BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — An art mural was removed, and now two Boynton Beach city employees are out of a job.
The mural at a new Boynton Beach firehouse had two black fire chiefs, but they were replaced with white faces.
On Monday, the mural had been removed from the front windows of the firehouse, but the community is still upset over how this happened and say something different should be done now.
Tory Orr said he was hurt when he found out retired Deputy Chief Latosha Clemons was not in the new fire station art mural. Instead, her face and retired Chief Glenn Joseph were replaced with other people.
"She was our hero, and we want the best for her," said Orr. "That was a black eye. You have to put a big piece of steak to get that red out of there because it is stinging."
Orr grew up with Clemons, who is known as a hometown hero in Boynton Beach.
City Manager Lori LaVerriere said in a statement Saturday that she terminated public arts manager Debby Coles-Dobay and removed Matthew Petty as chief of the Boynton Beach Fire Rescue Department.
Mayor Steven Grant said the city was unaware of the changes to the mural because public art projects like this go through the art commission board.
He said the art director was helping communicate from the board to the city.
"The city got too involved after the approval of the arts commission. Any sort of changes should have gone back to the arts commission," said Grant.
Grant said what happened is inexcusable, and he feels the city can do something to prevent this from happening again.
"This is an example of racial inequity in the city, and so I feel that we would need to have an adversary board of the public because it is not just the police department that can be racially insensitive," said Grant.
Orr feels a reset needs to happen with the artwork at the fire station.
"That can’t be happening in our city," said Orr. "The whole process needs to be revamped. The whole thing."
The arts commission will meet Thursday, and the city commission will meet next week with both groups expected to discuss what should happen next.
