Tom Hennessy - a Man of Honor, but How Will Anyone Know Now?

On January 11th, retired Southern Manatee Fire Chief om Hennessy was cleared of any wrong doing by the recent investigation of his pension pay out by Pension Board. After a thorough and lengthy investigation, Chief Mike Johnson could not find any wrong doing according to the policies set forth, the procedures or actions at the time of Chief Hennessy’s retirement. Yet, most all anyone will remember from this sordid media mess is that Hennessy was charged by the media and investigated by his own department for doing something wrong to get his million dollar plus pension payout.

Tom Hennessy’s reward after 25 years of stellar service to this county in the Southern Manatee Fire District is a name dragged through the mud because of false accusations brought against him by the UNION he promoted to his own department and a disgruntled, bitter Battalion Chief. Now that’s some way to honor great service isn’t it? That’s something to look forward to in this district if you do a good job: expect the piranha’s to chew you up, spit you out and then never apologize for lying about your good name. Tom Hennessy has been angry about this entire ordeal and with very good reason.

Leigh Hollins, formerly of Cedar Hammock, said it better than I ever could in a comment to one of my blogs, about Tom Hennessy’s pension:
“The pension board did nothing wrong, Hennessy did nothing wrong.


Union official (Merv) Kennell is quoted as saying, “if it was done right, we’d drop our objections” and “we don’t believe it’s ever occurred before”. Well Merv, it all checked out and you owe Hennessy an apology and you are right, it’s never occurred before…because Chief Hennessy is the first (my emphasis) employee to retire from Southern Manatee with a full 25 year plus pension.


What’s the problem here? The problem is there is a disgruntled Battalion Chief with a personal agenda (my emphasis). You want a story, check out his record at, and away from, the department…..and away from the fire department….it’s all public record.
In his eight years as chief, he and the board of fire commissioners, brought the department’s facilities up to standard, replacing outdated stations and building an administration center; he enhanced the pay and benefits of his firefighters and he obtained badly needed fire apparatus. From what he was told by the firefighters, the reason the firefighters joined the union (just as he was retiring) was because they wanted to “lock in” and secure the pay and benefits that he worked to obtain for them.


Chief Hennessy was also the “brainchild” of, and spearheaded, the Manatee County Emergency Services Memorial Fund, which was responsible for funding and building the beautiful Emergency Services Memorial in Rossi Park and whose perpetual fund provides financial relief to the families of Manatee County emergency personnel who are hurt or killed in the line of duty.


Make no mistake, those who chose to drag Chief Hennessy into a management/union struggle for their personal gain (my emphasis), including the Bradenton Herald and his accusers, should be thanking him for his service and you should all be ashamed. He deserves a public apology.”

Do you see a trend here? PERSONAL agends, PERSONAL gain. Will the Bradenton Herald print an apology for swallowing the bait from the Union hook line and sinker and then dragging Tom’s good name through the mud? Anytime a million dollars plus payout is talked about it can “look” dirty. No one wanted to discuss the 25 years of service. TWENTY FIVE YEARS as a firefighter in this county, working through mergers, interlocal agreements and chaos while managing to become a fire chief over one of the most controversial yet to become one of the best fire districts in the state. The Union strategy to sensationalize the amount of the pension to the general public and then indicate that it was “dirty” politics to tarnish a good man’s name AND everyone associated with him was successful, via the press. Hooray for the first amendment! This is where an editor should be a little more responsible and perhaps do investigative reporting instead of conviction reporting. There is a way to write objectively so that the public can make up their own minds about who’s saying what. I seriously doubt there’ll be any apologies forthcoming from the Bradenton Herald. it always falls under the guise of journalism.