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The board voted unanimously to take that action during their meeting Thursday. Commissioners received a report from Knoxville attorney Benjamin Lauderback late last year that found Peterson unnecessarily berated but didn’t threaten the job of a fire prevention officer, Roger Davis. Peterson chastised Davis after he looped the State Fire Marshal’s Office in on a conversation about using the former Ashe Street Courthouse to house homeless people with COVID-19. Lauderback did, however, hear from multiple people that Peterson’s management style “can and does cross the border o...

After serving as Johnson City’s fire chief for three and a half years, James Stables said he left his role at the city for a job as fire chief in Boynton Beach, Florida, because it was a better opportunity. “While it was a difficult decision to make, it was the best one in the interest of me and my family,” he told the Johnson City Press on Wednesday. Stables said he didn’t want to give the impression that his departure had to do with a departmental conflict with City Manager Pete Peterson. Johnson City announced in a press release on Dec. 3 that Stables would be leaving e...

A report completed by an outside investigator found City Manager Pete Peterson unnecessarily berated a Johnson City employee in an August email, but the city manager did not intend to

Johnson City commissioners will hold a closed-door meeting Tuesday to discuss a report concerning City Manager Pete Peterson. The city in October engaged an outside attorney to investigate complaints from a fire department employee who says Peterson threatened his employment after the employee looped a state official in on a conversation about housing homeless people with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) at the Ashe Street Courthouse. In an official complaint submitted in September, fire prevention officer Roger Davis cited a handful of emails from Peterson, including one in which Peterson sa...

Johnson City has hired a Knoxville attorney to investigate an official complaint against City Manager Pete Peterson by a fire department employee. Fire prevention officer Roger Davis says Peterson threatened his employment after he looped a state official in on a conversation about housing homeless people with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) at the Ashe Street Courthouse. In his complaint, which the Johnson City Press obtained through a public records request, Davis said Peterson sent emails “directly berating me and threatening my current and future employment with the city.” â€...