Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan criticized the exhaustive report by Loveland Technologies, a Detroit-based research and mapping group, as “unbelievably inaccurate.” Christine Ferretti and Joel Kurth, of The Detroit News share their newspaper’s analysis of fire loss in the city in this September 3 article Duggan says Detroit making progress on fires.
Loveland found that 1,653 structures were damaged by 1,486 fires fire between Jan. 1 and July 31 of this year. Some 765 were occupied. Duggan says it’s more, 2,256 fires, but that the tally is down from last year. Loveland CEO Jerry Paffendorf explains the discrepancy by saying Loveland only counted structure-damaging fires.
Imagine being an elected or appointed leader in a city that has dealt with decades of disorder and a state-imposed reorganization. It may make you an exhausted, hypersensitive official. Perhaps as demonstrated by the September 2 email sent by John King, Chief of Fire Operations to IAFF Local 344 President Jeff Pegg. (Click here.)
Chief King was responding to President Pegg’s support of a letter Firefighter Michael O’Lear sent to the chief about a safety-related issue with their new pumper. According to Steve Neavling:
(Chief King entered) Engine 52’s quarters wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants and ordered firefighters to stand at attention and salute him. … One of the firefighters was brought up on charges and suspended this week without pay because he moved while being told to stand at attention.
(September 2, 2015) “Firefighters retaliated against for blowing whistle on serious safety issues.” Motor City Muckracker
Engine 52’s new pumper was reassigned.
Seniority based promotions
Fire Department promotions are entirely based on seniority. This process has been repeatedly defended by labor and fire department management since the 1960’s.
As part of the city reorganization under Public Act 436, the new firefighter labor contract allows a merit based process, with seniority accounting for 45% of the score.
Local 344 President Pegg described the seniority-only process this way:
“There is nothing wrong with our seniority system. We believe seniority is the fairest system out there. It doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t pick and choose. It puts the most-experienced people in leadership positions in the Detroit Fire Department.”
McGraw,Bill (2014 July 30 ) Bridge Magazine: Once unthinkable, Detroit firefighter union surrenders on promotions.
I wonder if the seniority-only promotion process contributes to some of the administrative behavior we have seen over the years, such as dramatically underreporting the number of arson fires to the FBI.
