The fire chief of the capital city of Austin is fending off calls to resign after his response to the deadly flooding that struck Central Texas last week.
The Austin Firefighters Association did not mince words when sharing its views regarding the flood response from Fire Chief Joel Baker. In a Facebook message posted Monday, the AFA claimed that except for three rescue swimmers, Baker deliberately “DENIED the deployment of Austin firefighters to Kerrville until very late into the event.”
‘Although we had an increase of Africans that had applied, I have not really seen an increase of Africans [who have] been hired.’
The “disgusted” AFA described Baker’s alleged decisions during the flooding as “unforgivable” and an “egregious” and “disgraceful dereliction of duty.”
“LIVES WERE VERY LIKELY LOST BECAUSE OF CHIEF BAKER’S DECISION!” the group continued. “… He needs to be held accountable and fired.”
Photo by Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images
The AFA claimed Baker withheld the resources in a “misguided attempt to save money” and that finances may have played a role.
A June 6 email from Andre Jordan, division chief of special operations and homeland security for the city of Austin, and distributed to various fire staff stated that the Austin Fire Department had “suspended deployments” to the fire academy and through the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System until October 1, citing a city “budget crisis” of some $800,000 due mainly to missing reimbursements from the state, according to the Austin Monitor.
‘It’s important that we are able to function and maintain a certain level of readiness in the city of Austin.’
“The City wants to make sure this money is reimbursed before the end of the fiscal year, and does not want to be in a situation where additional money is expended on deployments and is not recouped before the end of the fiscal year,” Jordan reportedly wrote.
Baker admitted to KXAN on Monday that “the email should have said … ‘Based on a case-by-case basis.'” However, he insisted that his department “absolutely” did everything it could in response to the flooding and that budget issues at AFD had “nothing” to do with his decisions during it.
Baker added that his primary responsibility, even during a widespread emergency, is to protect the city of Austin and its residents:
It’s important that we are able to function and maintain a certain level of readiness in the city of Austin. Now, to keep in mind — again — I was not sure how much of the weather would impact my city — the city of Austin. I need to make sure that I have an adequate amount of resources within the city so I can respond for my mutual aid calls and my automatic aid calls around the city of Austin.
A spokesperson from the press information office also told Blaze News that AFD began deploying rescue personnel to areas in need on July 4 and continued to do so in the days following. The three rescue swimmers were dispatched on Friday, eight other team members and a boat on Saturday and Sunday, six crew members and fire engine on Monday, and four engines and a battalion chief on Tuesday, according to an email from the PIO.
“The first request for aid that was communicated to AFD leadership came in on July 4, the same day we deployed,” the message from the spokesperson said. “AFD evaluates deployment requests on a case-by-case basis to ensure we can meet the needs of the requesting agency/agencies without compromising staffing and resources in our City.”
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson and city manager T.C. Broadnax likewise stand by Baker against the accusations from the firefighters’ union.
But AFA President Bob Nicks is not satisfied. “We were the best rescue team in the best position to help those little girls,” Nicks said, referring to the tragedy at Camp Mystic in Kerr County, according to KXAN. “Before the moratorium, this was a routine request, and we would have deployed.”
Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
For now, members of the AFA are reportedly considering a possible vote of no confidence in Chief Baker, but Baker appears not to mind. “I absolutely will not step aside,” he said, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
Baker has been at the helm of AFD, with its nearly 50 stations and 1,200 employees, since his appointment in December 2018. Prior to moving to Austin, Baker spent three decades with the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department in Georgia, where he grew up. Since taking the position with AFD, Baker, touted as Austin’s “first African-American fire chief,” has prioritized diversity and increasing the number of “minority applicants.”
There’s still “a whole lot of room for improvement,” he said in an interview with KTBC in 2020.
“We had an increase of … minority applicants who had applied. … I have not really seen an increase of [applicants who have] been hired. So now we got to find out — we getting people applying, but what’s the barrier of getting them hired? You know, are they not able to pass the written exam or the oral exam or the background checks? You know, what’s out there? What’s barriers are out there that prevent them to get hired?”
Since his arrival in Austin, Baker has also joined the 100 Black Men of Austin and Gamma Eta Lambda Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, which claims to have “supplied voice and vision to the struggle of African-Americans and people of color around the world” since its founding in 1906.
Blaze News asked the AFD press office about Baker’s emphasis on race and DEI but did not receive a response to those questions. The AFA and Andre Jordan did not respond to requests for comment.
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Austin, Texas, Flooding, Camp mystic, Firefighters, Austin firefighters association, Fire department, Fire chief, Joel baker, Politics