The State Fire Marshal told lawmakers on Wednesday that he believes his office has made substantial progress addressing concerns about an unhealthy work environment since he took over nearly a year ago.
But Richard McCarthy also acknowledged that more improvements are needed as the office works to improve morale, culture and staffing levels in the small agency that investigates fires and carries out building inspections.
Last year, the Legislature's watchdog agency, the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability (OPEGA), interviewed most staff members in the State Fire Marshal's Office as well as past employees in response to concerns about misogyny, bad management and growing worker dissatisfaction. The concerns had surfaced during McCarthy's legislative confirmation hearings and after reporting in the Bangor Daily News about long-standing complaints about the culture in the agency.
"In sum, it was clear to OPEGA that lingering concerns remain about the work culture and climate in the Fire Marshal's Office, which will require sustained effort and initiatives to overcome and resolve," reads the July 2023 report from OPEGA.
On Wednesday, McCarthy told members of two legislative committees that he has sought to address safety concerns — such as inadequate equipment or lack of support in the field — and has an open-door policy for staff. He said he also held the first agency-wide meetings in years and has brought in additional training.
And since December, his office implemented all of the changes ordered by the Maine Labor Relations Board, which found "flagrant violations" against union workers during collective bargaining.
"I think we are working better as a unit," McCarthy said. "There are always going to be those who resist some of the changes but I think in general we are headed in the right direction."
When a committee member asked about morale within the department, McCarthy replied: "I believe morale is improving. There is still work to be done. There is still work to be done."
McCarthy said he's also made clear that people who harass or make inappropriate comments about other staff or the public will be held accountable. That was in response to allegations recounted to OPEGA staff about statements "that would be highly offensive or inappropriate to an objective observer and which were entirely inappropriate in a workplace environment." At least one of the alleged misogynistic comments — which OPEGA did not detail in its report — concerned a female fire victim.
Members of the Legislature's Government Oversight Committee and Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee did not press McCarthy hard for specifics during the nearly 90-minute session. But some committee members said they continue to hear from members of the public or even former fire marshal's office employees about concerns.
"The ongoing improvements that you have alluded to, we look forward to seeing how they continue," said Sen. Craig Hickman, D-Winthrop, co-chair of the Government Oversight Committee. "We want all of our state employees to feel valued, to be treated fair, to be paid well and to work in an environment without any sense of harassment or toxicity or abuse of any kind."
Michael Sauschuck, who is McCarthy's boss as commissioner of the Maine Department of Public Safety, echoed his comments about progress.
"I think the fire marshal has come a long way in the 10 months in which he has been in charge," Sauschuck said. "That doesn't mean that we have reached the silver ring . . . and that life is good because it is not. We still have issues that we need to address. But I do think a lot of those issues have gone to those big, heavy-hitter issues around human rights complaints and things of that nature to grievances around contracts that are more union-oriented than not."
