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The City of Minneapolis demands the highest standards of conduct for our employees, standards which are even higher for our supervisors and our leadership. When those standards are violated, it is essential that the City of Minneapolis send a clear and powerful message that we will not tolerate behavior that puts our city or our employees at risk. If you don’t meet the expectations the citizens deserve, you will be held accountable and you will be severely punished. We are sending that exact message today by removing Bonnie Bleskachek as Fire Chief.

For the past few months there has been a controversy surrounding our fire chief. Not all the speculation is correct. However as you will learn in more detail later today, Bonnie Bleskachek showed exceptionally poor judgment. Her actions were irresponsible and they jeopardized the reputation of the city and the department she led. She should be severely punished.

Today I am urging the city council to act on a legal agreement with Ms. Bleskachek. She will no longer be Fire Chief and she will not contest this removal. She will not receive a severance payout. She will be completely and permanently stripped of ever holding leadership or management status in this city. She will assume an administrative position in the city without any supervisory function or chance of promotion. She has been severely and significantly demoted and her pay has been cut by more than 40 thousand dollars. Ms. Bleskachek has apologized in writing to the city, the department and the citizens of Minneapolis and has accepted theses drastic consequences with remorse.

Ms. Bleskachek’s attorney expected a severance payout with back-pay, but we said no.

Ms. Bleskachek’s attorney expected a supervisory position, but we said no.

Ms. Bleskachek’s attorney expected a leadership rank and salary, but we said no.

We demanded that she express remorse and apologize to the citizens of Minneapolis and she did.

This has been a long and painful process for our city that has shown there are gaps in the way we hold people who work for the citizens accountable. We have already begun to address these issues and today I will encourage the council to direct the staff to move further to impose the tougher standards we need.

This is severe punishment but many people I respect have said to me that they believe we should simply move to fire Bonnie Bleskachek. I was not willing to take that risk, because trying to win this case in court raises unacceptable uncertainty.

Our fire department and this entire community deserve closure on this matter and the certainty of swift punishment over the uncertainty of a lurid courtroom drama played out over months or years. This is not a time to send mixed messages, but to send a clear message.

By removing Bleskachek today we are establishing complete control over her future employment with this city and guaranteeing that she will never supervise anyone. If we let this drag on into an uncertain future, we will run the risk of having her return to a senior management position in the department. I will not take that risk.

By removing Bleskachek today we are maintaining our right to release more information regarding her behavior to the public than we otherwise could have. If we let this drag on into an uncertain future, there would be significant restraint on our ability to tell the public the facts what they deserve to know now.

And by removing Bleskachek today we are guaranteeing that the public purse will not pay a huge monetary settlement to an employee who has abused her position and damaged our city. If we let this drag on into an uncertain future, there are unpredictable and potentially very large financial consequences to a city that has already spent too much on this case.

Let me be clear, removing Bleskachek today is the only way to avoid unacceptable financial risk now and in the future.

Two weeks ago I went to Fire Station 17 to apologize to the fire fighters for this tremendous distraction and hear their concerns. During that conversation they told me about their experiences over the Thanksgiving vacation. I cringed as they recounted how friends and families make joked about the department where they have been, and should be proud to work. The firefighters of this city do not deserve that treatment. They are talented, and brave, and protect us every day. This is a great fire department but this incident has exposed some significant problems.

What has happened is wrong, it is regrettable and we will fix it so that this never happens again. From this process, we now know that we have holes in our city policies and we’re going to fill them.

It’s time to get about the tough business of reforming what is wrong and protecting the citizens of Minneapolis.

I urge you to take the action we need today to return our focus to fixing those problems and get on with the work with protecting the citizens of the city.

I, therefore, move that we accept this settlement today.