By Adam Pagnucco.
County Executive Marc Elrich has thrown in the towel on his nomination of Division Chief Charles Bailey to lead the county’s fire department. After the nomination drifted in limbo for more than three months, Elrich has decided to seek another candidate.
When Elrich sent over Bailey’s nomination to the council in November, his administration went all-out in the local press to proclaim him as the county’s first Black fire chief. The PR effort successfully placed stories about Bailey in the Washington Post, MoCo360, NBC 4, Fox 5, WTOP, MCM and other outlets. How could the county council say no to the first Black fire chief?
But the council began to hear about issues right away, including from International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1664, which represents the county’s career fire fighters. Some concerns regarding Bailey surfaced in a November 28 Fox 5 article, which stated:
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However, in recent weeks, FOX 5 has received emails accusing the division chief of bullying – and sharing information that an internal survey allegedly conducted by the fire department’s union showed members disapproving of Bailey’s nomination.
The union has not responded to FOX 5’s questions on this. We do not know how many people actually participated in the survey. County sources are aware of it and believe some of the criticism against Bailey may be race-related. County sources also told FOX 5 they are not aware of any formal complaints or internal investigations opened into Bailey.
The nominee answered some of the criticism in our interview.
“I think my record over the past 34 years really does speak for itself. But what you have to remember is that my job as the operations chief is to establish, enforce or maintain the standards across the organization, right? And that’s not always easy. That’s not always a comfortable conversation and people don’t always walk away from that feeling good, right? We have high standards here and it is necessary for me to enforce those standards,” said Bailey, who also told FOX 5 he plans to change how the department communicates on policies and standards with its members. That’s something he said he does not have control over as Division Chief. Improving communication, also means improving member feedback, he added.
Bailey told FOX 5 he wants to work with career and volunteer members who care.
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In a December 17 article, Washington Post public safety reporter asked Bailey about the union’s position. Here is their exchange.
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Q: The career firefighters union and an association that represents volunteers are two influential groups in the county. The volunteers group tells us they support your nomination. The union gave us the following statement: “There were a number of concerns with Chief Bailey that the County Executive did not address during the Executive Branch’s selection process. We look forward to working with the County Council during its confirmation process to make sure they have all of the information to make an informed decision.” They wouldn’t elaborate. But if you are confirmed, how will you work with both groups?
A: It is so easy to talk about all the spaces in which we disagree. We have to ask, where do we agree? There’s two things: The mission should always come first and the health, safety and welfare of the people who work here is important. If we agree on those two things, well, then, heck, we can find our way through the other paths.
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I asked the union for comment on or off the record several times. The union did not respond.
According to Sec. 1A-102 of the county code, the county council must act on an executive nomination within 60 days or it expires. While it approved three other executive nominees after Bailey’s nomination was sent, the council never scheduled a public interview or a vote on Bailey and his nomination expired on January 16.
The final shoe to drop was a finding by the Office of Inspector General that a senior fire department employee had engaged in misconduct. The inspector general did not identify the employee’s name or title. MoCo360 asked Bailey for comment and did not obtain a response. When I asked the executive branch to name the employee, a representative told me, “Due to personnel laws, we cannot comment.”
Tonight, county executive spokesman Scott Peterson issued the following statement:
Following consultation with members of the County Council, a pathway forward for the nomination of Division Chief Charles Bailey as Chief of the Montgomery Fire and Rescue Services was not deemed feasible.
He appreciates Division Chief Bailey’s decades of service to the residents of Montgomery County and continued commitment to MCFRS.
Moving forward, the County Executive is currently evaluating alternative candidates to nominate as MCFRS Chief. We will provide notice to the public when a nomination letter for this position is submitted to the County Council.
Under normal circumstances, it’s unusual for the council to not approve an executive nominee but this has happened to Elrich before. In 2019, Elrich’s first pick for police chief, former Portsmouth Police Chief Tonya Chapman, withdrew when she could not get a council majority after revelations surfaced of many controversies in her former job. Elrich’s second pick also withdrew over a conflict involving county retirement benefits. The Post later reported on the tortuous process resulting in the eventual appointment of MCPD veteran Marcus Jones to the position. All of this followed a train wreck of a nomination for technology director, which saw the nominee withdraw amid a host of unvetted issues.
For whatever reason – and none of my sources will go on the record about it – Bailey’s nomination is dead. I expect the county executive will choose his next nominee carefully.