Excerpts from evanstonroundtable.com:

An incident took place at Evanston Fire Station 3 where four firefighters were photographed in uniform, wearing Trump masks while on duty in the firehouse on Inauguration Day. A Reddit user circulated the picture on the r/evanston forum of the social media platform.

Shortly after the post went semi-viral in the community, EFD Chief Paul Polep apologized in an email to the mayor and city council and promised “corrective actions.” Five days later, about 15 firefighters appeared at the Jan. 27 city council meeting to offer a public apology.

The city completed a formal investigation into the matter and handed out discipline to the firefighters involved ranging from verbal and written reprimands to suspensions because they had broken both city code and their union contract, which prohibit political activity on city property.

That contract states that “Employees shall have the right to engage in political activities, including to identify themselves as members of the Evanston Fire Department, as long as they engage in such activities while they are off-duty and not in uniform and as long as they do not represent that their positions are positions that are sanctioned by the City or the Evanston Fire Department and make no threats and promises to voters concerning the delivery of services provided by the Evanston Fire Department.”

“I want to set the record perfectly straight that we are not the racist, bigoted, sexist, uneducated fools as has been described and portrayed on blogs, forums and social media,” Billy Lynch, president of the Evanston Firefighters Local 742 union, said at the time. “When someone calls 911, I want to offer firm confidence and reassurance that we will answer that call, we will fix problems no matter how big or small, and we will have no other consideration in mind other than to make someone’s life better.”

Polep said that firefighters working under him take city code and contract obligations very seriously, saying that the department expects “the utmost professionalism.” He added that mistakes happen in all departments, but the important thing is “we handled it in a very professional way, and we’re moving forward.”

thanks Dan

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