The Chicago Tribune has an article about the city rehiring four firefighters that were fired for padding mileage records:
Mayor Rahm Emanuel does not plan to appeal an arbitrator’s order to rehire four firefighters who were fired for padding mileage reports, but he continued his tough talk on employee misconduct.
“I give no quarter to anyone who does anything wrong or violates the public trust,” Emanuel said at an unrelated news conference Friday. “When it comes to a culture and atmosphere, we condone no violation of the public trust. None. Zero tolerance.”
The mayor was responding to a ruling by arbitrator Edwin Benn, who on Thursday reversed the firings of three Chicago Fire Department lieutenants and a firefighter who were among 54 Fire Prevention Bureau personnel who padded their mileage reports.
Benn ordered that the four instead should be suspended without pay for 40 days. Emanuel said the arbitrator concluded the firings were “out of sync with what happened here,” and the mayor gave no indication he disagreed with that assessment.
It was the second time Benn ordered the same four firefighters be returned to work after they were fired for misconduct. Four years ago, the city fired them for accepting and not reporting pay from private companies to do weekend pump inspections at high-rises, but Benn ruled suspensions were more appropriate.
In his recent ruling, Benn also ordered the city to rehire a captain and lieutenant who the city refused to rehire after they resigned in the face of mileage-padding allegations. They will be docked 40 and 25 days’ pay, respectively.
Forty-four other firefighters will have their 30- to 60-day suspensions reduced to a range of 20 to 40 days. Four who resigned with allegations pending are unaffected by Benn’s ruling.
The complete article can be found HERE.
