The Bexar County Emergency Services District No. 4 board of directors accepted the resignation of Fire Chief Craig Ramon last week and were scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Friday to begin the task of finding a new chief.
Ramon’s resignation as chief of the Leon Springs Volunteer Fire Department was submitted and accepted, but not without its share of controversy. Firefighters flooded a June 16 meeting when the ESD 4 board met for its annual performance review for Chief Ramon, and supporters rallied to his cause on June 23, only to be met with word Ramon was submitting his resignation.
“Fire Chief Craig Ramon submitted his resignation to the district’s board of commissioners Monday,” Ron Haywood, ESD 4 board president, said in a public statement. “The board (Monday) voted to accept his resignation and appoint an interim chief while conducting a search for a permanent replacement.”
Ramon arrived at the Leon Springs Volunteer Fire Department in 2023 after 19 years with the Converse Fire Department. The board Monday emerged from executive session and voted unanimously to have its attorney “to proceed as directed in executive session” in regard to appointing an interim chief.
Speakers supporting and denouncing Ramon’s ability to lead the department addressed the board Monday — more were expected to speak Friday during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Steve Biediger, currently a Leon Springs fire captain, bashed the board for its handling of the review and Ramon’s status as chief.
“I am appalled and disgusted ... that you allowed people to come here and slander your fire chief,” Biediger said.
“I find it very hard to watch what has gone on in this department,” he said. “This man has more integrity in his little finger than most people have in their whole family. And he’s just been burned at the stake by people who were justifiably fired or who got tired and quit.”
He then questioned his own dedication to the VFD.
“I don’t know what to do anymore, I don’t know how to represent this department anymore. I don’t know if I want to represent this department,” he said.
But a Leon Springs volunteer firefighter spoke and told a different view of the situation.
Reagan Dominguez, a firefighter with LVSFD for just under two years, said Ramon has failed as a leader.
“I think it’s necessary that we acknowledge the operational failures that have occurred under Chief Ramon’s tenure as our fire chief,” Dominguez said.
He cited several individuals who have left the department, stressed out or burnt out from constant requests for overtime, or other dealing within the department.
“We have to acknowledge what has failed in our department and what is failing the citizens that we serve,” Dominguez said. “He may be a great man, but as a leader I can look up to, and I can learn from, he has failed me and has failed many members of this department. We cannot afford to operate any longer in this manner.”
Rodriguez said several of the more experienced firefighters who left “I depended on,for the knowledge and experience they provide in order to allow me to become a better man and a better firefighter.”
“Those people are coming up to you and telling you, ‘Hey, I’m done, I can’t do this anymore. I’m getting barraged with overtime requests. I’m getting barraged by the amount of B.S. I’m that we have to put up with,’” he said.
But Robert Hardenstine, former Leon Springs fire chief of 45 years, said Ramon did everything by the book.
“He’s always looked after the people here in the department, and he’s done everything by the book. Everything,” Hardenstine said. “The stuff that’s going on this last year ... I am very very disappointed in this force. They should have taken more action earlier, maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation (Monday) tonight.”
The board’s agenda Friday outlined deliberation and action on the fire chief or interim fire chief position.
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