The City of Odessa was forced Monday to reveal more details about an Odessa Fire Rescue investigation after the Texas Attorney General’s Office sided with the Odessa American in a battle over public records.
Back in January, the city of Odessa hired the law firm of Davidson Sheen to investigate an incident in which several OFR cadets sustained blisters during a training exercise. The OA requested emails, texts, witness statements and other documents after former OFR Chief John Alvarez said an investigation had already been conducted and disciplinary actions taken.
The city’s legal staff asked for the AG’s opinion, arguing some of the documents weren’t subject to the Texas Public Information Act. They also said the documents could not be disclosed because the investigation was closed and no one was convicted of a crime or given deferred adjudication. However, they also argued the records can’t be disclosed because the city has reopened the investigation.
In addition, the city also said the records shouldn’t be disclosed because “litigation resulting from the incident is reasonably anticipated.”
On March 29, the AG’s Office sent the city and the OA a letter notifying both the documents were subject to the TPIA, the city had not established litigation was reasonably anticipated and had not proven the documents were related to any pending criminal investigation or prosecution.
On Monday morning, the city released a series of emails and attachments between Alvarez, Human Resource Director Charles Hurst and then Senior Assistant City Attorney Jan Baker regarding the investigation and the disciplinary action taken. Hurst indicated he concurred with the actions taken.
The documents confirm what sources told the OA in January: Alvarez himself sparked the investigation after noticing cadets with bandaged hands and discovering they’d received blisters during a physical training exercise. They further confirm now-retired Training Chief Marty Moya was suspended for five days without pay and Training Captain Kris Norred received a written reprimand.
According to the documents, 21 people were interviewed during the investigation by three now-retired OFR staff members: Assistants Chief Saul Ortega, Joey White and Rodd Huber.
The investigation revealed most of the cadets felt the training exercise that resulted in the blisters was punishment meted out because they didn’t volunteer for extra duty when asked by Norred, documents show. Most of them complained about Norred’s management style and said they believed the Central B-Shift had unfairly decided they weren’t as hard-working or as good as previous candidates. Most of them also said they’d been hazed at times by a few personnel on that shift.
According to the documents, Moya denied using the PT to punish the cadets and expressed remorse for the injuries and the language used during a lecture.
“In my findings I do not think Chief Moya intentionally injured any cadets. He was, however, negligent as a supervisor for his actions that led to the injuries. Chief Moya was also out of line with some of the language used and tone used to lecture the cadets for what he considered lack of motivation,” Ortega wrote in his report.
Norred told the investigators he didn’t think anything was wrong with what had taken place and he likes to be hard on cadets because everyone else is too easy on them, Ortega said. Norred said he thought the cadets needed more hard structure.
Ortega wrote in his findings he believed the cadet program needed to be restructured. He also said several other things needed to be addressed – the fact the cadets were injured, the “attitude and mistreatment of cadets on a regular basis” by Norred, the fact Moya and Norred failed to report the injuries and the inappropriate language used by Norred and Moya with the cadets.
“In my findings I think Captain Norred has a problem with abuse of authority. He does not have a good understanding of how to relate to employees. Captain Norred has a strict and overbearing management style that does not align with the current workforce and it is hindering his ability to work with the cadets. Captain Norred’s managing style is not working and needs to be changed. He is creating a difficult environment for newer cadets and other employees,” Ortega wrote.
Ortega also indicated Captain Austin Yocham was negligent for not stopping his crew from making inappropriate comments to the cadets and he should have known OFR does not use PT as a punishment.
Yocham was ordered to appear at a pre-disciplinary hearing in September, but the city did not release any documents reflecting punishment had been meted out.
Davidson Sheen’s second investigation is ongoing.
According to records obtained under the TPIA, the law firm charges $195-$375 an hour. Up through Feb. 24, the firm had billed the city just under $39,000 for this second investigation.
