins submitted a resignation letter Jan. 12 and requested to be transferred to the facilities department as a fire systems manager. He was placed on leave and banned from county property until his employment ended at 5 p.m. Friday, according to county records.

Collins is an at-will employee, but his lawyer, Sarah M. Cabarcas-Osman, said she thinks the Florida Firefighters Bill of Rights affords him protections that were not followed.

“He should have been provided with a written statement or afforded an opportunity to know what complaints were being made against him,” Cabarcas-Osman said. “It is a wide array of different rights that were not given to him at all.”

Under Florida law, public employees are afforded more protections than those in the private sector, said Cathleen Scott, an attorney with the West Palm Beach firm Scott Wagner and Associates.

Public employees must be notified of grievances against them and given a chance to respond before being terminated, said Scott, who is not representing the county or Collins.

Palm Beach County Mayor Melissa McKinlay has said Baker had concerns the department “was not responding as seriously and immediately as she believed was warranted.”

The resignation came as the fire rescue department is embroiled in lawsuits over allegations that it fostered a climate of sexual harassment and racism.

Two employees, Capt. Amanda Vomero and Administration Division Chief Joey Cooper, have filed lawsuits accusing administrators of failing to protect employees from harassment.

Vomero’s lawsuit alleges that Fire Rescue Division Chief Chris Hoch taunted her in the office and made inappropriate sexual comments, saying “rumor is that” she was having sex with Cooper, who is her supervisor, and that he was “a little offended” she wouldn’t have sex with him.

Hoch said Vomero liked black men and “that’s why you want to hire all these black guys,” the suit alleges. Hoch has denied the allegations against him.

He was given a written reprimand, but a Jan. 5 anonymous letter from “the women of Palm Beach County Fire Rescue” urged the county to take more serious action.

They wrote they could provide “pages of examples that exhibit the inability of Chief Jeffrey Collins to properly perform his job,” and he should be fired.

Collins declined to address his handling of that issue on the advice of his attorneys, other than to say “there is more information out there.”

He also faces accusations in the lawsuits that he retaliated against employees who made sexual harassment complaints.

Collins joined the county’s Fire Rescue department in 1996. He was promoted to chief in 2013 and earned an annual salary of $208,669 a year.

His personnel file contains positive evaluations, and no disciplinary actions.

“I want my job back,” Collins said. “I did nothing wrong.”