Biloxi fire chief, supervisor were investigated by state auditor’s office, documents show
An unwritten practice at the Biloxi Fire Department allowed firefighters to use their time on the city’s dime to do personal repair work at the homes of other firefighters, according to testimony in depositions obtained by the Sun Herald.
That’s the practice Battalion Chief Stephen Strickler said he was following when he allowed an on-duty firefighter to go to Strickler’s family home in George County and buy a part to repair an air conditioning unit there.
It was a common practice — not a policy set down anywhere in writing — that had been going on for 30 years, Strickler said.
“There’s not a government job out there that they don’t do it,” Strickler said, and it was something that Fire Chief Joe Boney allowed and took advantage of on at least one occasion when he needed an air conditioning repair at his home.
“It’s a practice, not a policy — and the (fire chief) always said, ‘You know, let’s keep it under two hours,” Strickler said.
That and other revelations started surfacing in an investigation of Strickler’s use of an on-duty firefighter for private work and through records the Sun Herald obtained in a workers’ compensation claim filed by former firefighter Michael Fournier.
Fournier, 50, maintains that he was harassed out of his job for reporting Strickler and Boney to the state auditor’s office in 2016, saying they defrauded the city.
Prosecutors did not pursue criminal charges, instead allowing the city to handle the matter internally.
It’s unclear if the documentation in the case hint at the motives behind Boney’s shocking revelation two weeks ago that the city council planned to vote against his reappointment.
Boney — who has been with the department for 37 years and its chief for eight — said he instead chose to retire so that he could end his career on his terms.
His abrupt public announcement to retire at the end of the year in a July 6 council meeting left the public wondering what had gone wrong. Boney has been Biloxi’s citizen of the year and recently became the first Mississippian to head the southeast’s professional firefighters organization.
‘HOME OF THE RAT’ on display at fire station
Fournier had been a driver/operator at the Biloxi Fire Department for over 23 years when Boney recommended his firing in a May 28, 2019, letter sent to Fournier.
Fournier had left his station mid-shift on Jan. 30, 2019, after he got fed up with the way things were going at the fire department and his supervisor denied him time off on a weekend he had plans to attend a New Orleans Saints game.
His relationship with other firefighters he had long considered close friends had deteriorated after he reported Boney and Strickler to the state’s auditor’s office and brought up allegations of favoritism around using off time..
A supervisor also had reassigned him to a position at another station, and Fournier felt that was retaliation.
In addition, Fournier accused a battalion chief of allegedly threatening to beat him up. Fournier said that during an argument in a phone call, the battalion chief said if Fournier had issues with him, they could meet in the fire station parking lot the following morning to hash it out “man-to-man.”
On another occasion after he reported the wrongdoing, Fournier said he went to the fire station and saw someone had written “HOME OF THE RAT” on a whiteboard.
Toward the end of his career, Fournier used all of his sick and personal leave to avoid going to work. He was seeing a doctor because he was depressed, and his doctor determined he couldn’t fulfill his position as a firefighter and return to the job.
Fournier said he tried to hang on to the job he had dedicated himself to, but ultimately his career ended with his firing.
Fournier pursued a workers’ compensation claim, alleging he had suffered a mental injury because of the alleged harassment and post-traumatic stress from previous incidents on the job.
But Fournier had a history of depression and alcohol abuse, and the claim ultimately was denied, according to reports from psychiatrists who evaluated him and other information in documentation the Sun Herald obtained in the case.
The depositions in the workers’ compensation claim occurred in 2020 and, in addition to Strickler, former Biloxi Chief Administrative Officer David Nichols verified the wrongdoing at the fire department.
Ex-Biloxi CAO: ‘You can’t do that’
Ocean Springs attorney Jay Foster represented Fournier in his claims and in 2020 questioned Strickler, Nichols and the others about the claims of wrongdoing in 2016.
In particular, Foster asked Nichols, “What do you know about firefighters in the city of Biloxi ... working for the city and at the same time working somewhere else?’
Nichols said he was familiar with the fire department operations as former CAO and remembered being contacted about the alleged fraud.
“What do you know about firefighters working for the city and working somewhere else at the same time?” Foster asked.
“Well, you, uh, they can’t do that,” Nichols said.
Foster asked him if the illegal activity was going on while he was CAO.
“Yes sir,” Nichols said. “Our investigation found that they, they was, um, two gentlemen” were allegedly taking part in that practice.
Nichols named only the firefighters who actually did the repairs despite them being done at the family homes of Strickler and Boney.
“I think it was two gentleman that, uh, uh, were, were doing work on their own and doing it while they were on the clock,” Nichols said.
The Sun Herald is not identifying those two firefighters because they were not charged with a crime.
‘They denied us the records’
Among the questions posed to Nichols was whether the firefighters faced any disciplinary action.
“Uh, they did,” Nichols said. “But, I, I really can’t remember what it was. It, it seems like, uh, two gentlemen had to pay back some money. Uh, and I, and I can’t remember if they had some time off or, or not. But they, they, uh, seemed like they had to pay back some money for the time they were away from the, uh, their, their job.”
In his deposition, Strickler said he felt like Fournier reported him to the state auditor’s office in retaliation over a decision to move Fournier to different fire station, among other things.
In 2016, Stacey Pickering was serving as state auditor.
Ultimately, no criminal charges followed the investigation and the city was allowed to handle the matter internally.
Fournier’s attorney, however, attempted to find out more about what happened in that criminal investigation by issuing a subpoena in 2020 to the State Auditor Shad White’s office for investigative reports.
In a surprise move, White’s office refused to provide the records, citing an exemption in the state public records act that allows investigative reports to be kept from the public.
“I couldn’t believe they denied us the records,” Foster said. “It makes you wonder why.”
But, Foster said: “What a lot of people in the fire department were doing was working on personal matters (some even working on their side businesses) while getting paid working as a fireman at the same time.
“Obviously, that is improper,” Foster said.
The Sun Herald reached out to White’s office to find out why criminal charges wouldn’t follow in a case involving firefighters doing private work during work hours.
“Sometimes, evidence compiled over the course of an investigation is not sufficient to indict someone for a crime,” said state auditor spokesperson Logan Reeves. “ In a situation like that — when public money has been identified as misspent — our office still acts to recover that taxpayer money by issuing a demand letter.”
In addition, Reeves said, it’s ultimately up to prosecutors and judge to determine whether to pursue prosecution.
Police investigate
Some time after Fournier filed the worker’s compensation claim, the fire department asked the Biloxi Police Department to handle an internal investigation into Strickler.
It’s unclear whether that investigation has anything to do with the previous allegations of allowing firefighters to work privately while on the clock for the city.
Boney had told the Sun Herald about an ongoing “disciplinary investigation” into a battalion chief when asked about why the city council may oppose reappointing him as chief. Boney could not discuss the incident or name the firefighter involved because it involves personnel.
The Sun Herald attended a July 8 meeting of the Biloxi civil service commission, and identified Strickler as the subject of that investigation.
Nichols said Monday he thought disciplinary action had been handed out in that case years earlier, though he couldn’t remember any specific details about the action and the investigation.
Whatever the case, Strickler is on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation.
At the civil service meeting, Boney told the commission that the investigative material in Strickler’s case had been reviewed by attorneys, and on July 6, he said, Strickler was notified of the intent to initiate disciplinary action against him. Strickler has requested a disciplinary hearing in the matter.
In addition to working as firefighter in the city of Biloxi for nearly 27 years, Strickler also works part-time as a Jackson County sheriff’s deputy who manages the air division and serves as lead pilot.
The Sun Herald reached out to Strickler, but he declined to comment.
What’s next
Biloxi council members have been quiet about any intentions they may have when it comes to appointing a fire chief, but they are set to meet again Tuesday to appoint department heads, including a fire chief.
Mayor “Andrew FoFo” Gilich ultimately makes those recommendations.
At the last meeting, when Boney announced he would retire at the end of the year, council members tabled all votes on department heads for two weeks.
The council is set to meet Tuesday at City Hall.
This story was originally published July 19, 2021 at 4:06 PM.
