CARIBOU, Maine — The head of the city’s fire, ambulance and emergency management services has resigned after more than four decades as a Caribou firefighter.
However, City Manager Steven Buck issued a statement Tuesday indicating that he accepted the resignation “in lieu of termination” after an investigation into a complaint filed against the fire chief by a city employee.
Roy Woods resigned late Monday after 44 years with the Caribou Fire and Ambulance Department, including 21 years as the head of fire, ambulance and emergency management services for the city. According to a copy of the resignation letter delivered to the city manager, Woods said he was resigning for “medical reasons.’’
In his letter, he says that “the stress of chief of fire, ambulance and EMS director for the city of Caribou for 21 years has become more than my wife and I can handle. For medical reasons, I must resign.”
Woods goes on to say that he “spent his life” working to protect the city, working his way up from firefighter to firefighter/paramedic instructor and eventually chief. He lauded his former workplace as “the best fire and ambulance department in the state.”
He also wishes the department “the best of luck” in the future.
In his statement to the media on Tuesday, Buck referred to an investigation into a complaint against Woods.
“An independent investigation into the personnel matter was conducted with an expanded scope,” said Buck. “After extensive review and evaluation of the results of the investigation, my own evaluation and after reviewing these evaluations with Woods and a subsequent review of his responses, I accepted his immediate resignation.”
Buck said that Maine law prevented him from commenting on a personnel matter, and the city would not release any additional details about the incident.
A new chief has not yet been appointed, but the current chain of command at the department is filling in until a new leader is appointed. Caribou Police Chief Mike Gahagan also is helping to oversee the department, and Buck said there would be no break in services.
He also said in the statement Tuesday that the city recognized Woods’ contributions and dedication over the past four decades.
“It is with extreme regret that he will no longer be of service to the city of Caribou,” he noted.
Woods could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Woods was elected vice president of the Maine Fire Chiefs Association in 1999 and served as a director of the Aroostook County Fire Chiefs Association.
Buck’s statement reduced is one word. P-O-L-I-T-I-C-S.
Mr. Buck, you’ve said too much already.
yup…he violated state law
Wasn’t his resignation enough? Did ” in lieu of termination” have to be included, unless he was going to be arrested?
Can’t someone be fired without being arrested for something?
ahh yeah of course. Not saying in this case. But if a store employee violates store policey then of course he/she can be fired even though it was not a crime
What I objected to was the inclusion of “in lieu of termination” in the statement that was made.
Mr. Woods had not been accused of anything that I read in the article.
It seems that with old articles, and all the insinuations included in the comments section, that there just might be grounds for a”either quit or get fired” confrontation here, no?
Yes, but just accepting the resignation would have been satisfactory don’t you think?
That would’ve been polite but not the whole truth, which is what the News is hopefully all about. Otherwise it would be called a coverup by the media, which we can’t have. Agreed?
I live up in this area and from what I see there seems to be more going on than what is coming out of the city of Caribou. I actually know people that would know of the situation and they feel that Mr. Woods is getting a raw deal. I can’t say for sure either way who is at fault but this is what I have been told. Either way, a sad deal on whatever side.
The statement “in lieu of termination” was VERY unprofessional and Mr Buck owes Mr Woods an apology. The town should look into Woods behavior.
No he wasn’t they were going to let Mr. Woods go and he decided to save his name by resigning…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes It Was , It Didn’t have to be Mentioned at all.. Very Unprofessional!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow, !!!!!!!!!!!!! envy.
I CERTAINLY AGREE!! That Was Not Called For PERIOD!
I hope the voters remember Buck’s actions and unceremoniously terminate his butt in lieu of riding him out of town on a rail.
City Managers are hired not elected, but go ahead and lead the call to vote him out of his job!
The voters, or perhaps citizens, would not directly vote or fire him but express their views to the elected officials who can “can” him.
Oh, glad that’s cleared up!
It’s all legal wording because the City of Caribou could be responsible for Wood’s actions. This shows the City Manager was doing his job and not sweeping the complant under the rug….
It was the BDN that reported that part to the world. How can the public have unbiased reporting by leaving out such an important aspect to the whole story?
Wishfully, life would be “polite”, but this is reality and in this case, the unvarnished truth…
He left for medical reasons?
Sounds like the City Manager was ‘sick’ of him (as Howie Carr would say).
Did this incident have to be blown to the point of being on the news for 2 days. He may have done something wrong, he gave up his job and now has to face the public. I think he is paying dearly for this. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone, Everyone has a few skeletons in their closet that i`m sure they would love to share! It`s over and time to move on. I`m sure that come Saturday night if you want to sit outside a certain bar you could find a new topic of conversation and wonder why some others are not news articles.
Hey! Don’t get your fantasy knickers in a twist with an unwarranted rant at me!
This is the first I’ve read of it, have no idea what skeletons are involved, and it seems that your touchiness on the subject would make you much more knowledgeable about this than the average reader here.
As far as me sitting outside a bar in January, that is just another of your obvious fantasies (maybe it includes me seeing you saunter by?) !!
After 44 years on the job, was retirement that far off anyway?
Sheese!
If Mr. Buck says that he can not discuss personel issues then he should keep his mouth shut and leave it that the very dedicated fire chief gave his personal sacrifice for 4 decades and left for medical reason. Sounds like the city manager is full of himself and wanted to make the fire chief look bad. I would go after the city after this. what a slime ball
Wrong County for your indignation. There are two sides to every issue but obviously if you don’t agree with one side you do actually what you are upset about. Think how your posts make you look like a hypocrite. The clams are waiting!
Just curious, but how does receiving a paycheck for all those 44 years of working a job qualify as a personal sacrifice?
I guess you could say I sacrificed myself for all those years at the alter of repairing cars for rich Mercedes owners.
There was a poll posted yesterday on the most stressful jobs: Enlisted soldier was the top stressful job but Firefighter was very high up on the list (and EMS is IMO the more significant stress inducing portion.) Enough sacrifice for you!
I love and respect the selflessness of the average firefighter, but I still think ‘personal sacrifice’ is just a bit over the top.
Nice 1
apparetnly you do not know ALL that a firefighter does for NO pay. You must not be involved in any fire assoc activities or be a volunteer FF. Almost every public safety officer gets paid little and does work of 5 people.
One of my good friends likes to tell me stories of his work at a station on Huntington Av. here in Boston. He does lots of the usual volunteer work too, but because he likes to. Otherwise it wouldn’t be caller volunteering. That also includes volunteer fighters in some far flung places. Sure , it’s hard work, but volunteering without being truly altruistic doesn’t mean ‘personal sacrifice’; that’s just liking to do it.
Now, don’t be buzzing while trying to get your head wrapped around the whole story without using all your indignation, huh?
Exactly. I know both the City Manager and the Fire Chief. And you nailed this one on the head. I don’t have any respect for the City Manager, or how that town is run in general. It’s obvious how run-down that down is, so the people can thank the Town Management for that…
The town is rundown???……..now THAT’S silly.
This is too bad for all involved but let it play out.
You don’t know what you are talking about.
According to our local paper ” A independent investigation was conducted by NON-CITY PERSONAL (State Police) began on Dec. 27 ,2010They concluded that Mr. Woods has engaged in conduct towards City employees that was unprofessional, unacceptable and in violation of City of Caribou’s policies.2) Caribou tried to keep the story quite because of who he is. The story that the citizens of Caribou where going to be told was that he was getting done do to stress & medical reasons. 3) folks are now coming forward and saying that those that know him, that he has had a problem for years keeping his hands to himself. It’s been a long time coming. It took just the right person to file the complaint.You can play the blame game, you can point the finger at anyone, The bottom line is, he was in the wrong. Know he must pay just like and other person would. Caribou letting him go regardless if he quit or was fired was the right thing to do.
I agree with you 100%, the problem here is he got caught and now has to pay for his actions!!!!
We all need to remember that Mr. Woods is no better than you or I. If we did something wrong we would have to pay the price. Mr. Woods might have been a great man and did a lot for our city but if he did what people are saying than he must pay the price. Mr. Buck did what he had to do so that we as people of the town of Caribou would know that he isn’t letting this just get swept under the rug. What if he was you or your family member. Mr. Woods is human just like you or I and he needs to face the fact that he can’t just do what people say he did and get away with it. It isn’t our place to judge him or the person involved that is in the hands of the law.
There is always more to the story than people know. Mr. Buck is doing his job and no matter how great someone is when they step over the line they need to pay the piper.
It doesn’t matter what there is to the story…You don’t drag his name through the mud, he was good enough o give 44 years o the city of Caribou, because of this incident he is publicly humiliated??? Shame on you Steve Buck, I thought you were better then that…
You make it sound like Mr. Woods was working for free……He held 3 different positions and most likely got paid for all 3 at the same time…….He’ll go home and collect a good pension…unless charges are brought against him and the City of Caribou….
If he was like most of the retirees in Caribou, you retire and then stay at your job and get paid your same wage as before and also collect your retirement. I think that’s a good deal don’t you. Just saying.
It is a good deal. It’s too bad it happens alot. New hires would be paid less and would save the TOWN lots. Notice I said town. Caribou is not a city anymore if it ever was…..
Yes it is a city. Has been for a while. And the new hires would have to wait 25 years to get same deal if it is in effect then.
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire?
If that were true it would always be called fire and there would not be a word for smoke. Moreover, there are lots of things that look like smoke but are not: clouds, liquid nitrogen evaporation (used in special effects) and, indeed, things that smolder but never flame. More to the point, A fair percentage of convicted murderers are exonerated–proved innocent–due to DNA testing, or findings of police and prosecutorial misconduct. If this is true for capital crimes, imaging how often this would be true for lesser offenses.
“Caribou is grateful to Roy Wood for 44 years of community service. Now get out before I fire you, you dirty old rotten man.”
I’m sure Mr. Woods must have done something bad to be on the edge of being fired, so thank you Mr. Buck for doing your job…………Good luck Mr. Woods
Buck had his resignation. Wasn’t that enough? How completely deplorable to add those four insipid words to the announcement of his departure!! Totally classless!!
Lawyers, maybe there is a defamation suit possible here? It would certainly help put vindictive public servants on guard in the future.
The deal here is this: the town wants to fire the Chief. The choice is to perhaps drag this out in the courts, newspapers, administrative appeals, public turmoil, etc…or, to reach a private agreement involving resignation. Once there is agreement to resign, that should be the end of it. Mr. Buck could not help himself but to do a little twisting of the shiv. This seems both vengeful and disgustingly unprofessional and warrants looking at his judgment as an official and perhaps offering him the option of resigning in lieu of termination.
“Classless”? Mr. Woods’ behavior is “classless”. Just another example of an employee with some authority who abuses it. His termination/resignation should be made public. He is a city official engaging in unethical, unprofessional behavior. Poor, Mr. Woods. What about the young lady who was mistreated and disrespected? How will this experience at such a young age scar her?
I would hope that Mr. Woods “resignation” in no way affects his retirement and he collects his well deserved pension. I believe that after forty plus years, he has certainly earned it.
He might have been collecting it and working at the same time. That is standard practice in Caribou. And probably in a lot of towns in Maine. Not something thats talked about alot.
It sounds like Mr Woods’ resignation is the end of any issues there might have been.
Perhaps a simple thank you for the work you did for the City of Caribou would have been enough said.
The ” in lieu of termination” comment comes off as a nah nah booboo taunt by some small child. One would hope a ” professional ” would have more class.
Another Tea Partier ?
I’d be interested in knowing exactly why Mr. Buck felt it necessary to make this statement, rather than letting Mr. Woods retire follwing som many years of service to this city. It demonstrates a real lack of professionalism and I think the City Council ought to have some questions for the City Manager. What a slap in the face to a dedicated employee.
I think that you all need to reread this story, and that after 21 years of Fire Chief you suddenly have to resign from stress….I don’t think so. There is obviously more to this story that has not come out yet. Yes I agree that Mr. Woods was a good Fire Chief when he was in his prime but of the last several years things were very different. People can be mad at the City or Mr. Buck, obviously the Chief did something not in line with City policy. The times we live in, a person of that position always has to set the example of what is right 100 percent of the time and this doesn’t appear to be the case. I believe this situation was taken care of appropriately and I am sure it is not easy on those involved. I wish the department the best and that this black eye for the Caribou Fire Department and the fire service in general will pass with time.
According to our local paper ” A independent investigation was conducted by NON-CITY PERSONAL (State Police) began on Dec. 27 ,2010
They concluded that Mr. Woods has engaged in conduct towards City employees that was unprofessional, unacceptable and in violation of City of Caribou’s policies.
2) Caribou tried to keep the story quite because of who he is. The story that the citizens of Caribou where going to be told was that he was getting done do to stress & medical reasons.
3) folks are now coming forward and saying that those that know him, that he has had a problem for years keeping his hands to himself. It’s been a long time coming. It took just the right person to file the complaint.You can play the blame game, you can point the finger at anyone, The bottom line is, he was in the wrong. Know he must pay just like and other person would. Caribou letting him go regardless if he quit or was fired was the right thing to do.
My prior comment must have hit a nerve because it was flagged and later deleted. Again, a young lady who was sexually harassed knew enough to report the the former Fire Chief’s behavior. Mr. Woods shows no remorse by stating his reasons for resigning are because of his health. He should acknowledge he resigned because of his gross lack of judgement. I’m sure he is very stressed out right now, but not because of the job duties. Nobody, in a position of authority or otherwise, has the right to sexually harass employees, and then try to sweep it under the rug when caught. The public, young or old, should trust city officials; not fear them. Mr. Woods, your actions are deplorable. Delete that.
…