Fire board to hold hearing tonight
Suspended Reidland-Farley Fire Chief Richard Tapp should learn tonight if he’ll be fired.
Trustees of the Reidland-Farley Fire Protection District will hold an Administrative hearing at 7 at the Reidland fire station. Tapp is facing administrative charges of inefficiency and violating terms of his employment contract because he is unwilling or unable to work because of an unspecified illness.
David Kelly, attorney for the fire district, said he doesn’t know if Tapp will attend the hearing to present a defense and try to keep his job.
“Neither Mr. Tapp nor anyone on his behalf has contacted me or anyone else since the charges were filed” on April 30, Kelly said. Trustee Chairman David Humphrey said he hasn’t heard from Tapp since November.
The hearing will be held in private unless Tapp requests that it be open to the press and public, Kelly said. The Open Meetings Law allows personnel proceedings to be held in private, Kelly said.
After the closed hearing, trustees will vote in public to either drop the charges, fire Tapp or impose some other punishment.
He was suspended in December without pay for failing to show up for work for nearly a month and failing to contact trustees about his status.
An administrative hearing, required under law, was delayed after a relative reported that he was suffering from an unspecified illness and he was granted a 90-day unpaid leave under the federal Medical Leave Act.
Tapp, in his last interview with the Sun in November, said he was suffering from stress after questions were raised about his management of the fire district.
Tapp has been living in Tennessee since at least December, and his home in Reidland is for sale. He was hired as the only paid chief of a McCracken volunteer fire department in August 2002. At the time of his suspension, his salary was about $60,000, according to fire district records. |
