EAST PROVIDENCE - The Fire Department will have to go an extra two months understaffed after the city abruptly - and without offering an explicit explanation - took the unusual step of scrapping a new list of screened and tested recruits. The entire process now has to be repeated.
The delay in holding a training academy means the department, which is short three firefighters and coping with long-term illnesses and injuries, risks running up costs, according to Chief Oscar Elmasian.
"Anytime you delay an academy ...; the more overtime it will cost you," he said.
In addition, the city had originally planned to send its recruits to a state-run academy, which are designed to make it easier and less costly for municipal fire departments, Elmasian said. But the delay means the city will miss that state academy beginning in March and will have to hold its own, as it has done in the past.
When asked to comment on the decision to restart the hiring process, Elmasian said, "I reserve the right not to comment." He added, "The Fire Department has no control over the recruitment drive."
In a Jan. 18 notice sent to firefighter prospects, human resources director Kathleen Waterbury informed them that the city's Personnel Hearing Board had opted not to certify the list of academy candidates. Each had applied to a job posting last June and then took the time - and paid the fees - to take written and oral tests and to then undergo medical and psychological evaluations.
Waterbury's letter noted the board's "irrevocable authority" over the process and explained only that its decision was "due to several process errors." As a result, she said, "it was in the best interest of the applicants and the city to redo the fire recruitment process."
When asked if he knew what happened, Timothy Chapman, acting city manager, said, "I have an idea." But, he said, "I don't want to get any further into it than that. It's the personnel board that makes that decision. ... I am not going to comment."
Chapman said he now anticipates that the city's academy, where recruits are paid to undergo about two months of training, will begin June 5. He and Elmasian said that repeat applicants will not be charged for taking the test a second time.
Councilman Joseph Botelho expects the topic of the delayed academy to be on the council's next agenda.
"We need to know the reasoning for this," said Botelho, who has made his own inquiries into what happened.
From those discussions, Botelho said he was told that there may have been flaws in the advertising and in the lowering of what is deemed to be a passing grade on the written test. But after researching both issues, he said, "I can't see why the list wasn't certified."
He noted that the search began under the purview of Ray Benoit, the city's former and longtime human resources director who had retired but was brought back part-time during a period in which Waterbury was suspended by former city manager Richard Kirby.
Waterbury's suspension coincided with her allegations of sexual harassment by Kirby, his predecessor, Paul Lemont, and Elmasian. Elmasian would not comment on Waterbury's handling of the recruiting process or her Superior Court lawsuit against him.
Elmasian said the department is fully staffed when it has a complement of 112 firefighters. It's down three currently, a shortage that is exacerbated by what he called an unfortunate "rash" of long-term injuries and illnesses. That makes it difficult for the department to meet minimum manning requirements - included in the firefighters union contract - of maintaining 26 firefighters per shift. The department sometimes has to resort to bringing firefighters in on overtime to satisfy the requirement.
Fire Department overtime costs were $2.9 million in fiscal 2015 and fell to $2.1 million in fiscal 2016, the same year the department ran a $400,000 surplus in 2016. For the first three months of fiscal 2017, overtime costs stand at $610,000.
"The city is not experiencing any current understaffing challenges," Chapman said.
But Elmasian cautioned that the situation could worsen with the anticipated retirement of three firefighters in July. He said he'd like for 12 recruits to be chosen for the academy, six to fill the existing and anticipated vacancies and another six to further reduce reliance on overtime.
The department last held academies in 2014 and 2015, he said, asserting that the city has in recent years "been very good with hiring." That wasn't the case when the city fell short of full staffing by more than 30 as it refrained from holding academies from 2007 to 2014, he said.
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On Twitter: @RichSalit
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