Former Assistant Fire Chief Suing for Wrongful Dismissal

[gman313]

I see the District of West Kelowna is being sued for wrongful dismissal from his position as Assistant Fire Chief.

[He was fired "because he had received an administrative driving prohibition while operating a fire department vehicle".] But he will probably win IMO because of precedence and no progressive discipline.

Castanet has not found out yet but it is on Global Okanagan website.
http://globalnews.ca/news/1328158/fired ... dismissal/

[dogspoiler]

Wow, no matter how that turns out the lawyers will make a pile.

[Fancy]

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... htm#115098
Castanet was on it.

[gman313]

After Global, and Castanet marked the time posted 15 earlier than it was......but I digress

[stevo9090]

As stated in the article: "The lawsuit claims that he has been unable to find anything comparable since"

Of course you wont find anything comparable... if you get caught drunk driving in a company vehicle, no one is going to hire you... There aren't too many jobs in Kelowna that require very little post secondary education and offer 100k/year, not to mention the pension after 20/year or getting paid to work out or go grocery shopping for your co-workers. Furthermore, it should not be the tax payers problem you chose to specialize in your career. Many other people have had to make adjustments in there career path, to diversify to learn new skills. Go home... Better yet... Move to Merica.

[Captain Awesome]

What a doofus.

[W105]

so, he's a longtime firefighter who knows his job requires a clean driving abstract, has most likely encountered lots of horrific carnage during his career of seeing what a drunk driver can do, but [allegedly] still makes the stellar decision to drive a company vehicle (unreal ??) drunk and he thinks he should be given a break and/or compensated because HIS decisions cost him a nice $100+k a yr job ??? wow...

[fall]

I have to say I am surprised someone got fired from such a slack job and am impressed, I guess when the company vehicle is as good as yours and you take it home daily and use it as your own personal vehicle you would be caught while driving the company vehicle! Did he only get fired because of media attention after they caught wind of it, I missed the whole story!

[dogspoiler]

I have consulted my crystal ball, he will win.

[Partmanpartfish]

*removed*

As this is a matter that is before the courts, it's probably wise not to assume things that may turn out to be inaccurate.
The two articles quoted above give slightly different versions of the incident that led up to this gentleman's dismissal, and without knowing which version, if any, is the correct one, we all need to be very careful about what we say in our comments.

Here's the version given in the Castanet news story:

Kerry Klonteig was dismissed back in Oct, 2013 for allegedly driving a district vehicle while prohibited under an administrative driving prohibition.

That version appears to suggest that the administrative driving prohibition was already in place when he allegedly drove the district vehicle, NOT that he was caught driving a district vehicle while under the influence.

I don't know which news story, if any, is the correct one. But until we do know, it's best not to make statements that might be inaccurate, and therefore considered to be unfairly damaging to a person's reputation.
Merry

[mexi cali]

She be right Y'all.

[ochema62]

Another Hometown Hero. There are many people with far more formal education that make far less than 100k a year.
Time buddy had a reality check.

[Bubalouie]

Wow, steve9090 and fall, you both got a lot of respect for fire fighters....

[logman]

It's easy to see why folks lack respect. 100 grand a year to attend mostly fender benders. The occasional horrific scene but really mostly minor incidents. What does an average RCMP member make? I bet it's not 100,000 dollars. They deal with a heck of a lot more disturbing and dangerous situations than a so called "fireman" does.

[logman]

What the heck is a performance bonus? Do you have to show up on time? Cook dinner for your friends at the hall? Making 100 thousand dollars a year isn't good enough? Bonuses all around for everyone on the taxpayers dime!