Murphy

BAKER CITY — Baker City Fire Chief Todd Jaynes said he was fired by City Manager Barry Murphy on Friday, March 8.

Jaynes was hired in July 2023.

He came to Baker City from Jerome, Idaho.

Murphy was in a meeting Monday, March 11, and was not immediately available to comment.

Jaynes said in an interview Monday morning that he had no inkling that his job was in jeopardy.

He said Murphy summoned him to a meeting Friday and told him he was being let go.

Jaynes, 60, said Murphy told him he was not satisfied with how Jaynes is running the fire department.

Jaynes said his contract includes a clause under which he can be fired for convenience rather than for cause.

He said he asked Murphy if there were areas in which he could try to improve his performance.

Jaynes said Murphy reiterated that he was being let go.

Jaynes said he had a “stellar” performance review in December, the month before Murphy started as city manager.

Interim City Manager Jon France recommended Jaynes as fire chief last summer. Because the city charter doesn’t allow interim city managers to hire employees, the city council voted to give France the authority to hire Jaynes.

Jason Jacobs, one of the department’s longest-tenured firefighters, said the firefighters’ union was “100 percent in support of Chief Jaynes.”

Jacobs said he was optimistic that the five-year plan Jaynes had set out would put the department on solid footing after the turmoil of the past two years.

In 2022, city councilors (none of whom are still in office) decided to end the department’s ambulance service. Firefighters responded to far more ambulance calls — about 85% of emergencies — than to fires.

Several longtime firefighters resigned over the next year or so.

Jaynes said he was trying to rebuild the department’s workforce and its morale.

“I think we did a lot of building the past seven months, and I hate to see that lost,” he said.