Apopka Fire Chief Sean Wylam responded to the no-confidence vote taken by the Apopka Firefighters Association at its February 7th meeting, and announced at the March 1st City Council meeting.
In a brief statement sent to local media outlets, Wylam wrote the following statement:
"March 2nd, 2023
Re: Apopka Professional Firefighters Local 5293 Vote of No Confidence Response
Yesterday the Apopka Professional Firefighters Local 5293 presented the results of a vote of no confidence to the City Council.
As the department's Chief, I must acknowledge and listen to the feedback and concerns of our department members.
I will start by gathering the relevant facts and understanding the various perspectives from the no confidence statements.
I will meet and work diligently with the members of our department so that we arrive at a satisfactory resolution to the issues that have led us to this point. This will be accomplished by increasing my communication efforts with the members to listen and share our plans for solving these issues as a team. My goal is to regain their confidence and exceed their expectations.
Sincerely, Sean J. Wylam/Fire Chief "
The 90-member union, comprised of Apopka firefighters, sent a resounding message with 73 firefighters voting in favor of the no-confidence measure, while 13 voted against, and four abstaining. It followed the vote with a comprehensive 1,470-word statement of its own, complete with 26 major concerns listed in the text.
Wylam, at the City Council meeting, also announced the AFD received the final report from Gannon Emergency Solutions on the AFD and would be presenting those findings at the March 15th City Council meeting.
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MelissaW
Wylam should resign, but he won’t. Edward Bass gave him a maximum raise and perfect evaluation score, so there’s no reason for Wylam to leave, even if nearly everyone at AFD is asking for his resignation.
Friday, March 3, 2023 Report this
MamaMia
Apopka Critic indicates the fire department fiasco started after Fire Chief Carnesale was forced out by Mayor Nelson, and was replaced with Wylam. I say it all started before, when former Mayor Joe Kilsheimer forced out former Fire Chief Lee Bronson, for what? He was doing a good job, and had been in the fire department with years and years of experience. So there....apples to oranges, you got your opinion, I've got mine, on all of this ongoing situation in the fire department. It was Joe who just had to mess with everything.
Friday, March 3, 2023 Report this
JimNisbet
I learned some very disturbing information last night. I ran into some friends with knowledge of this situation, and there are false accusations in the unions summation. I was told that the fire chief DID visit Mr. Duran MULTIPLE times in the hospital. This should be investigated and proven one way or the other. Everyone has to sign in at the hospital right? Should not be difficult. If this is investigated, and it is proven that the fire fighters union blatantly lied to their members, and the public, the union leadership, ALL of them, need to be immediately removed, possibly fired, and perhaps dissolve the union. It has been my experience that typically those that kick and scream and point the loudest at others are typically the responsible party. Accountability. What is the UNIONS accountability? This is really starting to wreak pretty bad.
Friday, March 3, 2023 Report this
Richard
I really don’t care about here say. What we do know is that a young man lost his life because of pure negligence. The State Fire Marshal report and the independent experts that Nelson and Wylam hired reported absence of training, no supervision, and operational deficiencies lead to the death of Austin Duran. The citizens of Apopka should care about that rather than deflections from Nelson’s office and his cronies.
Friday, March 3, 2023 Report this
MamaMia
Richard, you sure seem interested in heresay, for someone who claims that you don't really care about heresay. Who are you accusing of deflections?
Friday, March 3, 2023 Report this
JimNisbet
If the AFD Union is lying to have the chief fired, that's a bit more than here say. Enough finger pointing, it's time to actually investigate this.
Friday, March 3, 2023 Report this
ApopkaUnion
Good morning Mr. Nisbet,
We apologize for the delayed response, we had to take care of one of our firefighters who needs help right now. If you were curious, yes Chief Wylam is aware of this situation but has not visited or contacted this firefighter or any of his family for help or support so just another example if you needed it.
Now to address you and your friends claims, our statements have been posted publicly online and the speech made at council is available in entirety on the City of Apopka YouTube page. Perhaps it would be beneficial to start your investigation there as we have not once stated that Chief Wylam "never" visited the hospital. Those statements were made by the news media and possibly misspoken by a father who lost his son. Now if you would like to pick apart an impassioned speech by a bereaved family member, we would suggest you reconsider that route.
We can comfortably say that over the two weeks of Austin's hospitalization it took Chief Wylam days (after complaints were made) to visit the hospital which he did for approximately 30 minutes to an hour while on duty 2 maybe 3 times and to my knowledge one short visit off the clock and while Austin was on life support Chief Wylam decided it was a fine idea to travel out of town for a non mandatory conference, leaving others to manage Austins death alone. Side note: Mayor Nelson visited more times than Chief Wylam, thats a fact.
We appreciate the fact that you think lying
should be taken very seriously as do we. Are there any other concerns we can help clarify for you? We are more than happy to schedule a sit down with you to provide you with the information you may be wanting.
Saturday, March 4, 2023 Report this
Richard
First and foremost thank you to the members of the Apopka Professional Firefighters. I’m sorry you have to answer ridiculous accusations that have no fact while dealing with another Firefighter’s well being. Hold your heads high and know that the majority of this community is supportive of you and know your struggles. Rather than providing solutions many just want to argue. Some on these comments have reputations of just that. Yes I have acquaintances also that know this. Stay strong Austin’s Army.
Saturday, March 4, 2023 Report this
JimNisbet
Good Morning Apopka Union.
Thank you for your response to my inquiries, and I sincerely hope things improve for your brother fire fighter (I have -0- knowledge of the situation). Please know that I am coming from the position of concerned citizen of Apopka, and for our EMS personnel serving our community. THEY are the most important factor here. Their safety and well being is my primary concern in my commenting on these articles, and I have the utmost respect for each and every one of them.
Hence my reaction when I perceive lies are being told in relation to their safety, and this incident. I'm sure we can agree that if that's the case, we have a serious problem we should all be concerned about.
You are correct in stating you did not use the term "never" in your written statement regarding your vote of no confidence. I went back and re-read it, and the term does not appear. However, your first 6 bullet points are worded in such a way that any reasonable person reading it would come to this conclusion. You may recall that my first reaction was, "Well presented argument," and "the fire chief needs to go." Only now do I realize just how well it actually is worded. In any case, my apologies for reading words in your statement that were not there. My mistake.
Please note I am strictly referencing your written, published statement, and information that was provided to me after I wrote my comment, and have not listened carefully to any meetings or YouTube videos. I have read some articles, but I can't recite any word-for word statements by Austin's family. I appreciate your advice regarding this, but I never brought them into this discussion, and I don't know why you felt the need to do so. But I don't think that was a proper thing to do to be honest. I'm sure they are still in terrible pain, and my position is to let them heal as best they can.
It is obvious that the department is still very upset about Austin, as you should be, because to my original point, there are still far too many unanswered questions. As a union I would think this would be your main concern. It seems easy to identify all the problems (Gannon report), and easier to just blame the Chief, but so far the only answers I'm seeing are "It's the Chiefs fault," or "It's the Mayor's fault." That simply does not wash.
For example, based on what I've read the sand truck was universally deemed unsafe to use or maintain. Where are the vehicle maintenance records on this? Who was the supervisor charged with the condition of this vehicle? Was the Chief provided this information by the people charged with using and maintaining this vehicle? Why was this vehicle not removed from service? What are the unions standards with regards to operating unsafe equipment? Or equipment you lack training to operate? At what point can a union member say "That's not safe to do and I'm not doing it," and why didn't that happen? Who is responsible for that CRITICAL training? When to say no? Again, I'm not trying to blame you or anyone else. But we need to understand a problem to fix a problem right? These are hard questions, but they need answers.
We need to STOP the finger wagging and the witch hunt and determine the true underlying causes of this tragedy. It's become a political football, and I find that offensive, as should you.
This is a tragic tragic accident, and there my not be a single person we can all point to and say "It's his/her fault!" Unfortunately the desire for this is human nature. I suspect when someone finally looks deep into this we will find systematic, ongoing training failures from top to bottom. We will find documentation errors (I hope) that do not reflect true conditions. And once we have the sense and courage to do this, we can look at corrective measures to prevent this from happening in future. I would think the union would want to lead this effort, but instead it appears you are taking the position of least resistance, blaming the chief solely.
I truly hope that in the very near future we can stop "seeing red" and get to the bottom of this. Maybe it's already been done and I'm not privy to it? I kind of hope so.
Again, thank you for your response. No need for a scheduled sit down. This is not for me specifically. This is for our EMS personnel, and our entire community. I don't want or need private answers, we want and need public ones.
Respectfully,
Jim
Sunday, March 5, 2023 Report this
MamaMia
Well, so now the truth comes out! The Apopka Fire Chief, Sean Wylam, DID VISIT Austin several times in the hospital! When I posted on one of these fire department articles by Reggie, here in the Apopka Voice, I posted that the fire chief should have visited Austin while he was in the hospital, but that it was too late now. However, I find out that Apopka Fire Chief Wylam did visit. I found out by reading Jim Nisbit's comments, and Apopka Union confirmed that to Mr. Nisbet, right here on here on the Apopka Voice. I listened to the council meeting and others talk, so I was mislead, or I would not have posted that. Personally, I don't trust the firefighter union leader at all! Never have I called for the fire chief, city attorney, or Mayor Nelson, to be removed. Never! Apopka Union reps misled many people on this hospital visitation issue. You say you all don't trust your fire chief, but I don't trust the union leader, now after this misrepresentation. It seems your only goal is to get rid of the fire chief. Why didn't you post your name, instead of posting under Apopka Union?
Sunday, March 5, 2023 Report this
ApopkaUnion
Mr. Nisbet,
Again, we agree. We did attempt to push forward an investigation to answer these questions and were asking them. Our Fire Chief haulted any and all investigation efforts being conducted by our safety committee and a gag order has been put in place by the City to any Apopka Employee speaking about or looking into the incident. The answers you are looking for are the same ones we would like to see clarified and answered ourselves but our hands have been tied. There are a couple of questions you asked that we have answers for but again we aren’t allowed to answer them.
You are correct that it is not as simple as blaming one or two people as the problem but when attempts to fix and prevent future incidents of the same nature are being stopped or in our opinion mismanaged by leaders who appear more concerned saving face or saving a couple bucks than being honest and transparent and saving lives, well, you need a change. Additionally when 85% of your membership has no faith in leadership to do the right thing, it’s our obligation to make sure their concerns are heard.
Sunday, March 5, 2023 Report this
Todd B.
Jim,
Many things that you say are correct and the biggest one being, we need to investigate and get to the bottom of it. That was one of the major complaints, that the Safety Committee was not allowed to investigating the incident, also the sand trailer had not been in use for many, many years and had been emptied of sand and put away. It was pulled out of storage and filled just prior to the incident. If you take a deeper dive into all the comments, into the Gannon report into the council meetings, etc. You will see there is a lot of resistance in nonacceptance of responsibility in the facts. If you do take this deep look, I do not believe that you or anyone will be able to say the firefighters are the ones resistant to making things better.
Sunday, March 5, 2023 Report this
MamaMia
Richard, Ridiculous accusations? No, just citizens trying to sort out misrepresentations.
Sunday, March 5, 2023 Report this
MamaMia
While we are at it, city employees are under a gag order, and also city commissioners. Apparently with the talk happening, I have to wonder if the gag order is even being abided by. I guess the fire union believes they can say whatever they want, and think they are a protected species. I am not sure you would be protected under the whistle blower law if you violated the gag order, however. Food for thought
Sunday, March 5, 2023 Report this