CANTON An investigation into possible staffing irregularities within the city Fire Department has been forwarded to the Massillon prosecutor's office for review.
At issue is the trading of partial shifts between firefighters.
The long-established practice occurs when a firefighter agrees to work part of a shift for a colleague - usually a few hours - for free.
The firefighter requests the favor from a coworker and agrees to work part of their shift at a later date.
Work hours are supposed to even out eventually, and payroll is not affected. The firefighter who agrees to work the additional hours does not receive extra pay.
The investigation involves a "limited" number of the department's roughly 150 firefighters, said Division Chief John Whitlatch.
It's unclear why criminal charges might result. Safety Director Thomas Ream, John Simpson, chief prosecutor for the Massillon prosecutor's office, and Kristen Bates Aylward, an assistant city law director, declined to comment on details of the investigation.
Simpson said he expects to make a decision within a few weeks.
"I think when you look into something like this you gotta make sure there's no criminal action," he said Friday.
One issue that may be explored is the impact of the partial shift trades on federal tax laws and state pension contributions, which are based on hours worked.
SAFETY CONCERNS Administrators noticed in October that some firefighters were working significantly more often than others, Whitlatch said.
"Our concern was to make sure no one was working too extensively," he said.
"We weren't looking for problems," Whitlatch said. "We were trying to assure safety, quite honestly."
Whitlatch and Fire Chief Stephen Rich started to track the partial shift trades. Late last year, the city administration asked the Fire Department if it had shift trading problems like the ones exposed in the Cleveland Fire Department around that time.
Until October, the Canton department had not formally documented partial shift trades. Full shift trades are documented, Whitlatch said.
Whitlatch had told the administration that a review was already under way concerning staffing, but it was not identical to the issues raised in Cleveland, which involved the swapping of full 24-hour shifts, according to The Plain Dealer.
Fire Department officials and Ream later met with representatives of the city law department.
The staffing-related records compiled by the fire officials were forwarded to the city police department, which recently completed its investigation.
"We have reason to believe there may be criminal culpability, and that's why we needed an investigation to bear out if that's the case or not," Ream said Friday.
Whitlatch said the review "truly began as an analysis" to check for staffing trends, aimed at addressing the partial shift swap issue before it became more problematic.
The review may lead to policy changes regarding swaps of less than 24 hours, Whitlatch said.
POLICE INTERVIEWS Rosario Carcione, president of the Canton Professional Firefighters Association, said that he and four or five other firefighters were interviewed by police. Carcione and some of the other firefighters were accompanied by an attorney.
"We told (them) everything," Carcione said. "We revealed everything. We didn't hide anything. We said we haven't been doing anything wrong."
Carcione said he finds the timing of the investigation to be curious. He said he started taking coursework in the pharmaceutical field in September.
As a result, he has asked firefighters to work four to six hours for him some shifts. He said he has not yet worked the hours in return in all cases.
There's no time restriction for partial shift trades, Whitlatch said, meaning that a firefighter could wait more than one year before working the hours he or she owes the other firefighter.
In a partial shift trade, a firefighter works less than 24 hours but gets paid for the entire shift, even if he or she spent part of the shift at a medical appointment, taking college classes, watching their child's baseball game or at some other activity. The practice has been in place for more than two decades.
The firefighter who agreed to work the extra hours does not get paid for them, Whitlatch said.
'NO AGENDA'
The practice had not been questioned until recently, Carcione said. "I don't know what started it, but I find it interesting, that's for sure," he said.
"I'm curious as to why they want to make such a big deal out it," said Carcione, who has been a frequent critic of the city administration and its handling of ambulance staffing issues, including the temporary closing of some fire stations.
Whitlatch said he had no idea which firefighters had requested swaps when the review started.
"There's no agenda at all on the fire administration's behalf; there's no agenda anywhere," he said. "It's just a matter of making sure things are being done safely and appropriately."
Fire officials did not make a recommendation to police or draw a conclusion, Whitlatch said.
"It was just an objective approach for reasons of safety."
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