Disabled Military Veteran Challenges Boston Fire Department Hiring Practices

The suit claims Boston is using a new firefighter cadet program to bypass veterans and other more qualified candidates.

By Gayla Cawley

Source Boston Herald (TNS)

Nov. 17, 2025

6 min read

Boston Fire Commissioner Paul Burke and Mayor Michelle Wu stand at a recent fire department graduation ceremony

A disabled military veteran is suing the City of Boston and its fire commissioner alleging that they are improperly using a new cadet program aimed at diversifying fire department ranks to bypass veterans and other more qualified candidates.

Jason Finn, an East Boston resident who said he was bypassed for original Boston firefighter appointment this year despite his name appearing on the civil service eligibility list “tied at the highest rank for vacancies” in the department at the time, filed a lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court.

The complaint challenges the legality of the city’s hiring practices, and a Massachusetts Civil Service Commission ruling that upheld them. Finn alleges that the city’s new fire cadet program, which allows cadets to receive preference to join the fire academy over other candidates on a civil service list, is “replete with bias” against military veterans who have traditionally received civil service preference in Boston.

The city’s focus on meeting its diversity goals for the fire department has lowered academy graduation standards, with recent fire department hires being made in a way that prioritizes politics over public safety and merit, Finn contends in his lawsuit against the city and Fire Commissioner Paul Burke, which was filed in September, ahead of the mayoral preliminary election.

“For the first-ever academy class including former cadets, the department experienced above average failure rates for tests and exercises,” the lawsuit co-filed by veterans advocacy group InnoVets states. “The department has lowered standards required to graduate. For instance, several cadets failed an initial written examination.

“Department executives responded by informing academy staff that no cadets can fail in the academy class, as this is an election year,” the lawsuit states. “But for the city’s appointment of cadets as firefighters … Finn and similarly situated veterans and disabled veterans would have been considered for original appointment.”

The cadet program was created by a city home rule petition signed into law by the governor in December 2021, and designed to “expand opportunities for underrepresented populations to join the yearly firefighter class,” the mayor’s office has said.

The Boston Fire Department has faced criticism in recent years for its lack of gender and racial diversity, with some lawsuits around issues in the workplace.

Cadets, who must be city residents for three years and range from 18-25 years old, may receive preference to join the academy over other candidates on the civil service exam list, but can only account for one-third of the class, per city officials.

The lawsuit is largely centered around the legality of an August decision from the state Civil Service Commission ruling against Finn and InnoVets’ request for an investigation into Boston Fire Department’s hiring practices. The Commonwealth’s human resources division and Civil Service Commission are also listed as defendants.

Patrick Bryant, the plaintiffs’ attorney, wrote to the Commission last May pushing for an investigation, “including but not limited to the administration of its cadet program, which appears to be replete with a bias against military veterans and a prioritization of politics over public safety.”

“The city has long sought to appoint firefighters through methods that do not obligate it to recognize the service of military veterans, including those disabled as a result of their service,” Bryant wrote. “Our concern is that appointments through these methods can be zero sum between qualified veteran applicants and non-veteran applicants.”

Those methods include the cadet program, language certification and hybrid lists, he said.

Just three of the 63 cadets hired by the city for the 2023 and 2024 program classes were veterans, and roughly three dozen of the nearly 200 veterans on the firefighter eligibility list as of May 1 are proficient in at least one other language, Bryant wrote.

Bryant also raised concerns that the cadet program “is being used for patronage and nepotism, with roughly 20% of new hires from the new cadet program being relatives of fire department employees.

He said the cadet program has resulted in a city hiring process that “is not guided by basic merit principles.” He said nine cadets had failed the first written examination of the academy and seven of the 22 cadets in the then-current academy class had failed the physical aptitude or written test necessary to graduate.

Ultimately, 20 cadets graduated in August 2025, the first fire academy class to feature cadets.

The poor performance led the city to provide mandatory remedial training for the first time, per Bryant, who said it was “unprecedented” for the fire academy.

“It has been stated that the department cannot let cadets fail,” Bryant wrote. “Instead of hiring qualified veterans experienced in high-stress, dangerous environments, the city is committed to retaining otherwise unfit non-veterans to aid a political leader’s reelection prospects. In sum, the evidence we have gathered questions the city’s fidelity to veterans and civil service.”

The Commission ruled against the plaintiffs’ request for an investigation on Aug. 21, stating that “the record does not support the proposition that unqualified candidates are being appointed as Boston firefighters through the cadet program.”

Nor does there appear to be “compelling evidence” that veterans were sidelined by the cadet program, the Commission wrote.

While the Commission didn’t dispute that remedial assistance may have been offered, it said that “all recruits were required to ultimately pass the rather rigid requirements of the state-approved Boston fire academy and the state-administered physical abilities test.”

Finn’s lawsuit contends that the Commission’s ruling was “erroneous.”

Mayor Michelle Wu’s office, the Boston Fire Department and Civil Service Commission did not respond to requests for comment. The city filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Nov. 5.

The City Council passed legislation last year that would allow the city to slash training time in half for the cadet program, from two years to one. The change was supported by the mayor’s fire commissioner, but the head of the Boston firefighters union raised concerns about how it could impact firefighter and public safety.