Being fair to Tracy Jarman

Time to set the record straight. Today I spoke with a fire captain from a neighboring fire department about the San Diego Pride Parade/firefighter controversy. He is very familiar with the entire situation and has spoken with San Diego Fire Chief Tracy Jarman.

He told me that Tracy Jarman did not order the firefighters to represent the fire station and was completely unaware that day of any problems.

In fact, a review of the complaint (available here) shows that the firefighters did not implicate Jarman...but rather that the order came from "Shift Commander Camberos, Deputy Chief Marlborough, and Assistant Chief Jeff Carle", through Battalion Chief Pollard.

San Diego Fire Chief Tracy Jarman

In fact, Jarman is not named anywhere in the complaint.

I know some have rushed to blame Jarman for this fiasco...and certainly Jarman is where the buck should stop since she is the chief. Jarman did apologize to the firefighters for the screw up...whereas Assistant Chief Carle allegedly critiqued the firefighters as "a group of guys that have issues with homosexuality" (from firefighter Chad Allison's statement).

That Jarman is an open lesbian naturally led many to believe that she was responsible for ordering the firefighters to attend. It turns out this is not the case. Let's give her the time to sort all of this out.