Portland’s mayor says a home-made sign placed in front of a city’s fire station indicating it was closed was “childish” and he’s thinking about disciplinary action against employees who may be responsible.
According to the Portland Press Herald, the city occasionally takes the Munjoy Hill station’s ambulance out of service during overnight hours to reduce overtime spending. Some members of the department apparently disagree with that action and voiced their disapproval by putting a sign in front of the station saying “Closed per city gov’t.”
Mayor Jon Jennings told the newspaper the station is not closed and whoever erected the sign did a disservice to residents leading them to believe the entire station had been closed.
“What angered and disappointed me the most (is they were) giving the impression the entire station was closed,” Jennings told the newspaper. “Those types of childish antics won’t stand with me being city manager. That’s just how it’s going to be.”
The measure to take the ambulance out of service during low demand hours, between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m., maybe over, however, as the city has just hired 12 new recruits, the paper reported.
The incident illustrates the tension between the city government and the firefighters who have been in contract negotiations for more than two years. Firefighters are working under a contract that expired in 2013, the paper reported.
In addition to the homemade sign in front of the station, other signs were placed throughout the neighborhood asking for citizens to help.
John Brooks, president of the International Association of Firefighters, Local 740 told the Portland Press Herald he had no comment about the fire station sign. He did say, however, he didn’t think it had anything to do with contract negotiations.
He also told the paper he thought the concept of putting fire equipment out of service because of budget constraints was shortsighted.
“We cannot afford to lose any more staff even if it’s at night,” he said in the newspaper interview.
