Firefighters union blasts Theofan

The president of the Long Beach Professional Firefighters Association, union members and some residents are criticizing City Manager Charles Theofan after a state administrative law judge said in September that Theofan violated a section of the Public Employees’ Fair Employment Act, commonly known as the Taylor Law, by interfering with union activities before an association election.

In a separate decision in June, a State Supreme Court judge said that Theofan violated Civil Service law by assigning less-experienced firefighters to the position of acting lieutenant during tours when lieutenants were out sick or on vacation, instead of assigning other lieutenants, which union President Bill Piazza said put residents’ lives in danger.

"In this particular case, they took a fireman, made him an acting lieutenant and had him work in the capacity of a lieutenant,” Piazza said, explaining that lieutenants take a mandatory state training course. “Not only are we losing a fireman for the day, we have someone acting in the role of the supervisor who is not trained as a supervisor. It puts residents and the city in danger, and it creates safety and liability issues.”

Piazza said that typically, in the event of a fire or emergency call when a lieutenant is injured, the senior ranking fireman will step in as an acting lieutenant until another lieutenant can be contacted to fill in. According to the union, the practice violates Section 61 of the Civil Service law, and last year the association filed an article 78 proceeding against Theofan, the city and the City Council.

While the city disagreed, saying that another section of the law provides for temporary appointments not exceeding three months when the “need for such service was urgent and important,” Judge Thomas Phelan ordered the city to stop the practice because it did not demonstrate that the appointments were urgent, and agreed with the association that the practice was in violation of the law.