Maine’s fire marshal told lawmakers on Wednesday that he spent his first year leading the agency making changes to address its toxic culture, but said it will take time to rebuild trust between staff and management.
“I believe morale is improving,” Richard McCarthy said during a hearing before the government oversight and criminal justice committees. “There is still work to be done, but I believe it is improving.”
McCarthy and Michael Sauschuck, commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety, appeared at the State House to explain how they were responding to a litany of concerns about the agency’s culture and operations that came to light through reporting in the Bangor Daily News during McCarthy’s confirmation hearing last winter. Some employees said they felt more stressed out after interacting with their bosses than responding to deadly fires.
The Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability, the Legislature’s oversight arm, later confirmed those concerns after conducting its own investigation. That investigation, published in July, identified 15 areas where staff saw problems, from issues with their schedules to incidents of misogyny in the workplace. The agency has also faced lawsuits over sexual harassment and retaliation.
Then, in December, the Maine Labor Relations Board found that the office had acted in “flagrant violation” of the union contract for members of the agency’s investigations division. Most of the complaints brought forward about leadership have come from fire investigators, the unit within the agency that investigates arson.
McCarthy previously served as the assistant fire marshal overseeing the inspections and code enforcement division of the agency, but his longtime position in leadership made some staff wary about whether he would bring meaningful changes to the office.
On Wednesday, he told lawmakers that he was working to build greater “cohesion” among staff by instituing more consistent policies between the inspection and investigations divisions, holding more meetings and training, and updating policies that hadn’t been modified in years. Sauschuck applauded him for responding to fire scenes, something he didn’t have to do as an administrator but demonstrates his dedication to understanding the realities his staff deal with on the job.
McCarthy, however, provided few specifics in response to questions about how he was repairing trust with staff on an individual basis. He summarized his actions by saying he was “letting [employees] know we have their back and we are going to hold people accountable.”
