The International Association of Firefighters branch in Lake Delton, IAFF L5026 wants Director of Public Safety Daniel Hardman removed from his position.
Current and former Dells-Delton Emergency Medical Service employees submitted various complaints regarding Hardman to IAFF L5026 branch President Spencer Nett. Nett said the after much discussion, they decided to issue a “Vote of No Confidence” letter signed by all 16 current Dells-Delton EMS employees. The letters states that morale has collapsed due to actions by Hardman.
Efforts to reach Hardman Monday were unsuccessful.
The Dells-Delton EMS serves the city of Wisconsin Dells, village of Lake Delton and town of Delton, along with portions of the towns of Fairfield, Dellona, Lyndon, New Haven and Dell Prairie. The Dells-Delton EMS Commission oversees the service.
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“These allegations that were presented have been going on for the entire time period that he’s been with the department,” said Nett. “I’ve seen a crazy amount of staff turnover in that time.”
According to Nett, 17 new staff members have been employed during the last three years, one short of 100 percent staff turnover. Nett did not have numbers from previous years.
One of the first allegations made in the letter is that Hardman’s attitude toward EMS employees is “demeaning and nothing short of humiliating.” It goes on to say that he has made negative comments regarding current and former EMS staff to other employees and has referred to emergency response members by disparaging “nicknames.”
“It’s an overall culture that has been developed there,” said IAFF L5026 Vice President Tyler Greenwood. “It’s been made acceptable just out of fear of retaliation.”
Nett said there have been allegations of discrimination, harassment, racism, sexism, and unwanted physical touching. Documentation provided by Nett of such complaints included letters that had all identifying information redacted.
Greenwood said employees have been threatened with termination and revocation of their paramedic licenses.
“The staff really made a hard decision to come forward with those allegations despite the fear of retaliation up to, and including, termination,” said Nett.
“Up until this week, we felt like it was a David vs. Goliath battle that we were too scared to stand up and bring to light what was right to do,” said Greenwood. “We finally gathered the strength to do it collectively and unanimously.”
According to the letter, Hardman has belittled EMS staff members and has insisted to that his operation methods are the only correct ones to manage situations.
“Tyler and I, for quite some time now, have been talking about the overall toxic environment and hostile culture that has been created and almost promoted within there,” said Nett. “Ultimately, it took banding everyone together to realize that this wasn’t an isolated incident for Tyler and I to get treated with this kind of maltreatment. It was service-wide.”
The letter also says that Hardman feels he does not have to abide by the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the staff and Dells-Delton EMS Commission and that he “does not have a boss he answers to.” He also has allegedly omitted or been untruthful in presenting information regarding atmosphere and workplace conditions within the EMS to the commission.
The Dells-Delton EMS Commission is comprised of village of Lake Delton Trustee Tom Diehl and President John Webb, city of Wisconsin Dells Mayor Ed Wojnicz, Alderpersons Brian Holzem and Ben Anderson, town of Delton Supervisor Brent Gasser and Dells-Delton EMS Director Dillon Gavinski.
Nett and Greenwood said Hardman has manipulated the employee grievance process so that all complaints are directed to him, even if he is the subject of the complaint.
“When he is the source of the unacceptable behavior and does his best to block our avenues of reporting the problem, then who do you go to?” said Greenwood. “He’s become his own investigator for allegations against him, so that’s why it has gotten to this point. He doesn’t allow staff to go any further with it.”
Nett said Hardman has removed a system of oversight from the commission regarding his authority by not allowing staff members into public session meetings between himself and the commission, Nett said he also changed written policies and procedures regarding the chain of command so that complaints to the commission could result in disciplinary action.
One of the last issues mentioned in the letter was Hardman’s desire to implement utilization of non-trained village personnel in place of a paramedic in responding to emergency calls. Greenwood and Nett also explained that Hardman’s idea was to potentially put a non-medically trained/licensed individual in a supervisory role.
Nett said the union has continually tried to foster a good relationship between employees and administration, but that it is irreconcilable at this point.
Attempts to reach Gavinski, Diehl and Webb were unsuccessful.
