CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) -- The city of Circleville has fired a deputy chief and an officer in the city’s police department after the two were placed on paid administrative leave following claims of sexual misconduct.   The Circleville Police Department now has two more positions to fill, but city councilmember Zack Brooks said the city is now in a better spot than ever in its effort to clear toxicity from the department.  Deputy Chief Jon Farrelly and Officer Jacob Ferguson were both fired last week. The city announced the firings on Wednesday.  ‘Anti-trans’ bathroom bill passes Ohio Senate, heads to DeWine’s desk Ferguson was a probationary officer who began working in the Circleville Police Department in September 2023. He was placed on leave in August of this year for alleged inappropriate behavior while on duty and after being ordered to end contact with that person, other officers reported seeing Ferguson with the individual.  He denied sexual activity with the person which was backed by a polygraph exam, authorities said. However, they said Ferguson disobeyed orders and violated city policy, so he was fired.   "The hope is that the kind of former toxicity has been cleaned away and that we have a fresh slate,” Brooks said. “We just swore in a new chief of police. We have a new safety director they're working endlessly to make sure that he has all of the qualifications, all of the training, all of the education that he can have to do the best job possible.”  The allegations against Farrelly came up during interviews about Ferguson. While the investigation found some complaints were not substantiated, Farrelly admitted to having sexual relations with someone while on duty and was found to be talking about the investigation with other Circleville officers, which violates city policy and Farrelly was fired.  "I'm happy with the way that the investigation was handled,” Brooks said. “I'm glad that the transparency was there, that the safety director was very open with us. We've had several discussions about this since the two officers were placed on leave. So I feel like we were kind of in the loop a lot more this time.”  This wasn’t the first time Farrelly had been put on a leave of absence. An internal affairs investigation from a November 2022 incident was also in his file, but the results or findings were not included or were redacted.   Ferguson was a probationary officer and did not have a right to the grievance process. Farrelly does - and is taking this route. This status will be updated when the information becomes available.