UPDATED: Fairfax County says consultant will ‘assess’ sexual harassment issues — What happened to investigating?

Fairfax women firefighters speak out against negative stories;say it’s a great work environment@wusa9 @ffxfirerescue pic.twitter.com/kwyMyJTL2D

— Peggy Fox (@PeggyTV) May 18, 2016

UPDATE

A group of female firefighters spoke this morning outside the Annandale firehouse. Watch the story from WUSA9.com’s Peggy Fox.

EARLIER

After 18-days filled with new allegations related to sexual harassment and five days since the person who was supposed to be investigating these claims was put on administrative leave, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors finally issued a statement. It came yesterday (Tuesday) from the office of Chairman Sharon Bulova.

Unfortunately, the statement provides no answers to many basic questions that should be answerable by now. It also leaves the impression the board is again kicking the can down the road to get out of a tight spot:

The Board of Supervisors directs the County Executive to retain an outside third party consultant to assess the working environment within the Fire and Rescue Department, focusing on Equal Employment issues, workforce morale, mental health assistance, and communication issues. County staff will develop a more formal scope of work for this study. Fire and Rescue Chief Richie Bowers fully supports this initiative.

The operative word here appears to be “assess.” Despite all of the recent claims, a new sexual harassment lawsuit and the problems with the internal affairs investigator assigned to investigate harassment claims both before and after the suicide of Firefighter Nicole Mittendorff, suddenly the word “investigation” has vanished. You also won’t find the word “accountability” in the statement.

This is not new territory for Sharon Bulova and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. The supervisors, county executive’s office, police chief and top police commanders were involved in a lengthy cover-up after a bad police shooting in August of 2013. Their work kept key information from the victim’s family, local and federal prosecutors, a U.S. senator and the public.

When the truth finally came out 15-months later — thanks to a dogged reporter and a determined judge — there were many apologies by Sharon Bulova and a lot of promises to do better. There was also the appointment of a commission and the hiring of a consultant (sound familiar?), both to review and suggest changes to police practices. What didn’t occur after that embarrassing chapter in Fairfax County history was an investigation into how that cover-up occurred (I was a member of the commission and commissioners were told very specifically that was not out mission). This also meant zero accountability.

With Fire Chief Richie Bowers reported to be out of town, Chairman Bulova came out with strong words this week when talking about the fire department’s internal affairs investigator, Guy Morgan (Bulova interview here). Morgan was put on administrative leave after reporter Peggy Fox began asking questions about Morgan’s Facebook page. Fox reported that firefighters had previously warned Chief Bowers about the questionable posts (watch report). Here’s what Chairman Bulova told Washington Post reporter Patricia Sullivan yesterday:

Fairfax board chairman Sharon Bulova said in an interview Tuesday evening that “Actual harassment, bullying, all those things are not acceptable and are counter Fairfax County’s code of ethics,” especially noting the allegations against Guy Morgan, who is in charge of workplace misconduct within the fire and rescue department. His position requires that “he needs to be held to a higher standard,” Bulova said.

She also said Bowers brought Morgan’s posts to her attention last week, before WUSA-TV first reported them. The broadcasters said some of the photos on Morgan’s page “are so inappropriate we couldn’t show them on TV.”

Bulova also confirmed for the Post that Morgan is under investigation, but there has been no recent talk of any other investigations.

On April 29, Chief Bowers promised internal investigations into the cyber-bullying and sexual harassment matters raised following the death of Firefighter Mittendorff. With Guy Morgan currently on administrative leave and not likely to be handling sexual-harassment investigations anytime soon, there’s no official word about who, if anyone, is doing that investigation.

On Friday, I chronicled the allegations that have been made since that April 29 press conference and a series of questions that should be answerable right now by Chairman Bulova and/or Chief Bowers. The only questions that have been answered — at least partially — are about Guy Morgan. The rest are things you don’t need to hire a consultant to answer. (read the allegations and questions here).

One of my questions is a request for an assessment by the chief of how big of a problem sexual harassment is in the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department. I honestly don’t know and I’m sure my neighbors haven’t a clue either. But we expect transparency and candor through this process — with direct answers from the chief as this moves forward — rather than waiting for a consultants report a year or more down the road.

At the very least, the chief knows how the women under his command feel about this topic. According to news coverage, as promised at the April 29 press conference, Chief Bowers held a meeting attended by most of the female firefighters in the department. Why hasn’t the chief publicly shared the results of that meeting?

If the sense is everything is fine, I want to know that from the chief. If the meeting has the chief believing the problem is bigger than he imagined, I want to know that too. Such openness about important issues is the only way the public is going to have confidence in the current leadership to find solutions.

As for hiring a consultant, it might be the right thing to do for long term strategy and policy changes. But as a solution to the image problem currently facing the department, it’s like asking for mutual aid from LAFD for an apartment that’s burning tonight on Richmond Highway.

Hiring a consultant should not be an excuse to avoid answering the tough questions. Many of the questions that have been raised are about how the current and previous administrations handled sexual harassment allegations.

And if there is a serious sexual harassment problem, I would hope the leadership of the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department doesn’t need a consultant to tell them what to do next. In today’s world that should be a required skill for those in charge. But in case someone needs a hint, just focus on the two words missing from Chairman Bulova’s statement — “investigation” and “accountability” –and you will be off to a good start.