About to be fired, Tacoma Fire battalion chief convicted of DUI instead retired with pension
A Tacoma fire battalion chief who caused a wreck that badly injured him and another driver remained on the city payroll for months after the DUI crash and retired with a full pension earlier this year.
Brian Hardy, who was first hired by the Tacoma Fire Department in 1978, pleaded guilty in February to DUI. Police said he crashed his black Chevy pickup into another vehicle in Federal Way in October 2019. An analysis of Hardy’s blood at the time found he had a blood alcohol content of .033 percent and traces of cocaine in his system. It is illegal for a person to drive with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent.
Hardy, 68, suffered serious injuries and was transported to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition. The second driver, a 60-year-old woman, suffered a concussion and internal injuries and was taken to St. Francis Hospital for treatment.
Following the crash, Hardy remained employed by the Tacoma Fire Department on sick leave, with his coworkers donating sick time to him. Allyson Hinzman, president of the Tacoma Firefighters Union Local 31, said many were unaware that Hardy was under the influence at the time of the wreck.
Hinzman said in August that Hardy, who was a member of the union, did not communicate with the union about his situation.
“He kept us in the dark and never asked for representation in the meetings,” she said, referring to meetings Hardy might have had with TFD administration.
Tacoma Fire Chief Tory Green told The News Tribune in August that he knew of Hardy’s crash the day it occurred but said he wasn’t informed by Hardy of the results of his toxicology report until April 2021. The department requested a copy of the report via a public disclosure request with the City of Federal Way to confirm.
In May 2021, Green informed Hardy that he was going to terminate his employment, and Hardy chose to retire June 2, 2021, according to emailed answers from TFD provided to The News Tribune.
Hardy was making $114,060 annually in 2020, according to a database of Tacoma employee salaries. According to Law Enforcement Officers’ and Fire Fighters’ Retirement System, a member’s monthly pension benefit is based on compensation and years of service, of which Hardy had more than 30 years of continuous employment.
Since 2000, a majority of TFD employees who separated from the department retired. More than 200 people retired, with an additional 60 retiring on disability, according to city records. In that same time period, nearly 90 employees resigned “in good standing,” and 11 were listed as having “resigned in lieu of termination,” which typically means an employee gets the opportunity to resign or be fired. An additional three employees were listed as having resigned without giving a reason. Hardy was listed in city records as having retired.
An anonymous letter sent to Tacoma Fire administration, union reps and City Council members in July claims TFD administrators were aware of the DUI since last year. The writer of the letter said they were “disappointed and gravely ashamed” of department staff for the way it handled Hardy’s case and expressed frustration that Hardy was allowed to continue collecting paychecks paid for by taxpayers for so long following the crash.
When asked if Hardy was given preferential treatment because of his long history with the department, Green said, “Mr. Hardy’s situation was handled the same as it would have been for any other employee, given the information available.”
Hinzman also said she did not think Hardy received any preferential treatment.
“I don’t think he had any perks,” she said.
Hardy has not responded to requests for comment from The News Tribune.
Hardy did speak about the accident on the day of his sentencing at Federal Way Municipal Court on Feb. 4.
“First of all, I’d like to say that I’m embarrassed about what happened because I spent my whole life helping people,” Hardy told Judge pro tem Risa Woo. “And I can’t imagine the pain this woman is going through. It takes a toll on everyone, from the police officers that responded to the firefighters to the hospital personnel because I’ve been on the other side of that before. I’m very remorseful that this happened, and it’s never going to happen again. I do ask that you take the prosecutor’s recommendation and sentencing and that’s it.”
At the same court hearing, Hardy’s lawyer, Amanda Danforth, said Hardy was diagnosed with PTSD in 2018 because of his work and that shortly before the crash in October 2019 his insurance cut him off from counseling. Danforth said she believed Hardy was “self-medicating” the night of the crash and is now back in counseling.
“It’s my belief that Mr. Hardy has shown a lot of remorse about this. And he’s done a lot of soul searching to try and reconcile the fact that he’s chosen a career path to help people and to make terrible situations better for people. … It’s been a hard journey for him. And I think he’s shown through his actions that he is committed to a positive and truly lasting change in his life, that he is taking this seriously,” Danforth said.
Woo handed down a sentence of 60 days of electric home monitoring and $1,000 fine. Hardy did not get jail time after both parties agreed that it would be detrimental to his health.
“A few things that strike me about this case. Mr. Hardy, I don’t doubt that you are very remorseful about what happened,” Woo told Hardy. “This was a very serious collision that resulted (in) serious injury to yourself as well as (the victim). … It’s the courts view that you’re very fortunate that this was not referred to the Prosecutor’s Office as a felony vehicular assault. This very well could have been. And if that were the case, you would have been facing felony charges.”
A long history with Tacoma Fire
Hardy was first hired by the Tacoma Fire Department in 1978. His personnel records show he resigned for several months in 1996 and then was rehired. Records then show a separation with the department in 1997 “in good standing” and another rehire in 2002.
In 2004, Hardy was given eligibility for promotion to lieutenant after the fire department, firefighters union and human resources signed a memorandum of understanding, according to his personnel file. In the MOU, the parties agreed that Hardy did not qualify for the eligibility list for lieutenant, but an exception was made by the union due to Hardy’s long history with the department.
Hardy was promoted to lieutenant in 2004 and to fire captain in 2007. In 2009, Hardy was placed on administrative leave due to an internal investigation after he displayed “erratic and unacceptable behavior” at work. He was asked if he had taken drugs and denied it. He agreed to a drug test, which was negative, and returned to duty days later. According to city policy, employees can be drug tested if there’s a reasonable suspicion they are under the influence at work.
Every year between 2007 and 2011, Hardy was given the Chief’s Award for Excellence and in 2012 was given a Perfect Attendance Award, according to his personnel file. In 2010, he was promoted to battalion chief, the top position for department employees working in the field. There are roughly a dozen battalion chiefs in the department, with three on duty at any given time, overseeing day-to-day operations and supervising any major incident in their coverage area of Tacoma.
In 2017, Hardy was issued a written reprimand from then-Fire Chief James Duggan, who said Hardy displayed “unbecoming conduct” in two instances in which he visited fire stations and was “bad mouthing” the department and chief, which workers described as “disturbing” and “inappropriate.” Duggan wrote in a July 19, 2017, letter to Hardy that it was troubling Hardy did not recall these interactions in testimony to an internal advisory board. Internal advisory boards are involved in fact-finding investigations into situations where disciplinary action might be warranted.
As part of the reprimand, Duggan required Hardy to have another chief supervise informational meetings with his battalion and to have follow-up meetings with the chief.
Hardy also received two safe driver awards in 2020 and 2021, after his 2019 crash.
Responding to questions sent by The News Tribune, the Tacoma Fire Department and city human resources department said the safe driver awards are given to those who drive while on duty as part of their job functions and is “based upon a series of preceding consecutive years without a work-related motor vehicle collision.”
Collision in Federal Way
According to a police report obtained by The News Tribune, Federal Way police were called to the scene of a vehicle crash at 33500 Hoyt Road after 5 p.m. on Oct. 23, 2019. Witnesses reported they saw a black Chevy pickup, driven north on Hoyt Road by Hardy swerve into oncoming traffic and strike a Volkswagen head-on.
First responders had to extricate Hardy from his vehicle, and he was transported to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition. The driver whose car was struck by Hardy was able to exit her vehicle and was taken to St. Francis Hospital for treatment.
One witness reported Hardy driving in a “somewhat erratic manner swerving from side to side” prior to the crash. First responders indicated in their statements that they “smelled alcohol on Hardy” and he was “slurring his speech.”
Officers obtained a warrant and collected blood from Hardy. The results of Hardy’s blood analysis revealed he had a blood alcohol content of .033 and traces of Benzoylecgonine, the main metabolite in cocaine.
Minutes prior to the wreck, Hardy’s vehicle struck vehicles in a Walgreens parking lot, according to video later obtained by police.
Following the crash in October 2019, Hardy used a combination of earned benefits like paid time off, sick leave, donated sick leave and floating holiday through June 2020. From July 2020 through mid-January 2021, Hardy primarily used unpaid leave of absence. Hardy was on transitional assignment from Jan. 18, 2021, through his retirement on June 2, 2021.
Hardy never worked again in the field as a first responder after the accident in October 2019, a fire department spokesperson told The News Tribune.
Hardy is currently receiving his pension after separating from the City of Tacoma Fire Department on June 2, 2021, and retiring July 1, 2021, according to the Department of Retirement Systems.
Disciplinary process
According to the bargaining agreement with Local 31, of which Hardy was a member, an employee is not necessarily fired immediately if they are arrested or drive under the influence.
“The Department agrees that the simple fact that an employee has been arrested will not result in the imposition of discipline,” the agreement states.
Disciplinary procedure begins with a fact-finding investigation, after which a summary of the facts is reviewed and a determination for discipline is made, according to the bargaining agreement. A pre-disciplinary hearing is then scheduled, in which the employee can have union representation. After discipline is made, the employee can choose to file a grievance against the action.
Hinzman, the union president, told The News Tribune that when an employee is accused of something criminal in nature, the union’s role is to act as support for the employee in navigating next steps, but Hardy did not ask for representation or help from the union.
Tacoma Municipal Code states that an employee can be disciplined or fired for a range of reasons, including but not limited to: conviction of a felony or a misdemeanor that demonstrates lack of fitness for the position held; intoxication or drinking intoxicating liquor while on duty, or being addicted to the use of narcotics; wantonly offensive conduct or language toward the public or fellow officers or employees; or conduct unbecoming an officer or employee of the City, either while on or off duty.
This story was originally published September 20, 2021 at 5:05 AM.
