Editor’s note: This story, originally published in The Dispatch on Oct. 9, 2014, contains inaccuracies addressed in an Oct. 10 story that can be found here.
The Columbus City Council on Tuesday fired a firefighter because he married a family member of a fellow firefighter.
Jonathan Goodman was terminated for violating the city’s nepotism policy, according to Columbus Fire & Rescue Chief Martin Andrews. Goodman, 25, had been employed with CF&R since April 2013.
On Sept. 27, he married another firefighter’s niece. His wife’s uncle, Herbert Tedford, holds the same rank as Goodman. Tedford and Goodman work at separate firehouses on separate shifts, according to Goodman.
Goodman told The Dispatch that after he and his now-wife, Nicole, got engaged, he approached Andrews about the situation. Andrews, Goodman said, told him that if the couple married, he would be fired.
Goodman subsequently filed a grievance with the city. He then met with Mayor Robert Smith and Chief Operations Officer David Armstrong.
“I was told I could date her, I could live with her, but I couldn’t marry her,” Goodman said.
The matter went before the city council Tuesday night in executive session. During the two-hour meeting, councilmen told Goodman he could either transfer to the city police department or be terminated. Goodman declined to change departments.
Councilmen voted unanimously to fire him.
According to the city’s policy, “nepotism occurs when any person employed by the City shall occupy a position in which he/she will be directly working for or supervising a relative or person with whom he/she is in a dating relationship.”
It continues by saying, “In cases where a conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest arises because of the relationship between employees, even if there is no authority or line of reporting involved, the employees may be separated by reassignment or terminated from employment to avoid personal conflicts to be carried over in the day-to-day working relationships and to avoid the appearance of impropriety, favoritism or a negative effect on morale.”
Currently, several CF&R employees are related by blood and marriage. Andrews, in an interview with The Dispatch, said those employees were grandfathered in when the nepotism policy went into effect in May 2008.
Andrews said it is his understanding that Goodman could not work in the same department as his wife’s uncle.
“I told (Goodman) that according to city policy in nepotism he could be terminated,” Andrews said. “It’s all left up to the mayor and council.
“He terminated himself,” Andrews continued. “He was a good firefighter, of course, but he just made the choice to get married which violated our nepotism policy. He can no longer work for the fire department.”
Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem said he feels councilmen’s hands were tied.
“Nobody wanted to see him go. He’s a good fireman,” Karriem said this morning. “Everybody was sympathetic to his position but we have a policy to go by. But we came up with a lateral transfer. That was the only option that the mayor and council had for him without going against our own policy.”
Goodman, explaining his decision to not transfer departments, said that while he respects what law enforcement does, being a firefighter is a large part of who he is.
“That’s my passion, my career and what I love to do,” he said. “If I had any interest in being a police officer I would have pursued that a long time ago.”
Karriem said he asked for the mayor and council to review the nepotism policy.
“I think the policy needs to be looked at,” the councilman said. “Where the policy has some good provisions in it, I think it has good intentions, but I think in today’s time we need to revisit the policy.”
Sarah Fowler covered crime, education and community related events for The Dispatch.
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