The agreement also states the city will not stand in the way of Riley applying for and receiving unemployment compensation, and by signing the document, Riley agreed to forego any claims against the city or its employees.
Division Chief Dave Reichert has been named the interim chief.
MORE: A fire contract change will cost Fairborn hundreds of thousands of dollars
Anderson said the city wants to go with a different style of leadership for the fire department, and Riley’s firing is not the result of anything he did wrong.
“Mike served us very well for 10 years as the chief. He’s a nice man. Highest ethics. (We) just really wanted somebody that had a little different perspective in how they manage and their style. So we chose to go a different way,” Anderson said.
Fairborn recently lost the contract for fire service with Bath Twp., a loss of approximately $700,000 in annual revenue for the city. Bath trustees chose to negotiate with surrounding townships after the city asked for an increase in compensation of $1 million the first year and $1.2 million in the subsequent years.
Anderson said the loss of the Bath Twp. contract was not a factor in the decision to fire Riley.
“That didn’t affect the decision really at all,” he said. “I think the operation of the fire department is going to be continuing as usual with or without Bath Twp.”
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Riley was hired as a firefighter in Fairborn in June 1997 and became the city’s fire chief in January 2005; his annual salary was set at $113,464, according to his most recent increase in June 2018, according to his personnel file.
He retired in 2016 and was rehired by the city, a common practice in Ohio.
Riley also received positive performance evaluations during his tenure as chief, according to his personnel file.
Anderson said Reichert brings different ideas with training and working with the public. He said firefighters will notice the change, but the change will not be apparent from the outside looking in.
The city plans to keep Reichert in the top administrative role in the fire department and hire the new division chief from within the department, officials said.
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