ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Last August, we reported that St. Petersburg Fire Chief Jim Large was suspended amid multiple complaints from employees.
“I have placed Chief Large on paid administrative leave,” Mayor Ken Welch said in a video news release at that time.
“It’s the politics of the firefighters union”
That action was based on negative comments left on an anonymous employee survey, which Large said had few control measures.
“It was an email link,” Large said. “I could have sent you the link.”
Large believes those critical responses were part of an orchestrated effort to get rid of him.
“It's the politics of the firefighters union,” Large said. “You could see the consistent language if you will, vocabulary and stuff in some of the comments.”
The chief was cleared of wrongdoing by an investigation, returned weeks later and retired in March.
In his first interview since leaving the job, Large told the I-Team he believes he was targeted because of a years-long disagreement involving the firefighters union and the city council over how to best keep city residents safe.
Highly rated department
When St. Petersburg firefighters and paramedics respond to a fire, crash or medical emergency, they represent one of the highest-rated departments in the United States.
During Chief Jim Large’s 18-year tenure, the department was one of 259 departments out of 47,000 to be accredited.
It’s also among less than one percent to receive a “Class 1” or “Superior” insurance rating from the Insurance Services Office.
But Large said his department can do better.
“Right now, the citizens of St. Pete are not getting the service they deserve,” Large said.
Large said he wanted to implement a system called “priority dispatch," but politics got in the way.
Priority dispatch sends Sunstar ambulances to two additional categories of calls, including falls and minor illnesses. Sunstar calls are billed to the user.
Currently, paramedics paid with your tax dollars are sent to those calls.
“Say you’re having a heart attack right now in St. Pete. And the closest unit is tied up on one of those low priority calls that it didn’t have to go on,” Large said.
Union opposes priority dispatch
The Pinellas County EMS Authority, which funds 18 fire and rescue departments, encouraged universal adoption of priority dispatch to free up resources for critical calls.
In 2019, we reported how crews were called 90 times in a single year to help a resident using a wheelchair get up the stairs.
In St. Petersburg, two rescue units could respond to that type of call.
But St. Petersburg’s firefighters union opposed changing the system, saying it could trigger longer waits for help and some calls could turn out to be more serious than dispatchers thought.
“I think that there’s room for error," Pinellas County Firefighters Association President Richard Pauley said in a 2019 interview. “We definitely feel that people could fall through the cracks.”
“More membership. That's what it’s about. They don’t want to do everything to reduce call volume. They want to add trucks and people. Because it’s more dues,” Large said.
City council member Brandi Gabbard, who posted on Facebook that she was endorsed by the union, spoke out against priority dispatch at an August 2019 council meeting.
“I just believe when a St. Pete resident calls 911, they expect to see a St. Pete firefighter show up. So I have great concern about the slippery slope I'm worried that we’re on,” Gabbard said.
“I'm trying to protect the citizens of this city and do the right thing. I don’t need this council dictating to us what the fire department does and doesn’t do operationally,” Large said at the meeting.
System would eliminate 4,000 calls a year
Five Pinellas County departments, including Clearwater and Largo, have switched to priority dispatch.
Large said eliminated responses by St. Petersburg Fire and Rescue to the two types of minor calls would reduce St. Petersburg’s responses by 4,000 a year.
“The other call you can get, quite honestly, is the person who had the heart attack,” Large said at the 2019 meeting. “And we couldn’t respond because we were on one of these other two calls.”
“It was a time for a change”
Large said Mayor Ken Welch asked him to retire early after he returned from his suspension.
He filed a complaint against council member Gabbard and the union vice president, who he alleges created a hostile work environment.
We contacted the mayor and council member Gabbard. She did not respond.
Mayor Welch sent the following statement in response to our request:
“During our conversations, former Fire Chief Jim Large shared that after 50 years of service to the City of St. Petersburg, he planned to retire in 2024. I honored this major milestone of his career while also making a decision in the best interest of the organization. Although his actual retirement date was a few months earlier than he preferred, it was my determination that it was time for a change in leadership.”
Union President Richard Pauley responded, “no comment."
When we requested the investigation report, the city sent us Large’s complaint and no other documents.
Large said he’s worried the next chief could face similar challenges.
“The cancer that’s in the organization that I love, that I gave 50 years of my life to, is still there. And it’s still there because of politics,” Large said.
