Tuesday Morning – We Go Through the Looking Glass

Somewhere, Lewis Carroll is laughing and taking notes.  Carroll (the pen name of Charles Dodgson) is immortalized as the author of the Alice in Wonderland stories that told of the political absurdities of 150 years ago couched in writing designed as children's books.  I say he's laughing now because the absurdities live on and have popped up this week in the U. S. fire and rescue service.  And as Carroll's nonsense was in  the 1850's, today's nonsense is rooted in loopy judicial behavior.

Earlier this week the Fire Critic pointed out to us that as a result of an illogical court decision, one of the more unusual methods now being taken by the FDNY to encourage more hiring of minorities is to watch firefighters going out door-to-door and try to entice people who are so undereducated that they cannot fill out a basic employment application to try again, this time with help.  Just the kind of person you need to fill out a recruit class ….. somebody who can't understand basic instructions.

But a little ways west of NYC in Erie, Pennsylvania, absurdity was kicked up two notches yesterday when a judge and jury both equally mush-brained, in the spirit of "fairness" ordered the  Erie Fire Department to rehire (with back pay) a firefighter who had been dismissed after setting a fire in her own house in a pathetic suicide attempt.  At the time she was under the care of a psychiatrist and taking six medications, all of which had potential side effects of inducing suicidal thoughts.

Nearly four years ago on March 25, 2008, Firegeezer reported HERE on Mary Wolski's attempt to get her job back by filing an appeal with the Civil Service Commission.

On April 11 of last year Fire Chief Tony Pol wrote her a letter of termination and detailed what Pol said was her attempt to set her father’s house on fire.

Pol wrote that Wolski disconnected the smoke detectors in the house, located in the 1800 block of East 34th Street. He said she took an overdose of medication before starting a fire.

“This incident renders you presumptively unsuited to be a firefighter, as you pose an ongoing threat to the safety of the public, other firefighters and yourself,” Pol wrote.

After appealing the termination, the Civil Service Commission upheld the firing with the admonishment, “(S)etting a fire … is the single most significant act a fire fighter may not commit. The act of establishing a fire in a residence is wholly incompatible with the role of the fire fighter….”

Failing at that attempt for reinstatement, Wolski then began a long trudge through the courts claiming unfairness, violation of her constitutional rights, violaton of the Americans With Disability Act, etc., etc.  (Firegeezer report HERE.)  Wolski and her lawyer finally found the "perfect storm" of judicial disconnect with  the team of Judge Sean J. McLaughlin and an 8-member jury whose concern with fairness overrides their concern about public safety.  The Erie Times-News has a complete summation of yesterday's court decision with background of the trial HERE.

Apparently nobody representing the city was able to impress on the jurors the necessity of holding emergency personnel of police, fire and EMS agencies to a higher standard of ethical and behavioral practice than that of the standard work force.  Mary Wolski may indeed have been an exemplary employee for her first ten years in the fire department.  But the citizens of Erie cannot be holding the same level of trust and confidence in their fire department that they had before yesterday.

It is time now for us to confidently check out our equipment for the day.  In the spirit of fairness I will get more coffee started for all of us before we meet back in the digital day room in a little while.

……. Bill Schumm, Firegeezer.

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Friday Morning – Where's the Checkbook?

Once again we had the disappointing duty to report yesterday on a volunteer fire company officer who was nabbed for embezzling funds from his department.  See "Another VFD Officer Goes to Jail" HERE.  This guy was something special, though.  He managed to hit the Top Ten All Time list for amount stolen by pocketing more than $800,000.  While his thefts were spread out over an 8-year span, it's still a remarkable amount, especially for a small community that has a limited number of emergency calls.  Look at the photo of their apparatus bays and you will see that they haven't been swimming in donations over the years.  But to have collected that much to have 100-Grand go missing on average each year and still have enough left to purchase fuel and supplies shows that this department had some great community support.

But that support has to be thin now after this fiasco.  In all that time, the members of the Windber Fire Company never accepted the responsibility of monitoring and accounting for their citizens' generosity.  Even when the house-of-cards started collapsing and suppliers began complaining about not getting paid, their only response was to accept the thief's claim that it was because of the hard economic times and they needed to concentrate on holding more fundraisers.

Just how many times over the past five years have we gathered around the Bunn-O-Matic and emphasized the need necessity of having professional, outside audits done on the department's financial records?  How many times have we iterated that it is the department's further responsibility to take out performance bonds on all their officers?  They don't cost that much at all, and are a very cheap way to protect yourself.  The good citizens are out 800-thousand dollars now…never to be seen again.  That could have been prevented by purchasing a low-cost bond from their insurance agent. 

So once again, we will shout it out….. AUDITS!!! ….. BONDS!!! ….. and another good practice followed by many departments is term-limits on all administrative officers positions.  Don't let one of these disasters happen to you, ok?

Now let's get this equipment checked out.  I'll get some more coffee started and see you back in the day room.

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