{"id":255234,"date":"2026-04-18T04:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T04:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/255234\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T04:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T04:05:09","slug":"dallas-fire-chief-says-ex-firefighters-payment-of-127000-was-isolated-incident-in-city-memo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/255234\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas fire chief says ex-firefighter\u2019s payment of $127,000 was isolated incident in city memo"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former Dallas firefighter accused of getting paid for nearly two years<\/a> after leaving the job was part of an isolated incident, according to a city memo posted Friday.<\/p>\n

Dallas attorneys alleged Ivan Gonzales received $127,441 in salary and benefits after leaving Dallas Fire-Rescue, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month.<\/p>\n

In the Friday memo, Dallas Fire-Rescue Chief Justin Ball<\/a> said an administrative oversight allowed the payments and said the department is taking steps to prevent any similar occurrences.<\/p>\n

Gonzales submitted his resignation paperwork in June 2023, but the termination wasn\u2019t fully processed in the city\u2019s system, the memo said. That meant he was still active in the city\u2019s payroll system and on a roster of more than 250 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the high volume of recruits at the time, an administrative oversight allowed Mr. Gonzales\u2019s pay to continue processing biweekly for about 20 months,\u201d Ball wrote in the memo.<\/p>\n

Related: Dallas says it paid ex-firefighter $127,000 after he quit. Now it wants the money back<\/a><\/p>\n

The discrepancy was identified in February last year, and the department\u2019s payroll employees resolved the issue. The termination was finalized a few months later, in April 2025, the memo said.<\/p>\n

Chris Peterson, president of the Dallas Fire Fighters Association, said in a statement Wednesday that, based on the allegations from the lawsuit, the situation is \u201cconcerning.\u201d Peterson added that it is an active legal matter, meaning there is likely context not publicly known, but the association supports a thorough review.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dallas Fire Fighters Association is not in a position to speculate on the specific circumstances, assign blame, or comment on individual actions or internal processes,\u201d Peterson said in an email.<\/p>\n

In the Friday memo, the fire chief said a department-wide audit confirmed this was an isolated incident and Gonzales\u2019 supervisor was disciplined.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain committed to continuously improving our administrative processes and upholding transparency and fiscal responsibility,\u201d Ball wrote.The memo said the department improved its \u201cseparation review process,\u201d cross-referencing paperwork with the payroll system so unresolved actions are flagged.<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, Gonzales\u2019 supervisor continued approving paychecks under a presumption that anyone on his roster of more than 250 people worked 40 hours a week, even if they didn\u2019t submit time entries. The memo said the department has shifted time entries from a single supervisor to individual lieutenants.<\/p>\n

The memo said Ball was clarifying \u201crecent media reports.\u201d City officials previously declined to comment citing the pending litigation when asked by The Dallas Morning News about any other cases and if any policies had been changed.<\/p>\n

Staff writer Everton Bailey Jr. contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former Dallas firefighter accused of getting paid for nearly two years after leaving the job was part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[96197,96194,102,96195,9379,104,103,55318,94081,57565,96196,96193],"class_list":{"0":"post-255234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-administrative-oversight","9":"tag-chris-peterson","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-fire-fighters-association","12":"tag-dallas-fire-rescue","13":"tag-dallas-headlines","14":"tag-dallas-news","15":"tag-isolated-incident","16":"tag-ivan-gonzales","17":"tag-justin-ball","18":"tag-memo","19":"tag-payroll-system"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}