A former Wilson County, Tennessee, Fire Lieutenant and his union have filed suit against Wilson County, the Wilson County Emergency Management Agency, WEMA Director Joey Cooper, and WEMA Fire Chief Jeremy Hobbs, alleging the lieutenant was terminated in retaliation for advocating for increased staffing.
Lieutenant Colton Young and the Wilson County Professional Fire Fighters Association, IAFF Local 4238, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. The complaint alleges violations of the First and Fourteenth Amendments under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, as well as the Tennessee Public Employee Political Freedom Act.
According to the complaint, Lieutenant Young joined WEMA in 2015 and was promoted to Fire Lieutenant in November 2023. He was elected vice president of Local 4238 in 2019 and president in 2022.
The complaint states that WEMA staffed its engines with two firefighters. In early 2025, Local 4238 began a campaign seeking three firefighters per engine. The campaign cited NFPA 1710, which calls for four-person staffing.
Lieutenant Young advised Director Cooper that the union planned to raise the issue publicly. On March 6, 2025, he addressed the Wilson County EMA Committee (a committee of the 25-member Wilson County Commission that handles matters WEMA-related budget requests, expenditures, grants, contracts, and proposals before matters go to the full County Commission) and presented the staffing provisions of NFPA 1710, and submitted a written proposal describing the staffing request and its cost.
The complaint alleges Director Cooper opposed the proposal, maintaining that the county did not need to meet the NFPA staffing level. Chief Hobbs, who also serves as a Wilson County commissioner, reportedly agreed with the local that additional staffing was needed but said the county could not afford it. The complaint quotes Fire Chief Hobbs as telling the committee:
- We’ve been gambling a long time… We should have three people on these trucks, if not four, and we should have had it 10 years ago.
According to the suit, Chief Hobbs later asked Fire Lieutenant Young to delay the campaign until the end of the county’s fiscal year, and Lieutenant Young agreed.
Local 4238 resumed the campaign in October 2025. A press release signed by Lieutenant Young as union president asserted that existing staffing practices increased response times, delayed lifesaving operations, and exposed firefighters to unnecessary hazards. After a television report used Chief Hobbs’ statement from the March committee meeting, the complaint alleges Chief Hobbs confronted Lieutenant Young how the news media obtained the quote and then stopped returning his calls and text messages.
The complaint also describes concerns that followed the crash of a Vanderbilt LifeFlight helicopter in Wilson County on November 8, 2025. A flight nurse/paramedic was killed, and the pilot and another flight paramedic were seriously injured. Lieutenant Young alleges that, after checking on WEMA personnel who responded to the crash, he sent Fire Chief Hobbs a text expressing concern about the emotional well-being of the responders and the absence of outreach from WEMA’s senior leadership. The text stated in part:
- “Nobody has heard from anyone higher than a shift commander level checking on people after yesterday’s event. … The guys are talking and they feel like admin don’t care.”
Lieutenant Young continued contacting county commissioners about staffing. On November 22, 2025, he used the union’s public advocacy portal to email all 25 commissioners. On November 29, while off duty, he forwarded Commissioner Chad Bernard a redacted message from a Local 4238 member describing simultaneous emergencies, depleted units, and unstaffed apparatus.
In a follow-up text, Lieutenant Young told Commissioner Bernard that only one engine and one ambulance remained available across the county while four apparatus sat unstaffed because personnel were unavailable. Commissioner Bernard thanked him and said he would pass the information to the board.
On December 1, 2025, Lieutenant Young received a notice of investigation signed by Director Cooper alleging “disrespectful behavior.” A second notice issued December 9 elevated the allegation to “Gross Misconduct (Conduct Unbecoming),” placed him on paid suspension, prohibited him from contacting county personnel without permission, and barred him from WEMA property.
Director Cooper terminated Lieutenant Young on December 12, 2025. According to the complaint, Director Cooper said Lieutenant Young violated the no-contact order by speaking, in his role as union president, with a Local 4238 member who was also under investigation.
A December 29 dismissal letter identified three additional grounds: the November 9 text to Chief Hobbs, the November 22 email to the county commissioners, and the November 29 communications with Commissioner Bernard. The letter characterized the November 9 text as demeaning and threatening and stated that the two staffing communications were made without following the chain of command or obtaining prior approval. The complaint also alleges the letter accused Lieutenant Young of engaging in a “Conspiracy.”
Lieutenant Young contends the cited communications were made off duty in his capacities as a private citizen and Local 4238 president and addressed staffing, emergency response, public safety, and employee morale. He alleges his termination violated his rights to free speech, freedom of association, and to petition the government. He also asserts a claim under the Tennessee Public Employee Political Freedom Act, Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 8-50-601 through 8-50-604, which prohibits a public employer from disciplining or discriminating against an employee for communicating with an elected public official. That law states in pertinent part:
Section 8-50-603 – Discipline or discrimination for communication prohibited – Damages
- (a) It is unlawful for any public employer to discipline, threaten to discipline or otherwise discriminate against an employee because such employee exercised that employee’s right to communicate with an elected public official.
- (b) If the court of competent jurisdiction determines that a public employer has disciplined, threatened to discipline or otherwise discriminated against an employee because such employee exercised the rights provided by this part, such employee shall be entitled to compensatory damages plus reasonable attorney fees.
Local 4238 brings a separate First Amendment claim on behalf of itself and its members. The union alleges Fire Lieutenant Young’s termination caused membership to fall by approximately 15 percent and caused remaining members to abandon the staffing campaign out of fear of retaliation.
The suit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, reinstatement, back pay and benefits, compensatory and punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, costs, and a jury trial.
