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ST. PETERSBURG — A City Council committee voted unanimously Thursday to move forward with a management study of the St. Petersburg Fire Department. Members of the Budget, Finance and Taxation Committee instructed city staff to conduct one-on-one meetings with council members to discuss the scope of the study, which would be done by a third-party consultant selected through an official bidding ...
St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch announced on Wednesday that the city's fire chief is reinstated, effective Thursday, after an investigation into allegations of discrimination in an employee survey.
St. Pete Fire Rescue Chief James Large responded to allegations against him of bullying and discrimination Friday. Large said he denies all the allegations, and said he has worked to increase diversity within the department.
Allegations against Large and the culture of his fire department were brought to light in a recent anonymous employee survey in which a few dozen responses called out the fire department’s diversity.
Mayor Ken Welch put Large on administrative leave earlier this month following comments made on an anonymous workplace survey from city staff.