Pomona Starts Search for New Fire Chief : Personnel: The embattled former chief becomes a ‘fire safety officer’ and will receive more than $160,000 in salary and benefits.

City officials say it could take four months to find a new fire chief to replace Tom Fee, who has resigned in a deal that will net him more than $160,000 in salary and benefits over the next 14 months.

Fee on Saturday agreed to step down after a group of dissident firefighters complained to the City Council about his management style and alleged favoritism. Fee, 48, is a 27-year veteran of the department and was appointed chief in 1988.

Under an agreement reached with the City Council, Fee will be reassigned as a “fire safety officer” and will receive the same benefits and salary--$89,932 a year--as when he was chief. Fee’s accrued sick days, executive leave and vacation time--totaling 1,950 hours--will make up much of the 14 months. Based on an eight-hour day, the accrued leave time equals about eight months. Fee will retire with maximum benefits on his 50th birthday in October, 1991.

As a fire safety officer, Fee will be a consultant to the new fire chief. But unless his input is requested, he is barred from any professional contact with department employees, the agreement stipulates.

“It just comes down to, ‘OK, we’ll help you out on this and let you stay on staff’ ” until you retire, City Finance Director Elray Konkle said.

Fee did not return several phone calls made to his office and paging service.

The move to dismiss Fee began last week when disgruntled firefighters gave the City Council a petition signed by 76 of the department’s 119 firefighters, asking for his ouster. They also reportedly wrote a letter outlining specific complaints against Fee. Had he not resigned, the letter was to have been made public by the firefighters, Mayor Donna Smith said.

The firefighters who organized the action would not confirm that.

About 40 firefighters on hand at Saturday’s emergency meeting of the City Council cheered when the resignation was unanimously accepted.

Then the council voted 3 to 1 to approve terms of the contract settlement.

Smith cast the lone vote against the settlement. She said the arrangement is unfair to other city employees who were let go without similar compromises.

“I am just emphatically against the way the agreement was struck,” Smith said. “If we were to treat Mr. Fee in the same manner we had other employees . . . we could have been looking at somewhere around $75,000 (to settle.)”

Instead, Fee’s buyout will cost Pomona about $164,000, Smith said. Konkle confirmed the figure.

Councilwoman Nell Soto said the financial settlement was just compensation for a man unfairly ousted from his job.

Despite her vote to approve the settlement, Soto said she fears that the council has set a bad precedent for future management-employee conflicts.

“What if staff comes up and asks for the resignation of (another) administrator? Are we going to acquiesce to the demands of staff?” she asked.

Smith and others said Fee’s release was appropriate in light of the complaints against him. Councilman Tomas Ursua said that because of the widespread sentiment against Fee in the Fire Department, the city was forced to act.

It was “something that we absolutely had to do,” Ursua said. “We really couldn’t allow the status quo.”

But Smith, Ursua, City Administrator Julio Fuentes and members of the Fireman’s Assn. refused to specify complaints against Fee.

“We have agreed to keep that confidential,” Fuentes said. Under terms of the settlement, city officials may not “defame” Fee.

Fee’s resignation is seen by some as a logical follow-up to the June recall of City Councilman C. L. (Clay) Bryant. Bryant, ousted by a vote of 8,519 to 4,158, was targeted because of what recall organizers saw as his abrasive manner and disrespect for co-workers. Bryant was viewed as a council ally of Fee’s.

“I believe that this is (part of) the healing process started with the recall,” Smith said.

For six months last year, Fee served in the dual role of fire chief and city administrator. While in the latter role, he carried out a City Council decision to fire the police chief. Relations between the Police and Fire departments have been strained since.

Until Lloyd Wood was sworn in as Pomona’s police chief Monday, that department was without a permanent chief for nine months.

Fuentes said it should not take that long to replace Fee.

A recruitment process will begin shortly, Fuentes said, adding that he hopes a replacement will be found within three or four months.

Until a full-time replacement can be found, Fuentes said, the Fire Department will be run by two division managers, one for administration and one for daily operations.