HAMILTON, Mont. The head of Hamilton’s Volunteer Fire Department has been fired for almost three months after his own employees wrote him an angry letter about suspected wrongdoing.
Last Friday, former Chief Brad Mohn quit after a letter came out with complaints against him that went back to at least 2022.
There was a vote of no confidence from the Hamilton Volunteer Fire Fighter Association, which led to the exit. The association sent a letter on July 12 with accusations of wrongdoing.
On July 23, minutes from a Hamilton Committee of the Whole showed that Mohn was on “administrative leave.”
The head of the group, Jeff Burrows, said, “When we decided to write that letter, it was just kind of the breaking point. I think everyone was just like, ‘It’s time now to put it out there.'”
More than four dozen complaints were made against the previous chief in the letter to the Hamilton City Council, the mayor, and the board of the rural fire district.
There are claims that they didn’t get the right tools, that they gave false reports of fires, and that Mohn or his car were seen at the golf course or bars when police thought he was somewhere else.
In the letter, it is also said that Mohn regularly showed up to calls and trainings drunk, and that people had worries about his personal behavior.
NBC Montana was told by several people that worries about the former chief go back a lot further than this summer.
The head of the Hamilton Rural Fire District, Bruce Suenram, told NBC Montana, “We’ve already told the mayor that we were worried about how much work the chief was doing for us.”
They called Mohn on the phone, and he agreed to talk.
“I was told I could go back to work, but I didn’t want to be around that kind of people, so I quit.” I knew that if I went back, they would make more false accusations against me.
Mohn wouldn’t say anything about the specifics of the breakup. However, after NBC Montana went to City Hall, Hamilton shared audio from a public city council meeting earlier this month that shows Mohn will get 30 weeks of pay and seven months of health insurance.
Suenram, who works for the rural fire district and gets paid half of the fire chief’s salary, said he didn’t know about the plan to leave.
Mayor Dominic Farrenkopf repeatedly refused to talk to NBC Montana about the facts of the case on camera, saying that he had promised the former chief privacy and confidentiality.
Farrenkopf talked about his prepared statement about Mohn’s leaving, which says that the review did not show that the former chief had to step down.
NBC Montana wants the city to give them the chief’s personnel files, investigation papers, and information about how much money was in the severance package.
The Freedom of Information Act was used to officially ask for this information.
What Mayor Farrenkopf said:
I’m done looking into the claims and worries that were made about Chief Mohn and how the Hamilton Fire Department works. Even though the investigation didn’t say he had to, Chief Mohn has made the hard choice to step down as Chief of the Fire Department on October 11, 2024.
This is for the department’s health and future success. Chief Mohn is leaving his job with the City after 35 years with the Department and almost 15 years as Fire Chief. He will be working with the Mayor and legal advisors to decide the terms of his departure.
Deputy Chief Woods and I will continue to work together to make sure that the Fire Department has the smoothest transfer possible. Chief Mohn has been and still is very helpful in making sure that the City and Rural Districts’ fire protection service doesn’t go down.
I’d like to thank him for his work on this, as well as the work of the Assistant Chiefs and volunteer firemen who keep serving the people of our city and rural areas.
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