Parkman Fire Chief Responds to Ex-Staffers’ Accusations

February 27, 2020 by Diane Ryder

Parkman Fire Chief Mike Komandt said Feb. 19 negative comments about his leadership chasing away local volunteers were a “kick in the shin” by former staffers who failed to use the normal chain of command to air their complaints so they could be addressed.

“This is the first I’ve heard of anything like that,” Komandt said in a phone interview, in response to two former fire department members saying they had gone to trustees to ask them not to hire Komandt as chief.

Last week, the Geauga County Maple Leaf ran a story in which the two former members said Komandt’s leadership style was heavy handed and most of the department’s volunteers had quit, leaving the station short-handed with calls going unanswered.

The former staffers, who asked their identities be kept anonymous, said trustees had gone back on their promise to them not to hire Komandt, whose management style they described as “abrasive.”

One of the former staffers said Komandt’s desire to upgrade the department to a better trained, better equipped, professional organization forced some to leave, preferring the traditional volunteer system that has been used for decades in rural communities.

“Not everyone wants to be a career firefighter,” Staffer #2 told the Maple Leaf.

Komandt admitted he hopes to develop the department into a part-time system in which the station is staffed 24 hours per day, seven days per week, with well-trained firefighters and medical responders, using the most advanced equipment.

“Being a professional, acting in a professional manner, treating people with respect, and using professional training mean that being a firefighter or EMT is a profession, not a hobby,” Komandt said. “Everyone here takes it seriously because it’s their livelihood, their career.”

Komandt, whose father served as Parkman fire chief for decades, grew up during the era of the volunteer department, when multiple generations of a rural community lived and worked near the station and were able to drop everything and respond quickly to an emergency when the alarm sounded.

But as fire departments evolved with an increased need for medical responders, and state and federal regulations demanded more certification, training and better equipment, as fewer farmers and workers remained in the community, and as traditional volunteers aged, the need for professional personnel increased, the chief said.

“There are only two all-volunteer departments left in the county, Thompson and Newbury,” Komandt said. “All the others are staffed with at least part-timers.”

Komandt said three of the volunteers who resigned suddenly en masse were not in good standing with the department, went around the normal chain of command to talk to trustees, and did not follow the policy manual requiring two weeks’ notice of resignation.

“Two gave their notices because they no longer reside in the township,” Komandt said. “One quit, then showed interest in coming back. I said, ‘Here’s an application. Fill it out if you’re interested.’ It’s not my decision, but the trustees’.”

The chief said one of the former volunteers went around the normal chain of command and spent money without administration approval, and went directly to trustees for reimbursement, contrary to fire department policy.

Komandt admitted the department has a shortage of available personnel in the community.

“There are two of us who live in the township and man the station,” he said. “We pull our part-timers from a large area. People come here to work and they are professional, trained and fully qualified. It is working out well for us, but we need more personnel to cover the station 24/7.”

“This isn’t anything new,” Komandt said. “There is a national shortage and certainly a regional shortage, of trained, part-time firefighters and EMTs everywhere.”

The answer is upgrading the department to attract professional personnel, the chief said.

He said there are currently 14 members of the department, including three remaining volunteers, and, contrary to the charges of the former staffers, there are four officers, including one chief, two lieutenants and a captain. Komandt said he believes there is no need for an assistant chief at the present time.

“There is adequate supervision with the system we have,” he said. “We don’t need an assistant chief and to cover an assistant chief’s salary right now.”

Parkman requests mutual aid from surrounding departments when there are not enough available personnel, but Komandt said he hopes to rely on that less and less if his department expands, as he proposes.

Trustees have placed an additional 5-mill levy on the March 17 ballot to pay for a proposed addition of sleeping and living quarters to the fire station, and for the hiring and equipping of additional personnel to keep the station manned 24 hours per day.

“The levy is a need in this community,” Komandt said.

Township Trustee Roger Anderson agrees with the chief a levy is needed to provide incentives that will attract enough firefighters and medical personnel to keep the station staffed constantly.

“This will help with our response time, which could mean life or death in a fire, or when someone is having a heart attack or other life threatening situation,” said Anderson, who serves as township liaison with the fire department. “Parkman is no longer the way it was 50 years ago, with our residents working in their fields when the fire alarm went off and they could drop what they were doing and come help. There is a much smaller pool of responders who need to be young and strong to do an adequate job.”

Anderson admitted trustees knew several volunteers did not want Komandt to be named chief, partly because of his leadership style, but they hired him from a field of four applicants because he was the most qualified for the job.

“Most of the complaints were many years old,” Anderson said. “When I asked them to put names on paper and make a formal statement, all of them declined. They said they were afraid they would be blackballed. “

Anderson said some of the complainants worked only occasionally, or had problems with Komandt’s strong personality.

“Our dilemma was, do we pick a guy who has a pleasing personality, or one who has the knowledge and skills we needed,” the trustee explained. “We tried to hire someone from outside, but that didn’t work. Mike’s got the knowledge, skills, experience and credentials. We knew some of the other applicants had better leadership skills, but not the knowledge that Mike has. It’s not about the personality. It’s about who can do the job to protect the people of Parkman.”

On Feb. 24, Anderson released the following additional statement:

“In 2014, we (the trustees) knew we couldn’t provide adequate service to our residents with an all-volunteer fire department. The people we had were very dedicated and did as much as they could, but could not be available 24/7 to cover the needs of the township.

“We tried adding a stipend for each call responded to as an enticement, but were still unable to cover all calls. We started staffing in 2015 for eight hours a day to cover those hours — most commonly working hours — when volunteers were unavailable.

“We still had calls unanswered and some long response times when staffers were not on duty. We went to 12, then 15 hours seven days a week, but still have nine hours each day we have to rely on volunteer or mutual aid to cover those hours. Staffed response times are less than one minute as compared to volunteer, which can be 15 minutes. Many comments in the previous article are untrue and inaccurate.

“I feel we should cover all hours equally because we can’t predict when or what the next call will be. We also need someone who can provide fire or medical service as needed for all hours. We can’t rely on someone having the time to volunteer to respond to those needs. The levy will provide funds to cover 24/7 with a minimum of two people trained to fight a fire or take care of medical needs as they occur. You must decide if that is worth paying an additional $200 or less per year for each household; most will pay less and very few will pay anything more. Please vote.”