An investigation into claims of misconduct against Steve McInerny that came to an abrupt end when he was fired as chief of the Naples Fire-Rescue Department cost taxpayers more than $47,000 and reached no conclusions.
The internal review, conducted by a $245-an-hour lawyer, produced more than 700 pages of transcripts and other documents, which Mayor Bill Barnett said last week he hadn't yet read.
"I would rather spend the money building bigger playground equipment or resurfacing streets or planting larger trees," City Manager Bill Moss said about the $47,412 bill the city paid for the investigation. "But the fact is we're a very larger employer and we have to be cognizant of labor practices … and a sense of fairness to our employees."
After the fire union sent a letter to the City Council in October saying its members had unanimously lost confidence in McInerny, Moss hired the investigator to "determine the basis for the allegations in the letter and any subsequent course of action," Moss wrote in a memo to the City Council last week. The action, Moss said, was based on a provision of the Firefighters' Bill of Rights that allows for fact-gathering before the city takes disciplinary action against an employee accused of impropriety.