OVERTON, Texas — Overton assistant fire chief announced his resignation Thursday night after claiming city officials bullied the volunteer firefighters.
Assistant Chief TJ Lewis resigned from his position during a Thursday city council meeting.
"There was a meeting that was called and basically, some of the management in the city came down," Lewis said. "And I would say basically dictated and bullied their way around, i guess their personal agenda."
Lewis said this happened during the fire department's annual meeting.
"No option to sitting down and saying, 'hey, this is what we're expecting. And for us to be able to say, 'hey, look, this is what we expect from y'all,'" Lewis said. "There was there was no communication back and forth. it was just it was a sudden surprise."
Following the meeting, Mayor Curtis Gilbert and other city council members declined to comment on the resignation and allegations.
The councilmen turned down painting the fire department because they deemed it not public property.
Also on the council's agenda was whether or not to paint the City Hall building. This led councilman Reggie Thompson to bring up the issue on a recent tabled discussion over painting the fire department.
"So why would we say the fire department can't have any money given them to paint but were going to do it for the city," Thompson said.
Out of the five members, two voted in favor, two against and one didn't vote regarding painting City Hall. On the tied vote, Gilbert broke the tie in favoring of painting City Hall.
Lewis said it was issues like that, which caused him to resign - a decision he called difficult.
"So my hope for the department and hope for the city now moving forward, is that there can be some communication opened up and they can have a serious sit down and say these are our expectations," Lewis said. "These are their expectations, find a middle ground operate for the betterment of the community, because ultimately the community just ones that suffering at this point."