Some people questioned the move by Prairie Du Pont Fire Protection District, based in East Carondelet, because of political connections. The new acting chief, Jerame Simmons, is the son of Herb Simmons, the village’s mayor and executive director of St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency.
Other critics pointed to standards in the Illinois Fire Protection District Act, which reads:
“No person shall be appointed to the fire department unless he or she is a person of good character and not a person who has been convicted of a felony in Illinois or convicted in another jurisdiction for conduct that would be a felony under Illinois law, or convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude.”
However, that clause applies only to paid firefighters, not those in volunteer districts such as Prairie Du Pont, according to the law.
Volunteers don’t have to be certified by the Illinois Office of the State Fire Marshal. Individual districts and departments come up with their own hiring practices and training and experience requirements.
A few supporters have defended Jerame Simmons’ appointment, arguing that people shouldn’t have to suffer indefinitely for past mistakes.
In a recent interview, Simmons said he’s been fighting false public perceptions since he was a teenager. He’s now a husband, father of two, full-time truck driver, East Carondelet auxiliary police officer and volunteer firefighter who’s been serving with metro-east districts for more than 25 years.
“Everybody wants to dwell on the past,” said Simmons, 42, of Dupo.
“They keep talking about my name and my father’s name. My father has helped more people than I could even think of helping, and all they want to do is drag him through the mud for something I did when I was a kid.”
Simmons was accused in 1998 of setting fire to a vacant home and, in a separate incident, lighting toilet paper and ceiling tiles in the basement of Dupo Senior High School, where he was a student. He pleaded guilty to felony arson in the first case as part of a plea agreement.
The Prairie Du Pont district serves about 2,500 people who live in a 14-square-mile area that includes East Carondelet and some homes with Dupo, Cahokia Heights, Millstadt and Columbia zip codes.
Simmons’ appointment as acting fire chief has resurrected an issue that was widely discussed in 2003, when St. Clair County officials pushed for Illinois legislators to keep felons from serving as volunteer firefighters after the BND reported problems in several metro-east districts.
John Rosenkranz, 37, of East Carondelet, the fire chief replaced by Simmons in December, said lack of proper training, background checks, equipment and safety precautions is still a problem in some districts.
Rosenkranz characterizes his firing as retribution for objecting to violations of state and federal law and “reckless” decision-making by the three-member Prairie Du Pont board, particularly after he started asking for district financial documents needed to apply for grants to help with updates.
“I just want things to be done right and to make sure that our firefighters and our residents are protected,” Rosenkranz said.
Prairie Du Pont board of trustees President John Parke declined to address Rosenkranz’s claims, referring to an earlier press release in which board members stated that they had lost confidence in his leadership and no longer had a good working relationship with him.
Rosenkranz had been serving as a Prairie Du Pont firefighter since 2003 and became chief nearly three years ago.
Pardon helps clear record
A closer look at the Prairie Du Pont shakeup shows that two developments last year may have helped pave the way for board members to replace Rosenkranz with Simmons at a special meeting on Dec. 20, 2021 , which caused many of the district’s 13 firefighters to quit.
In May, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker pardoned Simmons for two 1998 felony convictions, one for the arson and one for using a oscillating vehicle light to make an unauthorized stop. Simmons was an 18-year-old Prairie Du Pont firefighter at the time. A St. Clair County judge sentenced him to probation.
Simmons was one of 118 people who successfully applied for pardons from Pritzker last year, according to Charity Greene, spokeswoman for the governor’s office. Pritzker’s order didn’t elaborate on his reasons for granting the pardon.
“It has been represented to me that said Jerame Simmons is a fit and proper subject for Executive Clemency,” it stated.
The second recent development for Simmons was the apparent sealing (hiding from public view) or expungement (erasing completely) last fall of the arson and unauthorized-stop convictions and five other charges formerly on his record in St. Clair County.
Those included a 1998 felony count of attempted aggravated arson dismissed as part of his plea agreement in the arson case; two counts of misdemeanor disorderly conduct, one in 2016 and one in 2018, that resulted in supervision; and two traffic violations, operating an uninsured motor vehicle in 2005 and leaving the scene of an accident in 2006.
The 2018 disorderly conduct charge resulted from an altercation at Country Rock Cabernet strip club in Sauget. The manager originally reported that Simmons pulled a gun on him and announced, “I’m a police officer,” after the manager removed Simmons’ wife from the club for being disruptive. Officials later took Simmons’ word that he was holding a vaping device.
Out of 12 charges listed as recently as August on Simmons’ record in St. Clair County, five remain, and they’re mostly traffic violations.
“If a case leaves the system, the only way is by an order expunging or sealing it,” said St. Clair County Circuit Clerk Marie Ziaz, speaking in general terms. “There is no other way for cases to be removed from the system.”
Ziaz declined to address the Simmons case specifically. She noted that court employees are legally prohibited from speaking about records that have been sealed or expunged or even acknowledging their existence.
Illinois law allows people to file petitions with county courts asking for their felony or misdemeanor records to be sealed or expunged if they meet certain criteria. It can’t be done with crimes such as driving under the influence, sex offense against a minor or domestic battery.
In recent years, the state has expanded the circumstances and types of charges that can be sealed or expunged, including those related to marijuana possession, which became legal in 2020.
“It’s just the idea of allowing people to put their past behind them at some point so they can move forward and get better jobs, better educational opportunities, better housing and become more productive citizens in their community,” said Dan Kuehnert, senior staff attorney in the Alton office of Land of Lincoln Legal Aid.
People who are pardoned still have to obtain judicial orders for cases to be expunged, as explained in an Illinois Prisoner Review Board letter to Simmons on May 19, 2021, announcing the governor’s order on his case.
Without a pardon, an arresting agency or state’s attorney’s office can file an objection to an expungement request within 60 days, possibly prolonging the process or leading to a denial.
“What a pardon does is keep someone objecting to an expungement,” Zaiz said.
2003 case shocks public
Most firefighters in volunteer fire districts and departments aren’t paid salaries, and Prairie Du Pont is no exception. Some get stipends for answered calls or bonuses for regular participation. Rosenkranz said he was paid $750 a year as fire chief.
The recent debate over Simmons’ appointment prompted some people to argue that putting a convicted arsonist in charge of a fire station is like hiring a sex offender as a schoolteacher.
Similar comparisons were made in 2003, when the BND revealed that Antuan McClenton, who went to prison after confessing to setting ablaze dozens of vacant houses in 1999, was serving as a volunteer captain with Golden Garden Fire Protection District in Centreville.
How could that happen? The BND story pointed out that many small fire districts faced big challenges.
“Golden Garden is an impoverished fire district that covers one of the poorest areas in the metro-east,” it reported. “Equipment, money and trained staff are scarce, which discourages the fire district board from being too picky about the volunteers who help fight fires.”
The BND also reported on several metro-east cases in which active volunteer firefighters, such as Simmons, had been charged with arson.
The McClenton case prompted Robert Haida, then St. Clair County state’s attorney and now a judge, to call on Illinois legislators to pass a law prohibiting arsonists and other felons from serving as volunteer firefighters to make standards consistent with those for paid firefighters. A bill was introduced but never passed.
McClenton quit his position with Golden Garden shortly after the BND story was published.
“I told him to stay the hell out of firefighting,” Centreville Police Capt. Steve Musgrave told the newspaper. “The sad part of it is that he was extremely good at firefighting.”
Another difference between paid and volunteer firefighters is that the latter don’t have to get certified through the Illinois Office of the State Fire Marshal.
“The State Fire Marshal doesn’t have any input or statutory control over hiring decisions made by Fire Departments or Fire Protection Districts in Illinois,” spokesman J.C. Fultz stated in an email. “The Prairie Du Pont Fire Protection District is completely voluntary and not affiliated or associated with the OSFM.”
Likewise, training standards for volunteer firefighters are largely determined by individual districts and departments, said Tom Shubert, associate director for firefighting programs with the University of Illinois Fire Service Institute in Champaign.
The Illinois Occupation Safety and Health Administration plays a part because it investigates workplace accidents. The agency requires all fire departments and districts to train firefighters so that they can perform their assignments safely and satisfactorily, according to Paul Cicchini, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Labor.
“Since the level of training is specific to assigned duties and functions, there is not a one size fits all answer,” he stated in an email.
Most volunteer fire districts and departments welcome anyone physically able and willing to help, with a few exceptions, according to Kerry Federer, secretary treasurer of the Illinois Firefighters Association, which has an office in Glen Carbon.
Highland’s volunteer fire department, where Federer serves as interim fire chief, does background checks and turns down applicants with criminal records, he said. Other districts and departments may not be as strict.
“There’s a firefighter shortage,” Federer said. “It’s a nationwide issue. It’s not just a local problem. They’re having trouble recruiting and keeping firefighters. It just seems that volunteerism has waned with this generation.”
Federer has seen evidence of the firefighter shortage in the metro-east with the rising number of mutual-aid calls (departments asking for help from neighboring communities to put out fires).
District splits into camps
Simmons declined to discuss his 1998 arson charges this week, other than to say that the incident at the vacant home, which had already been burned several times, started with teenagers, including the son of the home’s owner, around a bonfire and ended with the home’s stairs on fire.
Simmons said he began his firefighting career at Prairie Du Pont 26 years ago and has since volunteered with Camp Jackson, Golden Garden, Midway, Washington Park and Brooklyn fire districts.
Simmons called community service a “family tradition,” noting many of his relatives are first responders. He said he’s an East Carondelet auxiliary policeman but doesn’t carry a gun because of his felony conviction. Pritzker’s pardon stated that it didn’t eliminate firearm restrictions.
Simmons rejoined Prairie Du Pont in August, with support from Parke and the two other board members, Randy Bolle and Bryan Reddick , all appointed by the St. Clair County Board. The three made him assistant fire chief two weeks later and acting fire chief in December.
“Absolutely, he’s qualified,” Parke said in an interview, noting the board plans to hire Simmons as fire chief as soon as the appropriate paperwork is completed.
Parke has been involved in fire service for about 35 years, with most time spent as a firefighter and emergency medical technician in Smithton. He said Prairie Du Pont residents were protected during the leadership transition because of mutual-aid agreements with neighboring districts.
Rosenkranz maintains that, even without an arson conviction, Simmons doesn’t meet experience and training standards set forth by state law for fire chiefs in Illinois. The deposed chief said he had tried to discipline Simmons for safety violations, but the board wouldn’t let him.
After Simmons was appointed fire chief in December, Rosenkranz reported that 10 of the district’s 13 firefighters resigned in protest. Simmons disputes that figure, saying only seven left. He said four other former district firefighters have returned and three have applied in the past month.
“(The returnees) had quit because they didn’t want to work with the chief that we replaced,” Parke said.
One of the firefighters who resigned was chaplain and engineer Joshua Davidson, 32, of Waterloo. He said Rosenkranz had been doing a good job, Simmons wasn’t focused enough on safety and Simmons’ appointment was “rushed” through without proper procedures being followed.
Simmons created a new Facebook page called Prairie Du Pont Fire & Rescue last month, announcing that the Prairie Du Pont Volunteer Fire page was being used by “ex disgruntled Volunteers that walked out on the citizens” and is no longer the district’s homepage.
When asked recently how things are going with the fire district, Simmons replied, “Fabulous.”
“Everybody is working together,” he said. “Trucks are getting maintained like they’re supposed to be. Records are being brought up to date. ... My main thing right now is to help the fire department move forward.”
But Rosenkranz has made it clear that he isn’t going away quietly. He and other former Prairie Du Pont firefighters, including his wife, Laura, former assistant chief, sent a letter to the St. Clair County Board, asking for fire district board members to be removed.
They’ve also been going door to door, asking district residents to sign petitions demanding that John Rosenkranz be reinstated as fire chief and Prairie Du Pont board members be removed. Similar petitions are posted at change.org. Hundreds of people have signed, according to Laura Rosenkranz.
John Rosenkranz said the board’s illegal actions have included Open Meetings Act violations, such as the calling of special meetings at the last minute without proper public notice to appoint Simmons as assistant fire chief in August and acting fire chief in December.
“Politics don’t belong in fire service,” Rosenkranz said. “That’s what gets people hurt and killed. I’m not a politician. I’m not a good ol’ boy. I believe in work. I believe in qualifications. I hold people to the standards.”
Editor’s note: This story was corrected on Jan. 20 to state that John Parke was formerly a firefighter and emergency medical technician in Smithton.
This story was originally published January 15, 2022 7:00 AM.
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