Franklin County BOC Quietly Fires County EMA/e911 Director

After 12 years on the job, Franklin County’s Board of Commissioners has fired County EMA and e911 Director Jones Beasley.

Beasley was let go on Thursday, September 26, but no formal announcement was made by the County.  EMS Director Terry Harris is serving as the Interim EMA e911 Director in addition to his EMS duties.

County commission chair Thomas Bridges would not comment on the reason for Beasley’s firing but indicated the county apparently has no plans to look for a formal replacement for Beasley.

 “We’re going to see how it works out with Terry being the director,” Bridges said Thursday. “Terry will have to get his feet wet first, and then inform us about what assistance he might need if that job remains under his umbrella.”

Meantime, in an interview with Beasley Thursday, he said he believes he was fired after a disgruntled employee told Bridges several dispatchers had not yet been certified by the Police Officers Standards and Training or POST, which is required under Georgia Law.

“I had a meeting with some employees regarding some problems they were having and afterwards one of them was very upset and said, ‘I’m going to get you back.’ I told her to take some time and calm down and it would get better, but instead she apparently went to Thomas Bridges and complained. She told him I hadn’t sent some of the new dispatchers to POST for training,” he said.

Beasley said because he has been shorthanded in the e911 office, he could not afford to have a dispatcher gone for a week of training because there was no one to fill in while they were away.

“If I send them to class then I wouldn’t have a seat filled. I told (former county manager)  Billy (Morse) it takes about eight weeks to get a dispatcher fully trained and certified,” Beasley said. “You send them to the POST training and they stay one week.  They learn basic dispatching and that’s it. They don’t learn the system that we use, they just learn very basic stuff.  Plus, it takes anywhere from two to three months to get somebody in a class. It takes forever to get them through.”

Beasley said because of recent turnover in the e911 office, he felt he was caught between a rock and a hard place.

“It was either have a seat filled or send them to class,” he said. “So I felt by having a seat vacant, we could potentially jeopardize the public’s safety.”

Beasley said when former county Manager Billy Morse informed him that there was a problem, he explained the situation and said he was working to correct it.   He said he was let go without being able to explain any of that to the board of commissioners or given a chance to correct the problem.

“Billy called me into his office that Thursday and his exact words were, “Jones, the commissioners voted Tuesday to terminate your employment,” Beasley said. “John Phillips (County Planning Director) and Elaine Evans (County Clerk) were in that meeting and heard the whole thing.”

The board of commissioners held an executive session on Tuesday, September 24^th to discuss personnel, but Morse, who left early from that meeting, has said he does not know if they voted at that time to terminate Beasley.

Beasley was hired by Franklin County as the EMA/e911 Director in 2001.

“I never dreamed anything like this would ever happen,” Beasley said Thursday. “I truly thought I would retire from Franklin County.”