St. Louis Fire Chief Faces Punishment. A Day in Court and a Missed Deadline.
That’s Chief Sherman George in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch photo. His boss, the mayor, says Chief George will now face punishment for failing to obey an order to begin department promotions. It was a months-long drama, that today, turned into a day-long drama.
The chief had a 1700 hours deadline to follow the directive. Instead, Chief Sherman went to court in an unsuccessful bid to stop the mayor. Here is an excerpt from the latest in the online edition of the paper:
Disciplinary proceedings will begin against Fire Chief Sherman George after he missed a deadline to end his hold on promotions, the mayor’s office said this afternoon.
Under the city’s civil service code, George can be suspended, demoted or even fired for disobeying a “direct order” to promote 28 firefighters.
The announcement from the mayor’s office came after last-minute negotiations to reach a compromise failed. On Friday, an attorney for George filed an emergency order to delay the ultimatum. That, too, was rejected.
