Petaluma firefighter engaged in on-duty sex, city records show

A firefighter with the Petaluma Fire Department has resigned after admitting to having consensual sex while on duty at least 10 times at the agency’s fire stations, according to Petaluma officials and documents from the city’s internal investigation.

Brett Hughes, a firefighter and paramedic who resigned in January, four years after he was hired, admitted to having intercourse and oral sex with a woman who was not an employee in the parking lot of Station 3 and having sex inside all three of the city’s stations, according to investigation documents obtained by The Press Democrat through a public records request.

The after-hours liaisons occurred once in the captain’s office at Station 3, once in the training room at the downtown headquarters and once in the back of Engine 9382 at Station 2, the documents state. Fire department and city officials previously declined to divulge details about the investigation and subsequent disciplinary measures, citing personnel privacy laws.

The department’s top two officials, Chief Leonard Thompson and Assistant Chief Jeff Schach, said the revelations of troubling on-duty behavior amounted to a “gut check” and a “black eye” for the 58-employee agency. Schach called the case a “huge wakeup call.” A senior captain who was Hughes’ supervisor and a fellow firefighter have been formally disciplined, and four other firefighters have been verbally reprimanded, according to Schach, who led the investigation, and related records.

Still, Thompson and Schach contend it was an isolated case that has been addressed.

“In this case we had an errant person that didn’t follow the rules,” said Thompson, the former deputy chief of the Los Angeles Fire Department, who took the helm in Petaluma in 2015. “We continue to try to improve by giving everyone training - every member of the department, including officers. From there, you try to reinforce what our commitment is to the public.”

‘No correlation’

The revelations come nearly four years after Petaluma’s only female firefighter at the time sued the city, alleging she experienced a pattern of discrimination during her almost six years at the department, which ended in 2014. Though city officials said that her claims were “without merit,” Petaluma paid Andrea Waters a record $1.25 million to settle the case in late 2016.

Fire department officials stressed that they saw no link between that case and the reported sexual misconduct involving Hughes.

“There’s no correlation between the two incidents, but they are both black eyes on our organization,” Schach said. Waters was the first female firefighter to have been hired in almost 40 years in Petaluma, and the department has not brought on board any female firefighters or paramedics since her departure.

When Hughes was questioned by Schach, he said he was careful to keep his on-duty sexual encounters “discreet and secret,” according to investigation documents. All of them happened between 10 p.m. and midnight, records show. Sixteen of the 18 employees interviewed in the investigation said they were not aware of the sexual misconduct at the stations, which Hughes said happened at least 10 and up to 15 times between “roughly” March and December 2017, according to city records.

Hughes resigned Jan. 23 with a letter that included no reference to the investigation, according to Schach and information from the department. He would have been terminated otherwise, Schach said.

Multiple attempts to reach Hughes, 28, over the course of two weeks last month were not successful.

Hughes reapplied for an open position during a recent recruitment and was rejected, Schach said. He earned $143,421 in salary, overtime and other pay in 2017, according to payroll records. The city declined to provide details about his employment history, citing privacy laws.

Others disciplined

Hughes’ supervisor, Capt. Brian Morgan, was disciplined because he was not aware of the misconduct that took place largely at Station 3, which he commanded. Firefighter Jay Levar was disciplined because he didn’t report to supervisors after Hughes apparently told him of a sexual encounter in the parking lot, according to records.

Four other firefighters were verbally reprimanded after they didn’t report Hughes had shown them nude photos of the woman on his personal phone during a “sexting conversation” at work, according to Schach and investigation records. The city declined to provide names or details about the four who were verbally counseled, citing privacy statues.

City Councilwoman Kathy Miller said she felt the issue had been “dealt with appropriately.”

“Obviously, I’m disappointed in the behavior of the people from the fire department who were involved in this incident,” Miller said, adding that the department’s dearth of female firefighters and paramedics remained a key shortfall.

Schach, an 18-year veteran of the Petaluma Fire Department, said sexual misconduct is not a part of the agency’s “deeply ingrained culture.” He could not recall other instances of such behavior in his tenure.

“A takeaway is that we can always do better. We can also do better and we can always improve,” Schach said. “This was a gut check to our organization that we need to ensure that we keep people on the right track and don’t create an environment where that type of behavior seems acceptable.”

Thompson and Schach could not point to any fundamental changes made in the wake of the nearly two-month internal investigation, which concluded Feb. 26.

Additional training

Department employees currently take part in a yearly online sexual harassment and hostile work environment training, Schach said. As a result of the investigation, all employees in April took an additional, three-hour job-based harassment training, Schach said. That effort cost $5,000, said Director of Human Resources Amy Reeve.

Supervisors also attended an additional day-long training on issues including sexual harassment, “good old boy” attitudes and discrimination, Schach said. The training was a regularly scheduled one for other managers at the city, but the decision to send fire management was prompted by the investigation, Reeve said. Costs for the training were covered by the city’s insurance, she said.

The department will continue its annual sexual harassment training, Schach said. It will also continue what he described as rigorous background checks, and will reinforce policies and values for ethical decision making and accountability, he said. As part of the existing policy, visitors are not allowed at stations after 10 p.m., Schach said.

The investigation was prompted by an anonymous letter sent to the fire chief and City Manager John Brown in late December that alleged among other things that a young woman was visiting the station for strip teases and sex with personnel.

After 18 employees from multiple shifts were interviewed over two days in January, the allegations of strip teases were found to be unsubstantiated, according to investigation documents. The questions were met with “shock” by fire personnel, according Schach and records.

The investigation substantiated claims that a woman visited the firehouse, that sex took place on a fire engine and that nude photos of the woman were shared among personnel, according to the records. The lone sexual relationship confirmed through the investigation was between a woman and Hughes.

All but two reported sex acts took place inside or outside Station 3, a 2,000-square-foot South McDowell Boulevard building, records show.

Going unnoticed

Morgan, a 22-year veteran of the department who was in command of Station 3, was suspended for two days in May without pay as a result, according to disciplinary documents. Some fire employees interviewed for the internal investigation described Morgan as “not being as engaged” as he “should be,” creating a perception that Station 3 was a “station where inappropriate acts/behaviors could easily go unnoticed,” according to the city records.

“You have an officer who is supposed to be in charge of a fire station in every aspect of it,” Thompson said in an interview. “When you have that and you have a breach of what is fundamentally one of our most crucial values and he’s in charge of that fire station, either he’s not carrying the message or not emphasizing it enough - whatever the case may be, that’s a failure of command.”

Morgan said in his official appeal of the discipline that he had no knowledge of the misconduct and said Hughes wasn’t in his direct command for the majority of the year. That appeal was denied by department officials. Morgan declined to be interviewed, referring a reporter to his appeal letter, where he called the accusations “misleading and inaccurate,” and a “form of character assassination and harassment.” He has no previous disciplinary record.

‘Shocking’ behavior

On an average shift at Station 3, the five staff members on duty run three to four emergencies each night, and many go to bed around 9 p.m., Schach said. There are no cameras at any stations, and no plans to put them in place, he said.

“It’s hard to physically prevent people from doing the wrong thing,” he said. “What we are focusing on is reinforcing the expectations of doing the right thing.”

Levar, a 46-year-old firefighter paramedic who’s worked for the department for 13 years, was given a written reprimand. In an interview, Levar said Hughes mentioned that he had engaged in oral sex once in the parking lot, though he said he didn’t remember when the “30-second” interaction took place. At the time, he said he didn’t believe it was true, and dismissed it until January’s investigation.

“I didn’t believe it until this thing came out - when it all came out how many times the contact happened, where it was, it was pretty disgusting,” said Levar, who works at headquarters and has no previous disciplinary record.

He said it was “shocking” that the behavior remained under the radar within the small department, but said his punishment was fair and that he would have told supervisors if he thought Hughes’ account was “true or reportable.”

“We’re so busy I don’t even understand how that could have even happened. … The fire department isn’t like that,” he said. “It’s one bad apple in a bag of really, really good guys. ... I wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.”

Ken Dick, president of the Petaluma Firefighters Local 1415 union, said union representation was offered to all employees interviewed. He said the union “agreed with the process and the outcomes.”

“This was such an isolated incident that there’s no culture that needs to change,” he said. “People were held accountable, and we’ve moved on to how are we going to address infrastructure, equipment and apparatus and personnel.”

City Manager John Brown said the incident was a “valuable learning experience.” He underscored his support for Thompson and the department’s policies and said a reiteration of them is warranted.

“We can always do a better job, and I think that’s true of any organization,” he said. “Do I think we’re deficient? No, I don’t think we’re deficient. I think we can do better, we learned, and we can and will do better.”

Enforcing policy

Brian Elliott, the former Cloverdale fire chief and a 40-year veteran in fire services, said it’s vital for departments to make sure policies are being followed.

“Having a policy and practicing and enforcing a policy are two different things,” he said. “That’s my takeaway - a policy can be in place but you have to set the tone and everyone has to abide by what’s written.”

The department employs six women: an emergency medical technician, a fire marshal, two fire inspectors, a secretary and an assistant, according to information from the agency. The part-time EMT will be departing “very soon” to enter medical school, said Administrative Assistant Suzie Terry. The department is seeking to recruit more women, Schach said.

The lawsuit by Waters, the former female firefighter, led to new-for-the-department training on gender bias, hostile work environments and bullying. Efforts are also underway to revamp bathroom and sleeping areas to better accommodate all employees, Schach said.

But limited funding for such improvements has stymied the recruitment of women, said Miller, the city councilwoman.

“A problem that we have with our fire department is that we have very few women, and part of the reason for that is because we don’t have sufficient facilities,” she said.

Councilman Chris Albertson, Petaluma’s fire chief from 2001 to 2008, said he was not aware of previous incidents of sexual misconduct and described the department under his tenure as a dedicated and value-driven agency.

“They’re doing a good job,” he said. “Chief Thompson is a fire chief’s fire chief - he knows what needs to happen, and he’s a responsible public safety leader.”

You can reach Staff Writer Hannah Beausang at 707-521-5214 or hannah.beausang@pressdemocrat.com.