South Lane Fire and Rescue chief reinstated following controversial post

The South Lane Fire and Rescue Board of Directors voted 3-2 in favor of reinstating John Wooten.

The 50s.

Tonight the south lane county fire and rescue board of directors voted to re-instate john wooten as their fire chief after controversial facebook posts.

Kezi nine news reporter connr mccarthy is live here in the studio and tells us how we got to this point and why the board decided not discipline him.

Chynna-- it was a 3 to 2 decision to reinstate john wooten as chief of south lane county fire and resuce.

And the contentious meeting ended one board member resigning on the spot.

It all started with this facebook post at the end of may.... controversial words about shooting rioters.

Chief john wooten has been under fire ever since for making this post that many in the community say is offensive.

Chief wooten claims his account was hacked and he did not make the post.

For weeks... the community was divided about the future of his job.

One facebook comment one of our articles about wooten says just because he has a different opinion than others doesn't make him a bad person.

Another comment says his behavior of openly posting aggressive harm to others encourages folks to continue racist acts.

There was even a rally on june 3rd in support of chief wooten.

Also on that day the board of directors for the fire district placed chief wooten on non-disciplinary admnstrative leave as they investigated his actions.

Thursday night... the board decided his actions did not warrant any discipline.

"i think he is a man on integrity and you don't let a man of integrity go."

The majority says he made a mistake and his positive influence on the fire district should not be tarnished by one post.

But kezi did our own research and found chief wooten had a long history of controversial and inflamatory posts.

One even asking his followers to send him a picture of a gun he would use to shoot looters.

In the end the board decided to keep reinstate wooten.

But the decision signaled to board vice president jennifer radcliffe she could not work with them anymore.... and resigned on the spot.

"i don't feel like chief's conduct and lack of disciplinary actions is appropiate to the mission and values of the district and we heard that many times in emails from constituents."

Now radcliffe will formally have to send her letter of resignation to the board and members will need to approve it at an open session meeting.

They then will determine how to fill the vacant position.

Live in the