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Sep 16, 2009 6:47 pm US/Central
Fire Chief Punished For Wedding Truck Appearance
WINDOM, Minn. (WCCO) ―
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Fossing allowed a truck to leave the fire hall and go to a church in Windom on July 11 for a firefighter's wedding.
CBS
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Fossing allowed a truck to leave the fire hall and go to a church in Windom on July 11 for a firefighter's wedding.
CBS
A southwestern Minnesota fire chief has been suspended from his job for 18 days for allowing a fire truck to appear at a firefighter's wedding.
Dan Fossing, who oversees the volunteer fire department in Windom, met Tuesday with city officials before the City Council voted to suspend him starting Wednesday.
Fossing allowed a truck to leave the fire hall and go to a church in Windom on July 11 for a firefighter's wedding.
At first, the firefighter getting married asked the Windom City Council if he could use a fire truck on his wedding day.
The Council denied the request, because city policy specifically states that no city vehicles can be used for personal reasons.
Still, Fossing went with the truck operator on the couple's wedding day to the reception at the church that's just six blocks away from the fire station downtown.
"I thought I was doing right," said Fossing. "Personally, I saw it as a benefit for a firefighter who was proud to be a fireman, and this was his big day, a wedding day."
The pictures ened up on Facebook
City leaders didn't see it that way. The city's personnel board originally recommended to the city council that it fire Fossing.
"City Policy. We just can't throw city policy out the window. Otherwise, you know, we'd have mayhem. We wouldn't have a policy," said Windom's Mayor Kirby Kruse, admitting that's what happened here.
Close to 150 people packed a meeting at Windom City Hall on Tuesday night, supporting the chief. He's been a firefighter for 21 years, and many people in town didn't want to see him go.
Even so, the City Council voted late Tuesday night to suspend Fossing for 18 days. He and the city's personnel board spent a couple days negotiating that suspension. The board then decided to recommend the suspension to the Council. Council members voted four to one for the suspension.
"I'm grateful and thankful," said Fossing.
He believes public support saved his job. Fossing will sit out of work for now, knowing he's got the rest of his life to continue the career he loves.
After all this, he admits that he wouldn't make the same decision about that picture again.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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