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Tim Carter arrived at work Friday morning, just like has on most week days since he was named Hannibal’s fire chief three years ago. But this Friday was different. On this day he was cleaning personal effects from his office.
Carter, 38 and a 17-year veteran of the Hannibal Fire Department, was placed on administrative leave Thursday evening during a special meeting of the fire board. (See Danny Henley’s accompanying story.)
The leave is effective immediately.
He blames the action on “politics.”
“If you had a spreadsheet as far as accomplishments, as far as the training hours, as far as the equipment, as far as the salaries, aas far as putting out fires, providing medical care, as far as getting people out of wrecked vehicles … this department has an ISO rating of 3, we’re in the top 1 percent of the state of Missouri. If it was just doing the job, I’d still be here. Politics and personalities are involved. And it’s like trying to herd a bunch of cats to go the same direction. It’s kinda hard to do. You have 40 individuals and each one has their opinion and each one would like to see certain things done, and if you get 5 percent to move the swarm, that’s all it takes.”
Despite his abrupt departure from day-to-day operations, he still wants the best for the department.
“The last thing I want to see is this department go down. I still don’t even have hard feelings with the guys. It’s that swarm syndrome, that 5 percent rule that controls all these young guys here. That’s a big issue you have to deal with. When I walk out of here I’ll still have my head high.”
Carter was philosophical about the behind-the-scenes events that lead the two-member fire board to come to this decision.
“I’m speaking from experience. I started off as a probationary hoseman. From the beginning you always heard, ‘Why are they doing this?’ ‘That’s wrong.’ ‘That’s stupid.’ I was guilty as anyone. For that type of gossip, it’s worse than any beauty salon there ever could be, the fire department. But that’s part of the fire department life.
“You get in this office here and you get to see the big picture. Not only what happens on the shifts, but what happens on each shift, what happens to the department, what happens at city hall and the city and the community, and there’s a big picture we’ve got to look at to make sure we’re headed in the right direction. And you try to share that with your chief officers and the shifts so that gets disseminated, but a lot of times it doesn’t really get disseminated.”
He is sad that his fire career is ending in Hannibal, but at the same time, he’s proud of his accomplishments while on the job.
“I think I did a pretty good job of that for the department. I thought we’ve done quite well over the last three years, and I hope the department continues to do well.
“I wish the next guy the best of luck, whoever it may be, I hope they’ll do a better job than I have, just like I hoped I’d do a better job than the chief previously.”
Carter does hope that the city will re-evaluate the current fire board governing system. Member Kyle Wilson is terminally ill, so Jason Janes and Barry Louderman are the only two active representatives. Carter believes that is inadequate.
Tim Carter arrived at work Friday morning, just like has on most week days since he was named Hannibal’s fire chief three years ago. But this Friday was different. On this day he was cleaning personal effects from his office.
Carter, 38 and a 17-year veteran of the Hannibal Fire Department, was placed on administrative leave Thursday evening during a special meeting of the fire board. (See Danny Henley’s accompanying story.)
The leave is effective immediately.
He blames the action on “politics.”
“If you had a spreadsheet as far as accomplishments, as far as the training hours, as far as the equipment, as far as the salaries, aas far as putting out fires, providing medical care, as far as getting people out of wrecked vehicles … this department has an ISO rating of 3, we’re in the top 1 percent of the state of Missouri. If it was just doing the job, I’d still be here. Politics and personalities are involved. And it’s like trying to herd a bunch of cats to go the same direction. It’s kinda hard to do. You have 40 individuals and each one has their opinion and each one would like to see certain things done, and if you get 5 percent to move the swarm, that’s all it takes.”
Despite his abrupt departure from day-to-day operations, he still wants the best for the department.
“The last thing I want to see is this department go down. I still don’t even have hard feelings with the guys. It’s that swarm syndrome, that 5 percent rule that controls all these young guys here. That’s a big issue you have to deal with. When I walk out of here I’ll still have my head high.”
Carter was philosophical about the behind-the-scenes events that lead the two-member fire board to come to this decision.
“I’m speaking from experience. I started off as a probationary hoseman. From the beginning you always heard, ‘Why are they doing this?’ ‘That’s wrong.’ ‘That’s stupid.’ I was guilty as anyone. For that type of gossip, it’s worse than any beauty salon there ever could be, the fire department. But that’s part of the fire department life.
“You get in this office here and you get to see the big picture. Not only what happens on the shifts, but what happens on each shift, what happens to the department, what happens at city hall and the city and the community, and there’s a big picture we’ve got to look at to make sure we’re headed in the right direction. And you try to share that with your chief officers and the shifts so that gets disseminated, but a lot of times it doesn’t really get disseminated.”
He is sad that his fire career is ending in Hannibal, but at the same time, he’s proud of his accomplishments while on the job.
“I think I did a pretty good job of that for the department. I thought we’ve done quite well over the last three years, and I hope the department continues to do well.
“I wish the next guy the best of luck, whoever it may be, I hope they’ll do a better job than I have, just like I hoped I’d do a better job than the chief previously.”
Carter does hope that the city will re-evaluate the current fire board governing system. Member Kyle Wilson is terminally ill, so Jason Janes and Barry Louderman are the only two active representatives. Carter believes that is inadequate.
“They really need to look at the board makeup. I don’t think a two-member board is appropriate, in a city this size, in a department this size. They need to look at getting some members at large from the public to sit on the board. From the beginning, that’s my downfall. I never really had the full support of the board. Jim Dexheimer supported me heavily in the beginning, until he passed away, and he kinda buffered or put interference out there for me. So if people would get to him, he’d say to me, ‘Hey chief, I’m hearing there’s concerns about this and that, you might want to think about that.’ I didn’t have any of that with this board. Which is alright. They’re new, too. They’re young. Jason Janes is younger than I am. He’s learning too, I’m sure. Barry Louderman, he’s is a good guy, too. I don’t have any hard feelings for the board. I think they’re doing an inappropriate thing here, but that’s their prerogative, I’ll abide by it and hope the best for the department and myself.”
