Oct. 31--City Council members and public safety officials spent two tense hours Wednesday sparring over the details of the promotion and subsequent demotion of 14 Philadelphia firefighters.
Council's Committee on Labor and Civil Service heard testimony from Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers, Public Safety Director Michael Resnick, Human Resources Director Albert D'Attilio, and firefighters' union president Joseph Schulle, as well as several firefighters and their spouses, some of whom held back tears as they spoke of hardships at home triggered by the demotions.
"This is the people's house in Philadelphia, they have a right to come in and petition their government and have their elected people and appointed people explain themselves," Committee Chairman James Kenney said afterward when asked why he had convened the hearing.
In the spring, the city decided not to fill 14 lieutenant and captain vacancies in the Fire Department despite having budgeted money for the posts. Officials were waiting for the firefighters' promotion list to expire in May in order to promote top scorers on a new list of firefighters who had passed the required exams.
The union sued, arguing that the city should have promoted firefighters from the old list even if they were at the bottom of it. In May, Common Pleas Court Judge Leon Tucker ruled for the firefighters, ordering the city to grant the promotions, which it did. That ruling was overturned in Commonwealth Court in September, and the city said it would demote the promoted firefighters to their old ranks. The union sued again, but Tucker dismissed the suit.
The city has since moved ahead with promotions from the new list.
"The hearing changes nothing," Mayor Nutter's spokesman, Mark McDonald, said. "The 14 slots in question have been filled, and the staff was promoted last Thursday."
The 14 previously promoted and now demoted firefighters did not take tests for the new promotion list. The union contends they did not take the tests because they were unaware of their temporary status.
At Wednesday's hearing, Ayers countered that the union was well aware that if the city won in court, the promotions could be rescinded. He also said the firefighters were told May 30 that they should take the new tests, given in June, because the ongoing court dispute meant their new rank was not guaranteed.
Kenney, whose father was a Philadelphia firefighter, called the handling of the 14 vacancies an "insane abuse of power." He said after the hearing that administration officials "offered no good explanation other than 'because we can.' "
Union president Schulle said he would send transcripts of the hearing to Tucker in an effort to get the judge to reconsider. If the union loses there, he said, it would ask the state Supreme Court to review the case.
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