BREAKING: Melton Reverses, Reinstates JFD 5
by Brian Johnson and Adam Lynch
Aug. 15, 2006
UPDATE: At a special City Council meeting this afternoon, Fireman Brandon Falcon informed City Council that he had just spoken to Mayor Melton, who asked Falcon and the other four suspended firefighters to return to work on Monday. They will not be disciplined for speaking to the media. Watch for further updates.
Mayor Frank Melton said Tuesday (transcript here) that he supports the suspension of five Jackson firefighters for expressing safety concerns to the Jackson Free Press. In fact, the mayor may fire them himself. "I'm probably going to terminate them," he told the Jackson Free Press in a phone interview.
Commanders suspended Capts. Sidney Johnson, Reuben Ray and Patrick Armon, along with Lt. Vernon Gee and Local 87 Union President Brandon Falcon Monday.
Falcon vowed to fight the suspensions.
"Unfortunately it'll cost the city money with me because I'm not using city avenues. I'm going straight to circuit court if they actually do this," Falcon said Tuesday. "As the elected union president, I can go to the press for any serious concerns, especially public safety. These other guys are covered under the First Amendment. In any case, the International Association of Firefighters vigorously defends First Amendment rights."
Interim Fire Chief Todd Chandler, a former union president, did not return calls.
In his interview, Melton said he was fine with firefighters talking to the press, so long as what they said was honest. However, he didn't dispute the firefighters' claims that the Fire Department is understaffed, thus potentially hurting public safety. He agreed with that part, instead saying they were lying about having tried to talk to him.
"The problem that I have here is that someone was very dishonest ... when they said that they had tried to set up meetings with me," Melton told the JFP. "That is absolutely not true. … I've never gotten a single call from (Falcon). And the problem that I have is that I want them to talk to you, and I want them to feel free to talk to you, but they haven't said anything to the chief, they haven't said anything to me or anybody on my staff. And that's just wrong."
Falcon, though, said it's Melton who is misleading. "I tried repeatedly to contact the mayor by e-mail," Falcon said, "by calling his office and by requests through the chain of command until Feb. 26, at which time Chaundra Hardaway and Travis Frazier came by my fire station in a city vehicle and advised me that the mayor would not meet with me as president of local 87 under any circumstance. They told me that this was a message directly from the mayor."
Robert Shaffer, president of the Mississippi AFL-CIO, told the JFP that Hardaway and Frazier, two firefighters, met him around the same time and conveyed that same message, which he passed on to Falcon. Hardaway and Frazier could not be reached for comment.
Melton also said the firefighters' comments were politically motivated. "They want to decide who's going to be fire chief. ... I'm not going to put up with that," Melton said. "It's politics, pure politics. My thinking—and I could be wrong—but my very strong thinking is that the taxpayers pay them to fight fires, not to start them."
Prior to the suspensions, Chandler and JFD Commander Tony Davis sent a letter to firefighters who had aired grievances concerning safety to the Jackson Free Press, starting months ago, and later in other media. The letter demanded that firefighters provide exhaustive documentation substantiating their claims within 72 hours or face disciplinary measures.
The Aug. 9 letter to Sidney Johnson lists two pages of demands to substantiate the following statement in a July 19 JFP article: "Chandler's three-person rule also puts the city's ISO rating at risk, raising the possibility of higher homeowners insurance within city limits, according to JFD Rescue 23 Capt. Sidney Johnson." The demands included: "Provide all written documentation showing that the current Fire Administration ISO evaluation is the sole determining factor for higher homeowners insurance."
Yet, Johnson did not make that claim.
Disgruntled firemen do say staffing cuts limit the number of firemen on a ladder or pumper truck to three—one person short of the four-person team recommended by the National Fire Protection Association.
Firefighters took issue with the staff cut because federal guidelines restrict firefighters from entering a burning building to check for rescues unless there are at least two firefighters waiting outside, ready to enter the building and rescue the rescuers if things get choppy. Investigating the flames without prior confirmation of endangered occupants could endanger local firefighters' workman's comp.
David Hudson Jr., an attorney with the First Amendment Center in Arlington, Va., said that public employees can fight suspension or termination if their concerns are about safety: "There is a strong First Amendment interest in having public employees speak out on matters of public safety."
Falcon compared the suspensions to union-breaking tactics. "They're trying to fire us and bust the union," Falcon said.
"I didn't see this coming," Johnson said. "Most of us are saying what the fire chief and assistant fire chief have been saying for 10 years—except they get rewarded, we get punished."
Resentment has been brewing between the command staff and union members for months. Melton picked Chandler to preside over the fire department, but a majority of council members stand against Chandler's affirmation. Melton has repeatedly withdrawn Chandler's name from a council vote until he says the council is ready to approve him—a move Ward 6 Councilman Marshand Crisler says undermines the council's power.
Firefighters submitted a petition with 93 signatures from members—roughly one-third of the department—giving Chandler a vote of no confidence. They accuse Chandler of busting rapid intervention teams, including rope and confined space rescue teams and a hazardous materials team.
Johnson said the special teams were forced to disband when Chandler began shuffling firemen around. "They couldn't stay together when they got re-assigned," he said. "We've got one member of the haz-mat team at my station, but he's no use for that kind of work without his other team members."
Firemen also complain that Chandler agrees too easily with decisions rolling down from the mayor's administration that negatively impact the fire department.
"Instead of fighting for us, Chandler just rolls over and takes it," Falcon said. "We need a chief who'll stand up for us."
Click here for an earlier JFP thread on this topic. At this link, you can also find links to all of the JFP articles on the Fire Department to date.
Read transcript of interview with Frank Melton here
NOTE: All quotes contained in this article are Copyright 2006 Jackson Free Press. Any use without express attribution to the Jackson Free Press will be considered a copyright violation.
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