BELLEAIR BLUFFS -- As word spread this week that Belleair Bluffs fire Chief Patrick Competelli had been suspended and might be fired, word spread that sheriff's deputies were called to usher him off city property.

But Belleair Bluffs Mayor Chris Arbutine, who suspended the chief over a memo opposing a proposed turnover of the city's fire service to Largo, says that's not so. 

Sure, Arbutine said, he called deputies because of the "potentially volatile" situation of informing an employee he'd been suspended and would likely lose his job. But Arbutine said he did not delegate his job as mayor and employer to deputies.

"The sheriff's department basically came with me as a witness," Arbutine said Tuesday. "I escorted him out. They came behind me to make sure the peace was kept."

And, just in case the situation was unclear, Arbutine repeated, "The sheriff did not escort him out. I escorted him out."

Anne Lindberg, Times Staff Writer

*