More than 40 comments on the Van Buren Township Police and Fire departments have been added to the Independent’s website, set off by the announcement by Fire Chief Dan Besson that he is leaving VBT at the end of February for another job Up North.
About half of the comments are on the Besson story and half on the list of police salaries printed on last week’s front page.
Some writers think candidates for the fire chief position shouldn’t be required to have a bachelor’s degree when the public safety director, the chief’s superior, only has a high school diploma. Should the fire chief’s requirement be dumbed down? Is experience better than education?
Then, comments on the list of police salaries focus on Lt. Ken Floro’s top pay of $208,004.01 and how outrageous it is for an hourly police officer to earn that many taxpayer dollars. “Aren’t you all glad the millage passed?” asks Fire Guy. “Good use of our tax dollars.”
Robert writes: “Remember, the township spent $400,000 to remodel offices, prior to asking for a millage increase, and just gave themselves another 3% wage increase.”
Some writers offer suggestions on how to make the public safety department more efficient — and with better morale. These busy folks won’t write a letter to the editor, but have no problem dashing off their ideas on line. See them all at www.bellevilleareaindependent.com .
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4 Comments
Weather
As it should. People should be angry.
Why is there so much hate for Chief Besson? He taught a class of mine and seemed pretty good and really cared about our skills. I just wish him the best in his new job.
Besson was a terrible leader and here is why:
He is someone who lacks character and integrity, he will not endure the test of time in any organization. It doesn’t matter how intelligent or savvy he thinks he is, because he will rationalize unethical behavior based upon his friendships with certain people. He will eventually fall to his own undoing. Nothing smacks of poor leadership like a lack of performance. Nobody is perfect, but leaders who consistently fail are not leaders and he constantly failed his team. His way or the highway mentality and everyone can attest to that.
His personal problems became organizational problems – won’t go into details but home life has no place in the business. He is wishy-washy, fears change and not willing to compromise because he thinks it undermines his position. Total “boss” complex. Ask yourself what he has done to make a difference in our community? I can’t come up with anything positive. All I know is he busted the budget for his own personal benefit (3 personal fire vehicles, etc) and used company time to prepare teaching lessons for other organizations.
It’s good that he is leaving the township and now they can focus on finding someone who has experience and knows how to lead by example. Someone who challenges people to do their best and makes it a safe environment to speak up. Lets just hope that the board actually creates a process to find such a person to fill this role. It’s been vacant for a few years now.
That is very harsh and really not necessary. I know Mr. BESSON and he is a wonderful man. He is a great leader and he will be missed. He taught his firemen how to do their jobs to the best of their ability. He should be given thanks and not anonymous bashing. If you all feel so strongly then why wait and do this on a newspaper site and not talk to him when yall had the issues? Smh