One thing I knew for sure about firefighters; they love their jobs, and they wouldn't abuse their sick leave. Sure, there are always a few bad apples in any group, but 14 percent? This could not possibly be correct, and I had to get to the bottom of it.
I called union president, Frannie Capello to ask if it was true. "Of course not," he responded. He suggested I speak with Lt. Rich Geary at Station #3, one of the nicest firefighters I would ever meet. After spending a couple of hours going over records with Lt. Geary, I went straight home and wrote a letter to the editor of the Globe:
To the Editor: This letter is in response to the article by Connie Paige concerning the Newton Fire Department. (Globe West, Nov. 23).
The Firefighters Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to alleviating substandard conditions at firehouses, while also working to assist firefighters affected by 9/11. A few months ago, I was alerted to problematic circumstances in Newton, and decided to investigate.
In her article Ms. Paige states that “in FY 2002 firefighters called in sick 14 percent of the time they were scheduled to work, compared with 5 percent for police;” and other city employees.
I have reviewed the “Recommended Budget City of Newton Revised”. There were 175 firefighters, each one working 91 tours – a total of 15,925 tours. Using Ms. Paige’s own numbers that there were 964 sick days taken in that period - it comes out to a sick leave percentage of 6%, for 2002.
This is an amazingly low number, considering that the conditions under which they perform their jobs are abominable. Firehouse infrastructures are falling apart, the firemen have to provide their own equipment, and their dispatch systems fail regularly.
The question that should be asked is why the city is compromising the safety of both firefighters and residents over a sick leave issue that simply does not exist; unless, of course, you want to include the manipulation of figures.”
Finally, I felt like I had done something to help the Newton firefighters. However, I then got a call from the Globe Editor, who said they were unable to publish my letter because it directly contradicted the figures given to them by the Mayor's office.
“Well,” I said, “isn't that the point of a letter to the editor?" He said they would investigate further, and if my figures were right, they would print a retraction. My figures were right, but where were the mayor's calculations?
It seemed Ms. Paige had assumed the accuracy of the city’s figures, but had not actually seen anything on paper.
And there was one other part of this that continued to bother me: If anyone should know the sick leave rate of the Newton Fire Department, Chief Joseph Lacroix should. Why wasn’t he defending his department against these false accusations?
(to be continued...)
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