Frankfort City Councilman Brandt Fuller recently submitted a letter to the editor for Clinton County Daily News:
I was recently made aware that after a decade of service John Kirby has been terminated from his position as Frankfort’s Fire Chief. As a city councilman, I was shocked to learn this information from the street and not from the Mayor Sheets Administration directly.
I was also informed that this decision was communicated to Chief Kirby behind closed doors in a meeting which was attended by Mayor Sheets and Board of Works member Meghan Sheets. No executive session was scheduled or announced to the public, in spite of the fact that a quorum of the Board of Public Works and Safety met privately with Chief Kirby to communicate this decision. I view this as suspect. What other decisions are being made behind closed doors with quorums of public officials present?
Furthermore, I ask the Sheets administration to clearly communicate and articulate the reasoning behind this sudden and dramatic change of leadership at the Frankfort Fire Department. After a decade of service as Chief, and for the sake of transparency, both the community at large and John Kirby deserve this.
I thank Chief Kirby for his tireless efforts to advance the city. His list of accomplishments include but are not limited to: the creation of the Safer Seniors Program, raising Fire Department salaries to competitive levels in order to retain top tier talent, modernizing Fire Department infrastructure, creating the Fire Cadet Program, dramatically lowering the city’s fire safety rating which saves all homeowners on insurance costs and a nation leading effort with the American Red Cross to install fire detectors in hundreds of homes across Frankfort. I salute him for these incredible efforts.
I will always fight for the people of Frankfort. I will always demand accountability and transparency of those we elect. This is why I ran for city council and I will continue to stand up for you.
City Councilman Brandt Fuller