Former Forest Hill police chief accused of insubordination, favoritism in termination letter

FOREST HILL, Texas - The City of Forest Hill has released its reasons behind the firing of Police Chief Eddie Burns.

Burns was terminated by the city on February 16, 2024. The former police chief filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Jan. 30.

According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, Burns claimed he faced discrimination from Forest Hill leadership based on his race and age and was retaliated against. 

Burns' supporters have rallied outside of Forest Hill's city hall and spoken out about his firing at city meetings.

On Friday, the City of Forest Hill released Burns' termination letter which details what it calls a "continued pattern of disregard of City policies and directives" by the former police chief.

"The City of Forest Hill was not discriminatory when it hired Burns as Chief of Police nor was he discriminated against during his tenure with the City or in the termination of his employment," said city manager Venus Wehle in a news release.

In the letter, the city says Burns failed to follow directives from the city manager, showed favoritism toward certain employees and authorized grants for charities without authorization.

"While the City certainly supports charity, it has a limited budget. It is telling that you did not request authorization from the City Manager or the City Council for such grants, each of which was several thousand dollars," reads the letter.

The letter also shared the results of a survey of 14 employees done on the behalf of the Forest Hill Police Officers Association in November 2023.

In the survey, 78% said Burns was not a good manager of employees, 64% said the chief did not hold command staff responsible for their actions, and 100% disagreed with the statement "morale is high," according to the letter.

"Your actions have shown a repeated pattern of lack of respect for policies and authority, abuse of authority, failure to communicate effectively with your department staff members, failure to separate your personal friendships from professional working relationships, including showing favoritism, failure on numerous occasions to deescalate and mediate situations that took place within the Department; and failure to follow directives issued by your supervisor," read the letter.

Burns was hired by the city in 2021.