Termination...

December 9, 2008

To whom it may concern:
I feel there has been a grave error made on the part of the elected officials of Stafford County Board of Commissioners. Are you aware, as a citizen, that the board has taken it upon itself, without any investigation or inquiry, to terminate the employment of your new Director of Emergency Services, Kevin Payne?
This decision was made without consultation with either, Mr. Payne, his employees, the community he works for, or the Stafford County Medical Director; Dr. Farmer. These members of the board have also failed to provide due cause for the termination. He was notified Monday December 8th letter and given until Thursday December 11th of the decision. Mr. Payne is devastated by this decision, and truly confused by this turn of events. Mr. Payne has consulted with attorneys on this matter, and feels compelled to fight for his job.
Mr. Payne left family and friends to come and serve this community and its emergency services needs, bringing many years of experience and knowledge. This decision has left he and his family emotionally distraught and feeling hopeless, faced with the prospect of finding a new home, and new employment in a community that has shunned him, a community that he has devoted every waking moment to since accepting the position just over 2 months ago. Leaving his home at all hours, to serve as a commander on a fire or accident scene, or acting as the counties only paramedic, Mr. Payne has spent time writing new protocols to better serve the community, planning and executing training for staff, to ensure quality response for the citizens, implementing mandatory training and testing for staff, and upgrading equipment, again, all with the desire to provide the county with well trained and educated responders, quality equipment, and saving the tax payers money in the long run.
I am asking for only support. Support for Mr. Payne in his fight to keep his job, support from the community he hopes to continue to serve. Phone calls and letters may serve to sway the board from continuing with this mistake. As citizens of Stafford County, you may feel compelled to support Mr. Payne, and ensure a proper inquiry into the circumstances of his termination.

Thank you for your consideration;
Jessica R. Wallace, BS, EVT, EMT-P, FF

I am sorry, but I just cannot give you any support in this. For 1. Kansas is an "At Will" state so they can fire anyone at anytime without the consultation of anyone not to mention the fact that he was still within his 90 days of employment. 2. I would totally have to disagree with the fact that he completely devoted every waking minute to the county. Many people have scanners in this community and lord knows he rarley responded on calls. And many times unprofessional decisions were made over the radio that should have never been made. 3. It seems that he could have been using his energy elsewhere other then implementing things that were already in place or going out and meeting the community instead of rewriting the protocols since they were newly and well written. I believe if MR. Payne wanted community support he should have been getting that from the get go. I personally know of several times and people who he was introduced to and MR. Payne acted rudely to. That is no way to get any kind of support. So No I don't feel "Compelled" to give him any support unless it is pointing his moving truck back to Missouri where he came from.

JRW wrote:

December 9, 2008
To whom it may concern:
I feel there has been a grave error made on the part of the elected officials of Stafford County Board of Commissioners. Are you aware, as a citizen, that the board has taken it upon itself, without any investigation or inquiry, to terminate the employment of your new Director of Emergency Services, Kevin Payne?
This decision was made without consultation with either, Mr. Payne, his employees, the community he works for, or the Stafford County Medical Director; Dr. Farmer. These members of the board have also failed to provide due cause for the termination. He was notified Monday December 8th letter and given until Thursday December 11th of the decision. Mr. Payne is devastated by this decision, and truly confused by this turn of events. Mr. Payne has consulted with attorneys on this matter, and feels compelled to fight for his job.
Mr. Payne left family and friends to come and serve this community and its emergency services needs, bringing many years of experience and knowledge. This decision has left he and his family emotionally distraught and feeling hopeless, faced with the prospect of finding a new home, and new employment in a community that has shunned him, a community that he has devoted every waking moment to since accepting the position just over 2 months ago. Leaving his home at all hours, to serve as a commander on a fire or accident scene, or acting as the counties only paramedic, Mr. Payne has spent time writing new protocols to better serve the community, planning and executing training for staff, to ensure quality response for the citizens, implementing mandatory training and testing for staff, and upgrading equipment, again, all with the desire to provide the county with well trained and educated responders, quality equipment, and saving the tax payers money in the long run.
I am asking for only support. Support for Mr. Payne in his fight to keep his job, support from the community he hopes to continue to serve. Phone calls and letters may serve to sway the board from continuing with this mistake. As citizens of Stafford County, you may feel compelled to support Mr. Payne, and ensure a proper inquiry into the circumstances of his termination.
Thank you for your consideration;
Jessica R. Wallace, BS, EVT, EMT-P, FF

i have only been around mr payne. one time he has failed in attempts to meet the members of his vol. crews, yes i am a member of the vol, and with this i have a radio, and pager, and do listen to calls not only fire but the ems side, why did this man not ride in amb, and give care to needy pts i can name two nights, he should have
as a so called paramedic he should have been in the back of the amb with the pregant lady from stafford not in his pick up following the amb, we have enough people who do nothing we don't need to pay another one so off you go payne, and what protocals the one on drinking where people showed up drunk? well don't ya think we should go after the quilty parties and not everyone....i very rarely heard this man on radio and like i said took no time in getting to know the people who server under him, i have only been on one call with this man and the way he acted, i don't want him on a call with me,

It is a great thing Kevin Payne was fired. He obviously never cared about the community or he would have actually provided paramedic services to the community. Instead of acting as a paramedic he acted as a DICTATOR! He would pass up providing paramedic care so he could "Be In Charge" as incident command, etc... The true question is how come he was the only paramedic on scene at an accident with seven patients (most underage) yet he provided no pt care at all? Was it because he wanted the power of being in command? Was it because he has no devotion to the community or actually being a paramedic? Oh wait, I think it was because he had been at the bar drinking!!!! But that didn't stop him from responding.....in his county vehicle.....and taking incident command! Where does it show that is appropriate to respond to a scene after you have been drinking? How bout the misuse of county funds. Our citizens are not paying for Kevin to drive the county vehicle out of state to see his kids!!!! Our citiznes are not paying for him to move here from Missouri!!!! Our citizens are not paying for him to clean the carpet in his house because he has pets!!!! Why are we paying his drinking tab when he goes to conferences? Why is his county credit card maxed out so quickly? The true question is why is he not doing his job, which includes being a paramedic care provider? He was not hired to only be the director, he was hired to provide paramedic care to this community, which he has not done! I am glad he is gone and wish it would have been done even quicker than just over two months in to his employment. He should have never been hired so take your sympathy card and hit the road! We need someone who cares about our community and our people and his is not that person.

I couldn't agree more with the above comment, my only question is, what about all of the other firefighters and ems personel that were just as guilty as he was in responding to the accident having been drinking. They could have caused more severe injuries to those kids who were already suffering from massive injuries. Or God forbid, cost them their lives. Is anything going to be done to them? What's good for one should be good for everyone, it doesn't matter if they are born and raised in this county or not!!!!!!!!! If you could have heard the screams from those kids while they were ''being helped'' by the EMS it would have made your hair stand on end.

1. After being a volunteer firefighter for 7 years, I have NEVER been treated so rudely by anyone on the department as I was when I tried introducing myself to Kevin. Not that HE made an effort to introduce himself to anyone. It seems to me that if he would have wanted any kind of support in his profession, he would have made it a point to introduce himself.
2. As far as him leaving his family and friends, was it really that, or his questionable past? I sure wish the commissioners would do a full background check on employees taking a position of power, and use the information they gather to help determine a person's "true" personality (rather than what the recruit tells them)
3. And leaving his home at all hours?? Anyone in the county with a pager or scanner knows that was NOT the case. In fact, it was VERY rare to hear him respond.
Head back to Missouri. You won't be missed by me.

In response to "Concerned for Citizens" comment. I was at the wreck and had not been drinking. I am not sure how many people had been at the bar that night. The screams you heard must have been in your own head. The CHILDREN laying on the ground, because of the driver's stupidity, were not making any noises loud enough to be heard by anyone except those helping. Sometimes not even that loud. If there were any screams, they probably came from the crowd of people on the other side of the road. I know it is a small county, but did everyone have to come and see the kids laying on the ground. Just because you thought you might see something you could talk about in the coffee shop or while getting your hair done. There were enough emergency vehicles out on that road. We did not need any more vehicles or people getting in the way. If you want to move the focus to someone other than the kids in the vehicle, the very STUPID kids, try to look at the parents of the kids or the person(s) who purchased the alcohol. Do these parents care what their children are doing? Or who they could have killed? Yes KILLED!!!! I still do not know how all of them survived the crash. Thank God they didn't hit another vehicle. I hope everyone who reads this thinks about the drinking problem that Stafford County youth have. It does exist. Oh yeah, I am glad the Emergency Services Direrctor is gone, too. Maybe the County Commissioners will learn from there last two mistakes and hire one of the qualified personnel already employed by the County. I can think of a couple I would like see get the position.

To "response". To say that the accident involving the kids was a horrible thing is true. But to say that those kids are "stupid" is nothing more than a ridiculus comment showing absolutely no compassion. Should the kids be punished? YES. should the one who provided the alcohol? YES. Can you blame the parents for the actions of their children? NO. Try as a parent might they cannot control all of the actions or decisions of their children. Stafford County has made quite a reputation as being one to look the other way, or slap somebody on the wrist and say no no. Instead of punishing all people fairly and severly for their actions. This should not be held more true than for the public servants, they because of their positions should be punished to the fullest extent when they have done wrong. This includes drinking and responding to calls. Those fire and ems personnel could just as easily ran into somebody on the road and killed them as the "stupid kids" could have. Also there were numerous people that said they heard those screams, as they all told me about it. As for your comments involving the "stupid kids" your lack of compassion has me wondering whether you are involved with fire and or ems to actually help people or are you in it for some reason involving your ego? Either way the comments lead me to believe it is time for YOU to rethink your career choice! Finally, there may be a few people that are qualified "on paper" to run the department, but then again the last TWO directors qualifications looked good on paper too! Paper means nothing if the people holding the paper do not have compassion and are in it for nothing more than personal gain. The director's goals should be for the betterment of the county not the betterment of themselves.