DAYTONA BEACH — Andre Chaney gave nearly 26 years of his life to the Daytona Beach Fire Department, steadily climbing the ranks to battalion chief two years ago.
The 51-year-old always thought he would put in at least 30 years as a firefighter, and then figure out what to do next.
He never thought his career would end the way it did April 23, with a final notice from Fire Chief Dru Driscoll that he was being fired effective April 27.
Chaney was accused of missing a mandatory meeting March 5 and lying about why he didn’t attend the gathering of command staff.
Chaney feels like fire department leadership pounced on the missed meeting as an opportunity to oust him, and he believes the real reason he was axed is because he provided information to the city’s internal auditor a few months ago.
Beginning last fall, allegations of improper relationships among a few staff members at the Daytona Beach Fire Department and alleged abuse of city purchasing cards by the department’s higher-ups were relayed to Internal City Auditor Abinet Belachew. The auditor’s March 27 report concluded that the fire department used the purchase cards to spend more than $50,000 on food and $500,000 on vehicle maintenance from 2021 to 2025.
Since February, state government auditors have been taking an in-depth look at the city’s use of purchasing cards in several different departments as well as other city financial matters, and now the state Attorney General’s office is also asking questions.
Months ago, Daytona Beach City Manager Deric Feacher sent a memo to all of his employees asking them to cooperate with Belachew if he contacted them. Chaney said when Belachew reached out to him he answered the auditor’s questions and provided information, and now he feels like it cost him his career.
Subpoenas issued to Daytona fire chief and deputy chief
Driscoll received a subpoena April 17 ordering him to appear before Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Richard Mantei April 29 in an Attorney General office on Seabreeze Boulevard in Daytona Beach to provide a sworn statement.
The subpoena issued under the authority of the Circuit Court also asked Driscoll to bring with him the binder of documents he referenced when he spoke at the April 1 City Commission meeting and said there were mistakes in Belachew’s fire department audit report, and any other records he has disputing that auditor report.
Daytona Beach Fire Department Deputy Chief Jessica Matthews also was issued a subpoena April 17 commanding her to appear April 29 in the same Attorney General office before Mantei 90 minutes after Driscoll is slated to provide a sworn statement.
Over the years, Chaney saw things in the fire department that bothered him. A few years ago he filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging he was unfairly passed over to be considered for a promotion to battalion chief.
He said he never formally complained to the city’s human resources department because he was afraid he would face retaliation and derail his career.
When Belachew contacted Chaney at the beginning of the year, he thought that would be a safe way to share his concerns.
Chaney talked to Belachew under the protection of whistleblower status, but somehow his name slipped out and he feels like his complaints are the real reason he was fired.
An email Feacher sent to city commissioners April 25 about Chaney’s termination noted that “no one part of the investigation was made aware BC Chaney had even had conversations with the city auditor or any other entity at the onset of this investigation.”
The missed meeting that ended a career
City records indicate Chaney was fired for missing a mandatory command staff meeting March 5 and lying about the reason he said he couldn’t be there.
The city has detailed documentation of its assertion that Chaney manufactured an excuse to miss the 8:30 a.m. March 5 meeting, and allegedly continued to lie during an investigation. Fire department officials interviewed firefighters who saw Chaney March 5 and asked if he said anything about needing to take his son to the doctor that day, and when he arranged to work at the fire academy on March 5.
Chaney said firefighters can request to be excused from mandatory meetings as long as they seek that approval ahead of time. Chaney said he did that, first texting a deputy chief the night of March 4, and then sending an email to two deputy chiefs before 8 a.m. on March 5.
Deputy Chief Chris Hughes responded “Okay” to Chaney’s March 4 text message, and told Chaney to follow up with an email to him and one other deputy chief, Matthews.
Chaney said he never got a response to his email, but he figured Hughes’ OK on the text message was acknowledgement that he would be absent March 5. Hughes later told fire department officials that his okay was an acknowledgement of the request, but not an approval. Chaney never did get a formal approval to miss the meeting.
Chaney told the deputy chiefs he had to take his son to the doctor, but the morning of the appointment he said he found out at the last minute that his son’s mother could meet him at the doctor’s office. He said he took his son to the appointment, and then went to the Tiger Bay Training Center for firefighters where he works about 16 hours a week as an adjunct fire instructor.
The city’s 114-page report includes timestamped screen grabs from video camera footage of Chaney leaving Daytona Beach’s Fire Station 7 at 7:53 a.m. on March 5, arriving at the Tiger Bay Training Center at 8:08 a.m. that morning, and not leaving until 4:45 p.m. City officials maintain Cheney wouldn’t have had time to go to the doctor in Port Orange and get to the training center in the 15-minute timeframe the video recordings show.
The also argue that if Chaney could get to the training center by 8:08 a.m., he could have gotten to the mandatory meeting by 8:30 a.m.
They said the camera footage of Chaney leaving Station 7 shows him driving west onto LPGA Boulevard and west onto U.S. 92. Also, no one at Station 7 saw his son in the car that morning.
The city report also includes a form Chaney signed in 2021 saying his position as a fire instructor would not interfere with his ability to do his job as a firefighter.
But in an interview with The News-Journal April 24, Chaney said he figured he had approval to take the day off, so he decided to go to the fire academy.
The afternoon of March 5, Chaney said he saw three Daytona Beach deputy fire chiefs at the fire academy and said hello without hesitation since he felt like he was there under an excused absence from his job at Fire Station No. 7.
Was Daytona firefighter punished for talking to city auditor?
Chaney said he “was leery” about giving Belachew some documents because he knows there are cameras at city properties, including at the auditor’s off-site office. And he knows the city’s information technology department has access to recordings from those cameras.
“First I had someone drop documents to him (Belachew), but then I thought ‘right is right, wrong is wrong,’ so I delivered documents in his box,” Chaney said.
He said he also dropped off information for other people who wanted to remain fully anonymous.
He suspects the recordings around Belachew’s office were being monitored by top city staff to see who was talking to the internal auditor. Once he was captured on camera, he feels like that was Driscoll’s cue to find a reason to fire him.
Driscoll did not return a call seeking comment, and an offer via email for the city manager or city spokeswoman to comment was also declined.
When Chaney was written up March 6 for not being truthful about the March 5 absence, he never thought that would be grounds for termination. He said he never had any serious writeups, and had just had a good evaluation.
An examination of Chaney’s disciplinary record back to 2001 does show multiple infractions, but most appear to be relatively minor and all resulted in written reprimands or warnings.
In 2001, he was written up for being tardy to assigned outside detail, and being absent once for outside detail.
In 2015, he was given a written reprimand for having five unscheduled personal leave days in a 12-month period. He was written up for doing something similar in 2017.
In 2016 he was reprimanded again for failing to report to an outside detail, which caused the rescue unit to be taken out of service for coverage.
In January this year, he was written up for wearing “a non-department issued sweatshirt” while attending a training class at a neighboring fire department. When asked to remove the sweatshirt, he questioned the request and said he was cold.
For the current accusations of lying and missing a meeting, Chaney said a more typical punishment would be getting written up and receiving a warning, suspension or demotion.
Chaney participated in a taped interview with Hughes, and he was shown all the information the city had at that point. Chaney was then placed on administrative leave with pay.
‘This was retaliation without a shadow of a doubt’
On April 17, the same day Driscoll and Matthews received their subpoenas from the state attorney general’s office, Chaney was given a written notice of intent to terminate his employment with the fire department.
Chaney was given an opportunity to respond to the termination decision by April 21, but he declined.
“If you’re giving me an intent to terminate letter, your mind is already made up,” he said.
He also didn’t meet with Driscoll April 23 as the chief requested to tell Chaney what the final disciplinary decision would be. Chaney said he never saw any written notice that the chief wanted to meet with him that day, but that 8 a.m. April 23 meeting is noted at the end of the April 17 notice of intent to terminate memo from Driscoll that Chaney received.
Chaney also said he thought the city manager would have to fire him.
Chaney said he’s probably done being a firefighter, but he might pursue some sort of fire inspections position. He’ll still be eligible for his pension despite the termination.
Chaney had until 8 a.m. April 27 to drop off his uniforms, city equipment and ID badge.
“It’s a ridiculous way of handling business like this,” he said. “After 25 years I deserve more respect, and to not be treated like this.”
Chaney has six kids, and the youngest is 11.
“Now I’ve got to explain all of this to my kids,” he said.
He said he will probably be contacting an attorney about wrongful termination.
“This was retaliation without a shadow of a doubt,” he said. “They can try to cover it up with this writeup. … I am by no means a perfect employee, but I am a respected employee.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona firefighter believes talking to auditor cost him his job
Reporting by Eileen Zaffiro-Kean, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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