Mayor puts city leaders on paid administrative leave

TULSA - The training to become a TFD firefighter is intense and many don't make it through.

It starts off with a written exam.

"After our written exam, we have an oral interview where we use outside citizens of Tulsa," said Tim Smallwood, Tulsa Fire Department spokesperson and recruiter.

Mayoral Chief of Staff Terry Simonson's son, Ryan, passed the first two, but it was the third step, the physical course, that a district chief says Ryan Simonson was trying to get ahead on.

2NEWS put in an open records request for the emails between fire administrators regarding Ryan Simonson almost three weeks ago.  We only just received them Monday.

In one of the emails, a district chief said, ".. are there any arrangements or approvals for Mayoral Chief of Staff Simonson and unknown male to be practicing on the PAT course ..."

According to the firefighter in charge of recruitment, Tim Smallwood, there were not.

"No. You're not allowed out, unless I'm there or a fire personnel person is there, which is normally me," said Smallwood.

This past Friday, Mayor Dewey Bartlett announced Terry Simonson and Fire Chief Allen LaCroix would be on paid leave starting Monday evening at 6.

The question is, why weren't they placed on leave immediately?

The mayor denied our request for an interview, saying the issue was under investigation, but a spokesperson for the mayor's office says they waited so that Simonson and LaCroix could wrap things up and distribute their duties to other staff while they were on leave.

According to the city charter, an investigation is supposed to be expedient, but the city points out this is not a criminal case.

Meanwhile, Ryan Simonson has since dropped out of training, but Smallwood says he wouldn't have had much of an advantage because he couldn't have had much access to the equipment.

"When all this information came out, I wasn't really alarmed because I knew everything was locked up," said Smallwood.

There is no time limit, but two committees begin examining the process Tuesday.

The external committee includes Jody Parker, a Tulsa businessman, Robert Gardner, a former city councilor and Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz.

The internal committee includes Erica Felix-Warwick, the Human Resources personnel director, Vicki Beyer, the Management Review Office director and Doug Woods, a training office for the Tulsa Fire Department.

According to the Mayor's office, both review committees will take their findings and recommendations to the mayor, and he will make a decision.

Click here to view email correspondence regarding the allegations.