Jacksonville Fire Marshal Chief Kevin L. Jones was cleared of sexual harassment allegations Friday following a city investigation.
Jones confirmed with First Coast News earlier this month that there were accusations against him for sexual harassment. He said, however, that he did not sexually harass anyone. At the time, the City didn't comment.
On Friday, the City of Jacksonville released details of the investigation.
It stated that a fellow employee claimed Jones made sexually explicit comments and requests toward her since 2013 and that he retaliated because she rejected his sexual advances, particularly when he removed cables from the conference room television and relocated her desk.
The investigation by the city revealed that her claims couldn't be substantiated.
"The removal of the cables from the conference room television was Chief Jones's attempt to establish a more professional work environment as was the relocation of [victim's] desk," the investigation revealed. "The claim to retaliation may arise out of Chief Jones' failure to clearly communicate to [victim] the reasons for his actions."
First Coast News looked through Jones' work history with the department and showed them to Jacksonville Firefighters Union Chief Randy Wyse, who said Jones was fit for the job.
"He was promoted all the way up through the ranks, to district chief, so he’s had a lot of experience there," Wyse said.
Mayors Alvin Brown and Lenny Curry both thought he was fit for the job too, as they appointed him to fire marshal, first in 2013 and then again in 2015, with the approval of city council.
In 2015, Curry wrote, “He has consistently demonstrated a great work ethic, high level of professionalism, and a service-oriented attitude.”
Wyse said most of what he sees in the chief’s history with the department isn’t far from the norm.
"You know what you do with punishment is really to alter behavior, alter bad behavior, and it looks like that worked with Chief Jones," Wyse said.
Jones joined JFRD in June of 1991. In 1998, he was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for falsifying worthless checks. In 2001, he was arrested and charged again for the same offense. The department gave him a written reprimand.
"I wouldn’t say it’s unusual," Wyse said. "What I’m saying is that we have had firefighters arrested before for basically the same thing, you know there are situations you get into where you’re a new firefighter, you’re not making hardly any money, you’re not certain of what’s in the bank account."
According to records obtained by First Coast News, it wasn’t until 2014 when he ran into trouble again. Jones was suspended for 10 days for using the “N” word twice, first in a staff meeting, then in a story involving the former fire chief.
The engineer who filed the complaint wrote in part, "This was very offensive to me as a black man because of all the racial issues going on within JFRD."
The department has dealt with racial discrimination lawsuits going back to the 1970s.
"They investigated that, there was some sort of violation, he was punished and that happens," he said.
Wyse said sexual harassment claims do occur within the department but he wouldn't call them "prevalent."