Response from South Carolina: “Everything they say is inaccurate.”

“Everything they say is inaccurate. Every single word.” That’s Jim Bowie’s reaction to International Association of Fire Fighters General President Harold Schaitberger’s assessment of the planning for last Friday’s memorial service honoring the 9 firefighters killed in Charleston. Bowie is the Executive Director of the South Carolina State Firefighters’ Association.

Last week, Schaitberger wrote a message to IAFF leadership explaining why the preparations for the memorial service at the Charleston Coliseum were not very “organized and (not) up to the IAFF’s normal standards for funerals and memorials”. Schaitberger explained that Charleston Fire Chief Rusty Thomas and Mayor Joseph Riley, Jr. are not “labor friendly” and “have resisted any of our planning ideas and have refused all IAFF offers of assistance”.

Schaitberger called Charleston an “openly anti-union city that is hostile towards the IAFF”.

Much of the criticism in the message focused on Jim Bowie. Schaitberger wrote: “They appointed the president of the state volunteers association, Jim Bowie, to run the entire memorial program. Bowie does not like the IAFF”.

In a phone conversation with STATter 911 on Monday, Jim Bowie said his main role was as incident commander for Friday’s event. Bowie said that Mayor Riley had final approval for the agenda.

Bowie said he is “infuriated” by the charges. According to Bowie, “IAFF had a seat at the table every single day”.

Jim Bowie said it is true, that during the planning process, he wanted Republican presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani to speak at the service. Bowie now believes it was a mistake to suggest Giuliani as a speaker. Bowie credited the IAFF’s Jeff Zack for helping to straighten him out on this issue.

Schaitberger characterized this episode a bit differently in last week’s message to IAFF leadership: “Bowie is also the leader of the South Carolina first responders for Giuliani campaign and has attempted to make this memorial a platform for Rudy. We are fighting to keep this from becoming another political platform.”

Jim Bowie said that his support of Giuliani is a “personal decision”. He points out that the chair of the coalition of South Carolina firefighters backing the former New York mayor is actually Croft Fire Department Chief Lewis Hayes.

Bowie denies Schaitberger’s claims that he failed to support the 2 -in, 2-out standard in South Carolina. Bowie believes South Carolina’s rule of 2-in and 1-out was a compromise position at the time and he would continue to fight for the stronger standard.

As for Harold Schaitberger’s claim that Bowie doesn’t like South Carolina Professional Fire Fighters President Mike Parrotta, Bowie said he hardly knows Parrotta and has nothing negative to say about him.

In summing up, Jim Bowie said this about Schaitberger’s message: “It is a page of untruths, false and inaccurate. I can’t imagine anyone writing something like that.”

(Note: Michael Parrotta called STATter 911, returning our request for a comment from the IAFF. We have not been able to have a conversation, but I will add his thoughts when we do connect.)

You can find Harold Schaitberger’s message, along with a variety of comments from STATter 911 readers here.