West Midlands Fire Authority chief 'does not condone CV dishonesty' after Wayne Brown comments leaked

The acting chair of beleagured West Midlands Fire Authority has spoken out to address claims she 'condoned dishonesty' on CVs after a recording of a private meeting was leaked online. Coun Catherine Miks, vice-chair of the fire authority that oversees the emergency service, wrote to all staff this morning in the wake of the ousting of popular CEO Oliver Lee and the resignation of authority chair Coun Greg Brackenridge.

Mr Lee left last week after publicly condemning the authority and its governance, while Coun Brackenridge stepped down amid claims about his 'exaggerated' military service. The allegation is currently under investigation by the Labour Party.

Coun Miks has separately been criticised online after a recording of a private meeting of the fire authority from February this year was leaked. In it, members of the authority were discussing the circumstances around the tragic death a month earlier of chief fire officer Wayne Brown.

He died while under investigation over a claim he had lied on his CV by saying he held an MBA qualification, when he did not. She was heard to say to the meeting: "Everyone has at some stage put something on their CV they regretted putting on there and shouldn’t have."

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Her comment was intended to put Mr Brown's apparent lie into the wider context of his tragic death, but has been interpreted to mean she was 'condoning dishonesty'. In her address to staff, she said: "I want to be clear; I do not condone anybody being dishonest on their CV, and have never and will never do so myself.

"After eight months, a recording of some of my comments, including these, have come to light, and I feel they were taken out of context as we were discussing the late Wayne Brown. I remember thinking at the meeting, as I listened to someone else referring to the content of Wayne's CV, how sad Wayne, who only weeks before took his own life, was not here to give his side of the story, rightly or wrongly.

"My concern that day, along with my colleagues, was I hoped we had done everything we could to support him, not about his CV which I knew when we had all the facts we needed to, and would, address. We all felt able to speak freely at this meeting while still mourning the loss of a colleague I worked closely with. It saddens me still."

In her wider message to staff, Coun Miks thanked staff for "doing the critical work to keep our communities safe." She also pledged to restore the focus of media interest on the service's operations.

In her first commentary since she taking on the chairing role in an acting capacity, she wrote: "If you are not told it enough, let me say it again: what you do is remarkable, essential and never taken for granted. Thank you." A permanent chair of the fire authority will be elected at the next meeting in November, she said, while a new chief fire officer/CEO will be appointed soon.

Full interview with Oliver Lee is available ad-free on the newsletter 'Inside Birmingham with Jane Haynes' - it is free to read here.

She said of the recent departures of Mr Lee and former chair Coun Brackenridge: "I am disappointed in the series of events and consequent decisions of both...I recognise these were their decisions to take, and ours to navigate.

"I thank them both for their work for WMFS, I wish them both well and understand there will continue to be discussions and scrutiny around their previous roles. You will understand these are sensitive matters and I am a little restricted in how much I can say about them."

But she said she intended to ensure the Fire Authority 'operates more transparently'. "This includes both improving working relationships with senior officers, which have clearly recently been strained, and the balance between operational and political decision making.

"We also want to improve the relationships with the bodies that will undertake reviews of our governance, and with you. This will improve the Fire Authority’s ability to govern the service appropriately."

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She said weekly meetings between the fire authority leadership and senior officers, which had not been taking place, would resume. "This will bring some of the desired stability to the top of the organisation so the focus of the media and three million people we protect is rightly where it should be: on your outstanding work."