Excerpts from patch.com:
An investigation found that Clarendon Hills firefighters violated their department’s callback compensation policy more than 1,500 times over three years, and the inquiry identified tensions between two groups of the department’s members.
On Tuesday, the village released an attorney’s report of a months-long investigation into the compensation system. The problems are believed to have led to the ouster of longtime Fire Chief Brian Leahy earlier this year.
The attorney said the 1,592 violations ended up costing the village $52,000 from 2020 to 2023.
On Jan. 1, 2020, Leahy started staffing the fire department with four personnel at all times, rather than three. The stated intent was to reduce the callbacks of paid-on-call firefighters related to minor alarms and mutual aid calls to Hinsdale lasting less than 15 minutes, which was later extended to Westmont.
In 2020, callback violations made up 8 percent of all calls, which increased to 12 percent in 2021 and 15 percent in 2022. The rate dropped to 10 percent in the first nine months of 2023.
The chief, who was put on leave in November, entered a severance agreement with the village. As part of the pact, he agreed to be interviewed for the investigation.
The report said the tension between part-time firefighter paramedics and paid-on-call firefighters was an issue in every interview during the investigation, and that Leahy acknowledged the tension, but viewed the paramedics as the main complainers. He said the paramedics complained that paid-on-call members abused the callback system.
In an interview late last year, administrative Lt. Jim Weil, who was also put on leave in November, acknowledged the callback policy was not properly followed over the three years, but said it was not abused and that he would question the accuracy of certain callbacks and bring them to Leahy’s attention. Weil said the chief would make the final call on whether they were approved or denied.
When Leahy and Weil were put on leave, the village immediately changed the policy on callbacks.
In a memo to the Village Board on Tuesday, internal controls were put in place for callbacks in November. The village installed a new door system to track attendance, put in place new attendance sheets, and corrected past practices of “rounding up” and pyramiding hours.
The village also installed cameras at all of its buildings, and employees received extended training on proper payroll procedures.
Under state law, the village could have kept the lawyer’s report secret, citing the secrecy of attorney-client communications. But the village resolved some time ago to release it. It was posted on the village’s website.
The 68-year-old Leahy started as chief in 1985 and joined the department in 1971.
He couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.
thanks Scott
