NC Insurance commissioners fires three in power struggle over fire marshal's office

North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey fired his top fire official Tuesday, as well as two other high-ranking employees in an office at the center of a power struggle with the General Assembly.

In a Tuesday email to Department of Insurance employees, Causey confirmed the firings of Chief State Fire Marshal Brian Taylor and Chief Deputy State Fire Marshal Mike Williams.

Causey named Deputy Fire Marshal Tony Bailey the new chief state fire marshal. Special Agent Craig Jarman will become the new deputy state fire marshal. Bailey and Jarman assume their new roles Wednesday.

The moves appear related to a new law targeting Causey’s duties.

For more than 80 years the state’s elected insurance commissioner has also carried the title of state fire marshal, but a separate person — the chief state fire marshal — handled day-to-day duties. That changed this month, when the General Assembly’s Republican majority stripped Causey of the fire marshal title and created an independent Office of the State Fire Marshal.

Causey, who is also a Republican, publicly complained, saying the change was made without his input.

Last week lawmakers went further, fleshing out details for the new Office of the State Fire Marshal in Senate Bill 409. Legislators tacked 19 pages of new office policy into what had been an unrelated crime bill. In that bill, lawmakers sought to protect some of the same people Causey fired.

Sen. Jim Perry, who pushed for many of the changes, told WRAL News Tuesday that, after the budget passed, Causey sent his legislative liaison to threaten firings over the fire marshal office changes. One of the intents of Senate Bill 409, Perry said, was to avoid that by freezing the office as it exists until the new independent office is established Jan. 1.

Senate Bill 409 specifically mentions two of the positions Causey made changes in Tuesday. It says everyone in the fire marshal’s office as of Oct. 1 “shall continue as employees at their option or until further action is taken by the office in accordance with law.”

“This is bizarre,” Perry, R-Lenoir, said of the firings. “Folks are really upset, and they feel like this is petty and ruthless behavior.”

Causey said he “never threatened anybody with anything,” but he acknowledged sending his legislative liaison — Brent Heath — to speak with Perry.

Causey said Heath and Perry are friends.

“I said, ‘You don’t have to do this, [Brent], but maybe you could appeal to him on a personal level,” Causey recounted Tuesday. “And tell him that your job could be at stake. … I don’t know what he said to him, because I wasn’t there.”

Heath was one of three employees fired Tuesday, along with Taylor and Williams.

‘Working to undermine’

Causey told WRAL that he has evidence some people in his office have been “working to undermine the commissioner of insurance and the office of state fire marshal for their own gain.”

“I don’t care about me having a title, but it’s the way it’s been for 85 years,” he said. “I made the changes that I’m entitled to make and needed to make and put in a new team effective Nov. 1.”

Those changes may be short lived. Senate Bill 409 says the chief fire marshal will stay on as the new head of the independent State Fire Marshal and that the legislative liaison as of Oct. 1 “shall continue to serve in that capacity.”

The bill isn’t law yet, though, and it may not be for several weeks. It passed the legislature by wide, bipartisan, margins, but Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has 30 days after the Oct. 25 passage to decide whether to sign it into law.

If the bill becomes law, Perry said, Taylor would become the state fire marshal because he was in the chief’s job Oct. 1.

“So what’s the point in doing all this?” Perry said. “It just seems vindictive.”

Taylor said the firings “seemed to be a rushed response” and that he thinks “a message was sent to the legislature.” Taylor, who Causey appointed in 2018, said Causey didn’t give him a reason for the firing other than “he just felt like he was going a different direction."

Attempts to reach Heath and Williams for comment Tuesday were not successful.

A Department of Insurance news release about the moves noted the new appointments and focused on the promoted employees’ long experience without mentioning the firings.

“I have total confidence in both Tony and Craig, as I have seen first-hand their leadership qualities in the office and on fire scenes,” Causey said in the release. “These appointments will continue our close working relationships with fire departments across the state. My goal as commissioner has always been to help our fire departments, both volunteer and career fire departments, as much as possible. This provides the best possible service to the residents in those respective fire districts.”