UPDATE: Bemidji Fire Chief Placed on Leave Amid Department Unrest

BEMIDJI, MN (trfnews.i234.me) We have an update regarding Bemidji Fire Chief Justin Sherwood being on leave and replaced at his position. Bemidji City Manager, Nate Mathews has confirmed this, but he hasn’t addressed turmoil in the ranks of the fire department.
we have an update regarding our story Wednesday on Bemidji fire chief Justin Sherwood being on leave and replaced by veteran firefighter Mike ivaro inews has reached out repeatedly to city manager Nate Matthews for comment on this and other questions surrounding Chief Sherwood but Matthews has not responded to our repeated request Matthews did send a statement to the Bemidji newspaper that says in part quote Chief Sherwood is currently on a personal leave of absence under Minnesota’s government data privacy laws the city cannot State the reason for an employee’s leave Deputy fire chief Mike yavaro is fulfilling the duties and responsibilities of fire chief until Chief Sherwood’s return to work for the City chief Sherwood has been employed by in the city’s fire department since 2004 and has been fire chief since 2021. the city has never taken any disciplinary action against Chief Sherwood while he has been employed with the city unquote that was a statement from today October 6th now this is part of the statement city manager Nate Matthews sent to full-time firefighters on October 4th quote I want to let you know that Chief Justin Sherwood is taking personal leave right now I anticipate he may be on leave indefinitely meaning I’m not sure exactly when it will end on quote what Matthew still hasn’t addressed is turmoil within the department more than a dozen firefighters quit after chief Sherwood sent out numerous letters of reprimand some firefighters have called those letters ridiculous in fact some firefighters have challenged those reprimands at Merit hearing boards so while city manager Nate Matthews has confirmed fire chief Justin Sherwood is on leave he still hasn’t addressed the turmoil in the department surrounding all this again we’ve reached out to city manager Nate Matthews numerous time for comment on all this he hasn’t responded we’re more than willing to put him on air to explain it all I’m Neil Berg reporting for itrfnews.i234.me