Ethics commission finds Seattle Fire Department lieutenant misused position

A report by the city's Ethics and Elections Commission has found that a Seattle Fire Department lieutenant failed to bill the owners of Qwest Field for nearly $200,000 in fire services and misused his official position as a fire inspector when he demanded two all-access backstage passes to a Hannah Montana concert at KeyArena. The report released today found that Lt. Milton Footer's failure to seek or recoup the money from First & Goal from 2002 to 2007 was a "gross waste of public funds." The report also criticizes Seattle Fire Chief Gregory Dean and Fire Marshal Kenneth Tipler for failing to discipline Footer once the accusations came to light.

Wayne Barnett, executive director of the Ethics Commission who authored the report, said there was no indication that Footer benefitted financially from his failure to bill the Paul Allen-owned company. The only benefit the report found that Footer had received were two passes to the 2007 Hannah Montana concert. In his role as fire inspector, Footer also worked with KeyArena officials.

Mayor Greg Nickels announced today plans to immediately appoint an outside investigator to review the appropriate level of discipline for those involved.

Footer, who has been placed on paid administrative leave pending further investigation, declined to comment today.

Dean and Tipler were criticized in the report for failing to be "effective stewards of public funds ... despite warnings" and for giving Footer only a slap on the wrist with a verbal warning when the allegations against him came to light last year, the report says.

The report also found that Dean "did not ... satisfactorily discipline the lieutenant for his breach of the public trust." A call to Dean's office was referred to Fire Department spokeswoman Helen Fitzpatrick.

Tipler announced his retirement from the department on Tuesday. But Fitzpatrick said the timing was coincidental and that Tipler, a 33-year veteran of the department, had been planning to step down.

Fitzpatrick said the department will review business practices in the Fire Marshal's Office, implement new procedures for tracking billing and asking for signed service agreements with event promoters. Fitzpatrick also said that additional accounting oversight will ensure that bills are submitted and paid on time.

"We take this allegations very seriously," she said. "Maintaining public trust in our services is critical."

The investigation was launched in October, after the Ethics Commission received a whistle-blower complaint about Footer's actions. According to the report, several officials with the Fire Department were upset because Footer had received only a verbal warning after the billing failures and his request for concert tickets came to light.

According to the report, Tipler met with Dean to discuss disciplining Footer. Dean warned Tipler that disciplining or rotating Footer out of the position would create a backlash and that Tipler would "own it." Dean later told the Ethics Commission staff that he was referring to the union grievance that was sure to follow and that he felt several members of the Fire Marshal's Office were "out to get Milt."

According to the report, Footer failed to process about 70 invoices for $195,697 due the fire department that were generated between 2002 and 2007.

Footer could not explain why he had failed to process the billing invoices in an appropriate and timely fashion and that he "didn't know where they [the invoices] went," the report states.

According to the report, First & Goal was required to hire off-duty firefighters, called fireguards, to be available during events that were open to the public. The Fire Department was supposed to pay the fireguards and then bill First & Goal for their services, but those bills were never sent to First and Goal, according to the report.

Footer also explained to department officials and ethics commission investigators that he had gotten the backstage pass for his fiancée who wanted to attend the Hannah Montana concert while he was working the event.

A director of operations at KeyArena told ethics investigators that Footer was "terse, arrogant and threatening" when he asked for the passes, according to the commission report. Calls First & Goal were not immediately returned.

Barnett said the city is working to recover the money and will bill First & Goal for the firefighter services.

Seattle City Councilmember Tim Burgess, who leads the council's public-safety committee, said the report revealed serious problems with management of the fire marshal's office, including problems with budget control and billing procedures.

"The report clearly details very serious violations of the code of ethics and mismanagement in the fire department," he said. "It's very troubling. The hope that's in the report is that it reveals that many individuals in the Fire Department did the right thing by voicing their concerns and cooperating with the investigation."

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com

Seattle Times staff reporter Emily Heffter contributed to this report.