A February union complaint has resulted in the resignation of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough’s chief medical services official. Clint Vardeman handed in his resignation today Monday. Vardeman directs the Borough’s emergency responders. His resignation is effective April 20.
Vardeman and two other Borough emergency services officials were placed on administrative leave last month. The others are Brian Wallace, head of EMS in the Wasilla-Palmer area, and Gene Wiseman, who heads response for more rural parts of the Borough.
Borough officials are saying little about the reasons for Vardeman’s departure, or about the complaint that seems to have sparked it. An internal investigation is ongoing.
Last month, Dennis Brodigan resigned his job as director of the Borough’s Emergency Services department, citing personal reasons.
Big Lake Fire Chief Bill Gamble has been named inerim replacement for Brodigan and Casey Cook, the Borough’s emergency manager for disaster planning, is to be Vardeman’s interim replacement.
APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone.
Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA
elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen
