Posts Tagged Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson

Chicago Fire Department news (more)

Excerpts from the ChicagoSunTimes.com:

Inspector General Joe Ferguson concluded the Chicago Fire Department hired only seven of the 32 civilians it agreed to hire to fill administrative jobs that have nothing to do with firefighting or emergency medical service.

The process of hiring civilians to fill nine other administrative jobs is in the works. It was slowed by legal impediments in the union contract and by the CFD’s claim that civilians can be hired only after uniformed members vacate those positions.

“CFD reported that it was not able to civilianize 15 of the 32 positions it had previously committed to converting because of the barrier to those cost and efficiency reforms potentially imposed by the recently expired” firefighters contract that remains in force, Ferguson said in a written follow-up to his original audit.

“As a result, CFD continues to employ trained firefighters in mail delivery positions, for example.”

Ferguson acknowledged what he called the potential constraints posed by a union contract that expired on June 30, but remains in effect until a new agreement is reached. But he urged Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration to seize the opportunity posed by collective bargaining to civilianize jobs that have nothing to do with firefighting or emergency service.

The inspector general pointed to the blueprint he gave the mayor nearly two months ago to renegotiate union contracts to cut costs and improve city services. Firefighters and paramedics would be impacted by those changes and Ferguson’s renewed request to take a fresh look at the minimum-manning requirement that triggered the bitter 1980 firefighters strike.

Ferguson also recommended that Emanuel rein in side-letters that tie the city’s hands. There are 51 side letters in the firefighters contract and 42 more in the police contract.

“The city and its union partners have a generational opportunity to right-size labor contracts to reflect contemporary operations,” Ferguson wrote, noting that public safety takes up more than half the city’s workforce and operating budget.

Eighteen months ago, Ferguson concluded the fire department could save at least $1.2 million a year and potentially millions more in overtime by hiring civilians to perform 34 administrative jobs that have nothing to do with firefighting or emergency medical service.

After analyzing the duties and responsibilities of 555 uniformed firefighters and paramedics within the $576.7 million-a-year fire department bureaucracy, he recommended that Chicago hire civilians to perform 34 of those jobs and eliminate the job of commissary liaison altogether.

That would save Chicago taxpayers at least $1.2 million a year, cut fire department overtime that topped $50 million last year, improve public safety and reduce response times, Ferguson said.

Two firefighters whose jobs were targeted for civilians actually served as mail carriers, though their jobs were “not always documented in position descriptions or titles,” the inspector general concluded. The others were assigned to administrative duties, such as making certain fire department scheduling complies with minimum staffing requirements mandated by the firefighters contract.

The city makes a “substantial investment” in training firefighters and paramedics, Ferguson said then, but “does not make the most effective and efficient use of that specialized, taxpayer-subsidized training and expertise when it assigns a segment of its skilled ranks to administrative functions that could be performed by civilians.”

At the time, the Fire Department embraced Ferguson’s recommendation on 32 of the 35 targeted positions. Commissioner Jose Santiago further agreed to follow the recommendation to “assess all positions … and ensure that job descriptions reflect actual responsibilities of uniformed positions.”

Such a periodic review could save even more money, but only if Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 goes along.

In Thursday’s follow-up audit, the Fire Department stated that regular reviews have identified no other jobs that could be performed by civilians. But the department acknowledged the review process was informal and not documented and that more formal reviews may be warranted.

During the January 2016 audit, the fire department tried to get a head start hiring civilians for some jobs including the two mail delivery positions. But Local 2 filed a grievance, saying the job had been in the union for decades and demanding that it stay there.

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Chicago Inspector General suggests savings for CFD

Excerpts from the ChicagoSunTimes.com:

The Chicago Fire Department could save at least $1.2 million a year and potentially millions more in overtime by hiring civilians to perform 34 administrative jobs that have nothing to do with firefighting or emergency medical service, Inspector General Joe Ferguson said Wednesday.

Three years after urging Mayor Rahm Emanuel to civilianize police jobs to save up to $16.6 million a year and put another 292 police officers on the street, Ferguson outlined a similar cost-cutting recipe for the Chicago Fire Department.

After analyzing the duties and responsibilities of 555 uniformed firefighters and paramedics within the $576.7 million-a-year fire department bureaucracy, Ferguson recommended that Emanuel hire civilians to perform 34 of those jobs and eliminate the job of commissary liaison altogether.

That would save Chicago taxpayers at least $1.2 million a year, reduce annual fire department overtime that has topped $40 million in recent years and allow for a more effective deployment of personnel to improve public safety outcomes and response times to fire and medical emergencies, Ferguson said.

Two firefighters whose jobs were targeted for civilians actually served as mail carriers, even though their jobs were not always documented in position descriptions or titles, the inspector general concluded. The others were assigned to administrative duties, such as making certain that fire department scheduling complies with minimum staffing requirements mandated by the firefighters contract.

The fire department embraced Ferguson’s recommendation on 32 of the 35 targeted positions. Commissioner Jose Santiago further agreed to follow the inspector general’s recommendation to assess all positions, monitor and track temporary assignments and ensure that job descriptions reflect actual responsibilities of uniformed positions.

“There are likely to be more positions in CFD that could be civilianized,” Ferguson wrote, noting that New York and Philadelphia have civilians working as fire inspectors while Chicago still assigns those jobs to uniformed firefighters.

Such a periodic review has potential to save even more money, but only if the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 goes along. During the audit, the fire department tried to get a head start by civilianizing some of the jobs Ferguson was targeting, including the two mail delivery positions. But Local 2 filed a grievance.

“Delivering mail has been Local 2 bargaining members for decades. This is a unilateral work rule change not negotiated with Local 2 . . . Stop this practice immediately and return this work to bargaining unit personnel,” the grievance stated.

Tom Ryan, president of the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2, stood his ground. “Mr. Ferguson is entitled to his opinion. But the positions referenced in his report are staffed by firefighters and paramedics and are essential to the efficient functioning of the fire department,” Ryan wrote to the Chicago Sun-Times. “These jobs are covered under our current contract and, therefore, can only be discussed in negotiations.”

Ferguson’s audit also concluded that the fire department provided at least 13 reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act either informally or without proper approval by the disability officer in the city’s Department of Human Resources.

That’s even though the department could not determine whether it had identified all uniformed members who had been granted accommodations.

“Such accommodations effectively remove firefighters and paramedics from operations, so it is critical that CFD grant and track such accommodations systematically and in compliance with city policy,” Ferguson wrote in a letter to aldermen and the mayor that accompanied Wednesday’s audit.

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African American Firefighter and Paramedic League of Chicago calls for resignations (more)

Excerpts from Fox32Chicago.com:

At least 20 of the 111 black firefighters hired by the Chicago Fire Department after a marathon discrimination lawsuit had not been medically cleared by a department physician before starting work and two of them suffered serious medical events and died while off-duty, the city’s inspector general disclosed Tuesday.

Under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chicago resolved a bitter legal battle the mayor inherited from former Mayor Richard M. Daley stemming from the city’s discriminatory handling of a 1995 firefighters entrance exam, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting. The city agreed to hire 111 bypassed African-American firefighters and borrow the $78.4 million needed to compensate nearly 6,000 African-Americans who never got that chance.

Two weeks ago, Emanuel proudly pointed to that legal resolution as he fended off demands by an organization of African-American firefighters calling for the dismissal of Chicago Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago and a federal investigation into what the group says are racist policies at the fire department.“We settled that. Paid out somewhere around $60 million to $75 million to the individuals. Then, produced the class for [111] individuals to fulfill their dreams of becoming Chicago firefighters,” the mayor said.

On Tuesday, Inspector General Joe Ferguson added a new chapter to the long-running legal saga.

In his quarterly report, Ferguson disclosed he had conducted an investigation that revealed that at least 20 firefighters in the so-called Lewis class of African-American firefighters had not been medically cleared by a Chicago Fire Department physician before starting duty, contrary to national standards and the city’s own established practice.

“Two of the 20 improperly-cleared members suffered serious medical events while off-duty and died not long after they began their full duties, highlighting the importance of a CFD physician to provide medical clearance for all new firefighters,” Ferguson wrote.

“OIG strongly urged that CFD consider immediate action to assure that the remaining 18 members who had not been medically cleared by a CFD physician were, in fact, medically fit for duty. OIG further urged that CFD devise and implement a formal medical clearance policy consistent with national standards to assure that similar deviations did not occur in the future.”

The Chicago Fire Department responded to the inspector general’s findings by claiming that all 111 black firefighters had been medically examined by an outside vendor that reviewed the candidates’ medical history and conducted a physical exam and blood tests. The fire department’s own doctors then conducted an initial review of the outside vendor’s files to either clear the candidate or order additional steps, including follow-up exams by the candidate’s personal physician or retesting if initial blood tests showed anomalous results.

But, the fire department acknowledged that department physicians fell behind in the subsequent review of applicant files aimed at making certain those additional steps were taken.

“CFD further [acknowledged] that, operating on the advice of counsel and in order to ensure compliance with a court-imposed hiring deadline, it decided to have administrative personnel conduct a limited and administrative follow-up review of the medical files of 53 yet to be cleared candidates,” Ferguson wrote.

Those administrators ultimately cleared 19 of 53 candidates and rejected 34 others whose documentation was incomplete. The fire department subsequently acknowledged that a twentieth candidate may have been administratively cleared.

In his report, Ferguson disclosed that a current and former medical director for the Chicago Fire Department told investigators that administrative personnel performing the document check lacked the medical judgment necessary to evaluate whether candidates met the required medical standards for the rigorous job of being a firefighter.

National standards clearly state that when medical evaluations are conducted by a doctor or medical provider other than a fire epartment’s own physician, the evaluation must be reviewed and approved by the fire department’s own doctors.

After the first of the two cleared firefighters died, the CFD hired an outside doctor with particular experience with fire service requirements to conduct a more thorough review of the medical files of the 19 other candidates administratively cleared.

“Soon after, a second of the 19 administratively-cleared candidates died while off-duty. Both of the firefighters who died were among the six candidates who the outside doctor identified as having medical conditions warranting further inquiry, which CFD has acknowledged,” the inspector general’s report states.

Three of the four surviving administratively-cleared firefighters for whom the outside physician recommended additional screening later experienced a medical issue unrelated to the condition of concern, Ferguson disclosed.

The Chicago Fire Department’s medical staff subsequently cleared all three as fully-fit to return to duty after a wellness exam that did not include blood tests and other diagnostic components that are part of a candidate’s screening process.  The fourth firefighter had no occasion to be evaluated by department physicians.

“CFD stated that it had discussed performing a medical exam for all the administratively-cleared firefighters and was willing to pursue such examinations, but was advised by outside counsel that doing so would be improper and potentially violate” the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),” Ferguson wrote.

Going forward, CFD noted that its current medical director ‘has developed detailed internal operating procedures that follow National Fire Protection Association standards, which the department is now following. The Chicago Fire Department’s Medical Division Handbook dated June, 2015  states that a CFD physician must make a final medical clearance determination on applicants.

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The Inspector Generals Report on Chicago Fire Department Response Times (more)

Excerpts from CBSChicago.com:

Chicago’s inspector general says the Chicago Fire Department is still not meeting nationwide standards for response time, despite being chided a year-and-a-half ago.

It was in 2013 when Chicago’s Inspector General Joe Ferguson concluded that the fire department was not meeting national standards, [saying] the city was using a statistically flawed method for calculating response times and because of the way [the department kept]  records, some of those records were missing.

Now the Inspector General has released a follow-up, saying basically that the fire department has done nothing to meet national standards. To view the report, click here.

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