Mr. Healy, who said he was fired as of Wednesday midnight, said he sought to take action against two supervisors he said an audit showed were mishandling city funds.

But he said Mayor Ron Littlefield asked him to keep the two supervisors in the department. He said, "I told the mayor I was not going to do that."

In an interview with Jeff Styles on Talk Radio, Mr. Healy said one of the supervisors was given a $2,000 per month consulting contract while the other was moved to Memorial Auditorium at a salary higher than the new manager of the Auditorium/Tivoli.