Hollister officials last week placed Fire Chief Mike O’Connor on administrative leave due to an undisclosed personnel matter in the department, Mayor Ignacio Velazquez confirmed.
O’Connor had been named permanent fire chief in January after about eight months in the interim chief role. He has been with the department for more than 25 years.
Velazquez said the city will hire an outside investigator to examine the matter, though he could not expand on details of the accusation against O’Connor. The mayor said the allegation was made in the past “week or two.”
O’Connor did not immediately return a message on his cell phone.
City Manager Bill Avera, who made the decision to place him on leave due to the allegation, said he informed Capt. Leo Alvarez he would be acting chief on Oct. 22. Beyond that, Avera cited personnel reasons and declined to comment further.
Councilman Ray Friend said the city manager informed council members of the need for placing the chief on administrative leave last week.
“Other than that, like I told somebody else, it’s such a shame that this kind of clouds up all the good that’s been going on since Mike came on board,” Friend said, pointing to city-county consolidation and overtime being down.
Friend did acknowledge there were likely tensions in the fire department after city leaders had O’Connor reduce overtime. O’Connor has also pushed for the use of paid volunteers.
“I would imagine as in any situation where there’s a group of people getting a lot of overtime, you start cutting back on it, there’s going to be some hate and discontent among the troops,” Friend said.
Firefighters union President Vince Grewohl did not return phone calls seeking comment.
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