Emotions flare at Fire Dept. hearing

WHEN PHILLY firefighters and paramedics ousted their hotheaded union president last summer, there was hope for a fresh start in the caustic relationship between Mayor Nutter's administration and the union.

So much for that.

Compelled by a subpoena from City Councilman Jim Kenney, a vocal union ally, Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers testified yesterday at a hearing on the department's recent retraction of promotions for 14 employees.

A Common Pleas judge had ordered the promotions, following a lawsuit from the union. The city then appealed the order and won, allowing it retract the promotions from those officers and give them to others whom the administration says scored higher on a more recent test.

New union president Joe Schulle, who took over for Bill Gault in July, accused Ayers and administration officials of lying to the firefighters by telling them the promotions would stand regardless of the court process.

Ayers denied that and said the union was at fault for starting the dispute.

"When the union pushed all of those families down that road, it's not my responsibility to go behind and say I'm going to give up management rights," Ayers said. "It was a management right. They made a choice to challenge that and they lost."

Kenney said the administration missed an opportunity to improve morale among firefighters, who have been working without a contract for four years during a stalemate with Nutter, by allowing the promotions to stand.

"You could have changed the climate," Kenney said. "You could have done the right thing, kept them in place and promote everyone else. But you didn't do it because you have to push their face in the dirt."