Former Niceville Fire Fighters Timmy Sallee and Shawn Curry have filed a lawsuit in federal court against the City of Niceville that alleges the City violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

The case stems from the firing of both men from their jobs in the last year. The lawsuit alleges inappropriate relationships between a battalion chief and probationary firefighters, a fake Facebook account, a vote of no confidence, and an allegation involving a call-out to a Niceville school with a gas leak and multiple other accusations.

The plaintiffs, Sallee and Curry, named the City and City Manager, David Deitch, as defendants in the lawsuit. Their filing with federal court for the Northern District of Florida states that they want back pay, damages, attorney’s fees, and costs for redress. Earlier this year, the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) gave Sallee their IAFF Guardian Policy protection. This lawsuit is a continuation from the promise of that protection to Sallee.

Currently, the City is searching for a new attorney to represent them, but city manager Deitch says longtime city attorney ‘Dixie’ Dan Powell still has a business relationship with the City. Deitch did not answer whether or not the City pays Powell at this time.

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What Are The Allegations?

The Union is Formed

With more than 200 pages of claims and exhibits, the attorney for the firefighters lays out an extensive range of accusations against the City, city manager, and leadership of the City’s fire department.

The document’s narrative begins by claiming that after the Niceville Fire Fighter Union Local was formed Niceville and Valparaiso Fire Chief Tommy Mayville “told the Niceville Battalion Chiefs, including Curry, that he disapproved of the Union.” In response, according to the lawsuit, certain battalion chiefs informed Fire Chief Mayville that they would not pay dues to the Union or be members of the Union. The same lawsuit, filed by Paul Donnelly of Gainesville law firm Donnelly and Gross, claims Curry made it clear to Mayville that he was in favor of the Union. The lawsuit goes on to allege that Mayville told the battalion chiefs they must pick a side between the city government and the Union. At some point after this conversation, according to the documents, Curry requested a demotion to Lieutenant – a position covered by the Union. According to the suit, the fire department denied the demotion.

We reached out to Deitch and Mayville about the lawsuit. Neither official provided comment on the allegations made by Sallee, Curry or the Union’s lawyer in their filing.

Battalion Chiefs and Gas Leaks at Niceville High School

In the recent past, Lieutenant Sallee and another firefighter, Alex Winkler, competed for an open battalion chief position, according to supplementary documentation provided by the plaintiffs. From the readings of these documents, it is clear that the two took a test and one, Winkler, was selected for promotion. In further documentation, Sallee alleges that Winkler became defensive after his promotion to battalion chief and began to isolate himself and behave imperiously to his subordinates.  

The court filing says that rumors began to swirl around the firehouse at the same time that newly promoted Battalion Chief Winkler had some sort of inappropriate relationship with a probationary firefighter. These allegations were not substantiated by the filing but were referenced in an email by Winkler to his subordinates. In the email, Winkler outlines the accusations, and then writes, “all of these allegations are completely bogus and made up.” The first claim of retributive action by Winkler stems from what he writes next. “I have never mistreated, lied or shown any disrespect to anyone. However I am done showing respect and not getting any in return. So here is [sic] how things are gonna go – Until everyone starts treating everyone with respect we will do everything by the book. There is a list of your daily duties and if they are not done without a proper explanation, the Lieutenant will be written up. If you are caught lying, you will be written up. Any insubordination you will be written up. Making any false or malicious statements you will be written up.”

The lawsuit claims there was an investigation into the assertions made by various members of the Fire Department. We asked the city manager about the claims, but he did not respond. Earlier stories about issues at the fire department have been met with ‘no comment’ statements, citing personnel rules at the City.

As a result, the lawsuit says, firefighters began to try and move off the shift under Winkler’s leadership.

A cascade of letters, delivered to Fire and City leadership document the level of morale on A Shift, which Winkler led. Three firefighters requested shift transfers, including Lieutenant Charles Brechter. Brechter also filed a report on August 13, 2023 concerning a gas leak at Niceville High School. In the report, filed 13 hours after the incident, Bretchel writes, “Our apparatus was not put in place or requested. there was no call generated in Emergency Reporting. Just wanting clarification, do we have to let dispatch know when we go to interior hazmat calls?” Timmy Sallee; still a Niceville Fire Department Lieutenant at this point in 2023, and on the scene, also wrote “Despite the gravity of the situation, BC Winkler did not activate the 911 system for an interior hazmat response, nor did he set up incident command as outlined in the established protocols. This raises serious concerns about the safety of the responder and the citizens of Niceville.”

On August 18, after a vote of its members, the Union sent a letter of no confidence in Winkler’s leadership at the fire station. The letter, which included each ‘no’ ballot of the 13-1 vote of no confidence, formalized their complaints against Winkler. A month after the vote, the suit alleges Sallee had a conversation where he asked city manager David Deitch if the City received the letter. Deitch said that he had – along with anonymous complaints that Sallee had bullied fellow firefighters into the vote. The suit then alleges Deitch told Sallee that he would fire Sallee if evidence or bullying or coercion by Sallee was found.

While Deitch did not answer questions about the disposition of the lawsuit, he did inform Mid Bay News that Winkler had been moved from a position of responsibility over other fire fighters (Battalion Chief) to a Fire Inspector position, which does not have personnel management responsibilities.

Collective Bargaining

Timmy Sallee was present at the beginning – when the Niceville Professional Fire Fighter’s Union was founded in 2019.

As a leader in the Union, he’d been the organization’s president from 2019-2022 and was the Union’s lead representative at the bargaining table during the last round of collective bargaining in 2023; he’d pushed for several ideas that he believed would improve a lot of firefighters at the department. One of those ideas, the lawsuit claims, got him on the wrong side of Fire Chief Mayville. In the past, the lawsuit alleges, the City paid volunteer firefighters a stipend of $1,800 per year to be on call for the department. Sallee claims that the only person receiving a stipend from this pool of money is Fire Chief Mayville.

During negotiations, which started in the summer of 2023 and ended and was presented to the Niceville City Council for ratification in February of 2022, after Sallee was fired, Sallee argued that the City should take that money and put it towards, “some of the union’s economic proposals for better pay, benefits, and working conditions for fire fighters to improve the Department’s public safety functions.”

The filing says the volunteer program has not had any regular use since 2007, that portions of that money were paid out to Chief Tommy Mayville as a part of his salary, and that Mayville threatened Sallee, saying, “If you are coming after my pay, then I will be coming after yours.” When asked whether the City’s volunteer firefighter fund continues to exist, City Manager Deitch responded, “No.” We also asked if there are currently any volunteers on the City’s Fire Department roster – he answered “no” again.

Someone created a fake Facebook account at some point throughout this back and forth. This account, which features a generic-looking man with a white bicycle-like helmet staring off into space, attacked the fire department’s leadership generally and Battalion Chief Winkler specifically. Five posts from between November 30 and December 1 of 2023 are cited in the case.

Three days after somebody made these posts, Sallee and Union President Travis Zaal were told to visit Chief Mayville’s office, where the lawsuit claims they were told that if city leadership could trace the posts back to the Union, then the City would fire the pair immediately. Four days later, Sallee received a termination letter from City Manager Deitch.

In total, Sallee says that Deitch alone threatened his job with the City twelve times during union negotiations. “he would basically say, ‘I want to fire you [Sallee],” Sallee recalled, adding that Deitch told Sallee to “give him a reason.”

Curry Fired

Four months after Sallee’s termination, it was Shawn Curry’s turn. A memorandum from the city manager’s desk notified Curry he was being placed on administrative leave until April 30. After the end of his leave, he was done with the City. The letter added that he would be given two weeks’ severance pay.  

The City Files Lawsuits

Four months after the termination notice for Sallee in December, the City reached out to both the Union and Timmy Sallee. The City, through their attorney “Dixie” Dan Powell, sent a letter to both the former firefighter and the Union requesting information about Sallee’s homeowner’s insurance and the Union’s commercial general liability insurance and “represented that the City’s lawsuit might result in Sallee or the union owing damages to the city, implicating their respective insurance policies,” according to the filing.

Two weeks later, the City filed a request with the local courts to ban Sallee from coming on the City’s property to attend union meetings.

After months of back and forth – Judge Terrance Ketchel of the Okaloosa Circuit Court dismissed the City’s lawsuit and ordered arbitration between the City, Sallee, and the Union.

What Happens Next?

Well, it all depends on what happens in court. According to the Federal case filing system, PACER, no trial dates or hearings have been set in this case.

The lawsuit by the former Niceville firefighters demands reinstatement, back pay, and damages for the anguish incurred. Sallee said he wants his job back. “I’m hoping to get my job and Chief Curry’s job back,” Sallee said, “I’m not worried about [retribution or an awkward work environment]. I’m a professional and I do my job. I expect everybody to have the same outlook on it.”