PORT ARTHUR, Texas — It's been one week since former Port Arthur Fire Chief Greg Benson was terminated and now he wants to set the record straight.
Benson says City Manager Ronald Burton fired him fast and unfairly. He says he was told the city simply did not agree with the direction he was taking the fire department.
"One of his comments were I'm unhappy with the direction you're taking the department. But he'd never given me any kind of feedback prior to that," Benson said.
Benson believes two big factors played a role in him getting fired. The first is misinformation to city leaders and second is Acadian Ambulance recently terminating it's contract with the city.
"The action that was taken was a little bit unethical, immoral and unfair," said Benson.
City leaders previously told 12News Benson was fired following a vote of no confidence by the Port Arthur Professional Firefighters Association.
"Somebody told the mayor and city manager that a vote of no confidence was taken. But it never was taken so they provided misinformation," he said.
He says he recently submitted a report to city leaders detailing how "safety and service levels" in Port Arthur were below national standards in 2023.
"90% of the time you're going to have got that call and have dispatched within a minute and four seconds what was found was that it was a minute and 38 seconds," Benson said.
He also started looking into Acadian Ambulance Services, the city's former EMS provider.
Benson says he discovered response times had been falsified and that the company had violated a city ordinance.
"Scadian had picked up a patient at the med center but if you don't have permit you can't pick up from inside the city," he said.
12News reached out to Acadian for comment.
"We have no comment. This is a matter between Mr. Benson and the City of Port Arthur," said Acadian Regional Vice President Jay Lewis.
But his concerns went unaddressed and in March Acadian terminated it's contract and Benson began to feel mistreated by Burton.
"I took that as this is something that the city manager doesn't like and he's going to be placing the blame on me," said Benson.
12News asked whether Benson would return to the fire department.
"The concern was the highly toxic culture, atmosphere, environment that I was subject to, so there would need to be some changes," Benson said.
Benson says he's considering filing an appeal with city council which could vote to reinstate him, but he only has 10 days from the day he was fired to take action.
