The City of Medford announced on Sept. 18 that it would move forward with the search for a new fire chief and deputy chief with “assessment center” examinations. Deputy Fire Chief Todd Evans has been the acting fire chief since March, when former Fire Chief John Freedman retired following a period of mass sick leaves by firefighters in February.
According to Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, around 80 firefighters called out sick for their day shifts and returned at night between Feb. 2 and 6. Other firefighters were called upon to fill in those shifts and consequently collected overtime payment.
The sick-out peaked on Feb. 3 when 21 out of 23 scheduled firefighters called out sick for their day shift and returned for the night shift. The firefighters collected sick pay and overtime, costing Medford taxpayers over $90,000, according to the city. Freedman retired a few days later.
Following the sick-out, which Lungo-Koehn calls an “illegal work stoppage,” the mayor’s office reported the incident to three state agencies. She told the Daily that the state of those reports remains confidential.
After Freedman’s retirement, Lungo-Koehn proposed that the Medford City Council approve a Special Act to send to the Massachusetts state legislature, removing the fire chief position from civil service. This would have allowed Lungo-Koehn to hire someone outside of the Medford Fire Department to serve as the fire chief.
According to Medford City Council President Isaac “Zac” Bears, the City Council was not initially supportive of the proposed change.
“The general feeling of the members of the council [was that] this is a major change that deserves additional discussion,” Bears said.
The resolution was ultimately pushed to committee on Feb. 20. Bears said that when the City Council later spoke with the mayor, she informed them that she was going to “move forward without that change.”
From there, the firefighters union petitioned the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission to look into the mayor’s intention for removing the fire chief from civil service and the change in examination process.
In a statement to the Daily, a spokesperson from the union Medford Firefighters Local 1032 wrote, “Our complaint to Civil Service carried on as an open ‘investigation’ because the Commissioner had ordered the city to abide by the Mass Laws that govern Civil Service requiring them to call for an exam for both vacant positions.”
Meanwhile, Lungo-Koehn interviewed all five deputy fire chiefs to find a temporary successor for Freedman, eventually tapping Evans to serve in the interim.
The search for a new fire chief
The Medford Human Resources Department and others recommended that Lungo-Koehn conduct an assessment center examination to make fire department promotions, rather than using the traditional written civil service exam.
Assessment centers focus on emergency scenarios and job simulations to score candidates. The use of assessment center exams to find a new fire chief would not be unprecedented, as the Medford Police Department uses assessment centers to make promotions.
“[The union is] upset with me now that I chose to do an assessment center for deputies and chief, because they’re used to taking this written test and then choosing the person that gets the highest score,” Lungo-Koehn said.
The union argues that the civil service exam promotes impartiality.
“The Union feels that the written civil service exam is the best way to promote impartially, while identifying the candidate with the appropriate knowledge and job experience, who will be best suited to command a fire scene,” the spokesperson wrote.
Lungo-Koehn recounted an issue that arose with the civil service exam where she says the union essentially hand-picked the fire chief.
“When former chief Freedman was appointed, four deputies signed up to take the chief’s test. At the time, they paid for the test, they signed up, but they didn’t take it. Only one person took it, so I was left with one choice for fire chief,” she said. “They basically hand-picked their fire chief.”
The union also argues that the mayor must renegotiate the collective bargaining agreement, given the change in the examination process.
“Changing our exam process is subject to collective bargaining and must be negotiated during contract negotiations,” the union spokesperson wrote.
On June 13, the Civil Service Commission closed the investigation requested by the union into the city’s proposed promotion procedures. The union then filed a complaint in the Middlesex Superior Court, seeking to prohibit the city from conducting assessment center exams until they renegotiated the contract.
“The Union filed for the injunction to stop the mayor from making a unilateral decision which disregarded the Union’s contract with the city,” the spokesperson wrote. “Injunction through the Superior Court is not a typical course of action for Municipal Union but we felt it was the only means of recourse that would obtain the fastest result.”
The injunction request was denied on Aug. 19.
Lungo-Koehn said that Human Resources had reached out to the union twice to initiate bargaining before the city scheduled the assessment centers. According to Lungo-Koehn, the union refused both times.
“The Union absolutely does not want to stall the process, as all of this has been extremely disruptive to our emergency operations. We are obligated to defend our rights as a Union and want to keep nepotism out of our promotional process, which was the main reason civil service was created to begin with,” the spokesperson stated.
Both the union and the mayor stated that a labor charge and a grievance are scheduled to take place after the assessment centers and subsequent promotions.
For now, assessment center examinations for fire chief and deputy fire chief are scheduled for Jan. 17, 2025 and Dec. 10, 2024, respectively.
