Discipline comes after fire chief accepted suspension on related matters

By Erin McClary
C & G Staff Writer

MACOMB TOWNSHIP — After weeks of deliberation, the Macomb Township Board of Trustees voted unanimously to suspend one of the Fire Department’s most admired sergeants amid charges that he failed to comply with the township’s travel expense policy in attending a national training conference this past spring.

According to the investigative report, obtained from the township via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the matter could have been a misunderstanding.

The investigation involved interviews with Macomb Township Fire Chief Robert Phillips, former Macomb Township Supervisor John Brennan, Sgt. Dwayne Thompson, Lt. Gary Ross and union representative Fire Capt. Dave Myny.

After emerging from executive session Oct. 28, the Board of Trustees voted to suspend Thompson for three days, unpaid, effective immediately. According to the FOIA documents, the board questioned Thompson’s requested meal reimbursement of $232.30 and his use of time off for a National Fire Academy training program.

The report indicates that Thompson did not use personal vacation days or acquired time-off to attend the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officers training program, which took place June 7-19; nor did the board ever grant proper approval for him to attend the conference.

The training program is paid for by the federal government and would give Thompson similar certification to that of a fire chief, said Thompson’s friend, Pastor D. L. Bradley, president of the Macomb County Ministerial Alliance.

Both Thompson and Phillips declined comment on the matter.

“In regards to the sergeant in question … based upon the investigation, the charges and the response to the charges, we would move to have that sergeant suspended for three days ... unpaid,” said Macomb Township Clerk Michael Koehs on behalf of the board Oct. 28.

Another firefighter, Lt. Gary Ross, was issued a verbal warning from the board on similar charges.

Prior to the recent motions, Phillips had also been issued a five-day suspension for his role in authorizing Thompson and Ross to attend the conference and then signing their expense reports.

The FOIA’d report said that during a documented interview between Township Attorney Larry Dloski and Phillips, Thompson and Ross indicated they relied on approval from Phillips to attend the training, assuming he’d obtained approval from the board to allow them to go.

Prior to this year, Thompson, the state’s National Fire Corps advocate, had attended two of the four training programs required to obtain the desired certification. This year’s program was his third.

“I would hope Lt. Ross or anyone else (firefighters) would not be disciplined,” said Phillips in the FOIA’d investigation report. “As chief, it is my responsibility.”

In the interview, the chief explained that because the National Fire Academy training expenses cost the township under $1,000, it was assumed board approval was not necessary.

“If anyone should be disciplined, it should be myself,” Phillips said in the interview.

The bottom line, the report indicates, is that the “chain of command” in authorizing the firefighters to attend the conference did not make it to the top, which is the Board of Trustees, in seeking approval.

At an Oct. 14 Board of Trustees meeting, Bradley suggested the board may be discriminating against Thompson, who is black, in their approach to disciplining him.

 “What’s happening is unbelievable with regards to Sgt. Thompson,” Bradley said, “that he’s being reprimanded because he sought, as he was allowed to do in the previous two years, to actually enhance the content of his character by bettering his promotional opportunities by taking advantage of a program that’s paid for by the federal government.”

Macomb Township Supervisor Mark Grabow could not be reached for comment about the discrimination accusations or the board’s decision to suspend.

Bradley went on to say that he’s not unfamiliar with instances of reverse discrimination, either. He referenced the controversial charges brought against Larry Nevers, husband of Macomb Township Trustee Nancy Nevers, in the 1992 death of Malice Green. Bradley said he feels that was an example of reverse discrimination in Detroit.

 Larry Nevers was one of two white Detroit police officers who initiated a traffic stop and arrested Green in November 1992. Green died in his jail cell after being struck repeatedly with a police baton during the stop, and both officers were later convicted in his death.

Bradley went on to say that if he were the governor at the time of Green’s death, he “would take steps to ensure that all the charges that were brought against him were dropped.

“Discrimination is wrong wherever it is it takes place,” he concluded.

Nancy Nevers, who’s in her second term as trustee for Macomb Township, was touched by Bradley’s address and thanked him for this compassion.

“I know that my husband will be very heartened by what you said in your kind remarks, and I thank you,” she said through tears Oct. 14.

You can reach Staff Writer Erin McClary at emcclary@candgnews.com or at (586) 279-1118.