For anyone who may have wondered about the fate of good, old-fashioned corruption, we now know that it is alive and well in the Boston Fire Department.
The self-inflicted bad news keeps coming from the Fire Department. A labor-management committee that was supposed to institute changes collapsed almost as soon as it was appointed, because the union pulled out. A new firefighter used political connections to get hired, despite a score on the civil service exam that was clearly too low. A group of firefighters is under investigation by the state; they may have cheated on a promotional exam last November.
The latest outrage, reported by the Globe yesterday, is that 102 firefighters have substantially increased their pensions by reporting permanent disability while temporarily substituting for their supervisors.
Permanent disability enables those who retire to do so at the rank at which they were filling in rather than their actual jobs. Disability pensions, unlike others, are also tax-free. Added together, it becomes a windfall.
To give the retirees the benefit of a doubt, some of the reports must be legitimate. But forgive me if I have trouble with the guy who permanently injured himself stepping off a curb in front of headquarters.
According to the report, the enhanced benefits will ultimately cost taxpayers $25 million. Fire Commissioner Roderick J. Fraser Jr. has said that at least some of the cases may involve fraud.
Those are just the revelations of the last month, hardly the heroic image we are asked to buy into every time firefighters are seeking a new contract.
The disability scam hasn't gone without notice. In the most recent contract negotiations, city officials attempted to put the brakes on the practice, only to cave rather than trade the reform for bigger raises.
The firefighters union holds a virtually undefeated record against Mayor Thomas M. Menino, which is a true mystery. After years of relaxed residency requirements, the days when the union had the political muscle to run politicians out of office ended long ago. Yet, on issue after issue, the union wins. Meanwhile, taxpayers pay dearly for every concession.
Fortunately, the city has another turn at bat: Firefighters are currently working without a contract. If the next one fails to address this issue, as well as the urgent matter of drug testing, Menino should have a lot of explaining to do.
Defenders of the union insist that taking permanent disability requires medical documentation, as well as departmental approval. In addition, two state-appointed doctors must certify that the injury is legitimate.
That all sounds good, yet Fraser used terms like unethical and immoral to describe the disability retirements.
I salute his outrage. But he won't be able to fix the problem on his own, because the last word on collective bargaining belongs to the mayor.
Thus far, the department has been reform-proof. Years of yapping about fixing a clearly broken department has fixed nothing. Fraser's predecessor, Martin Pierce, was actually a member of the union for part of his time as commissioner, a breathtaking conflict of interest that illustrates the extent of the union's influence.
Just how much has to happen in the Fire Department before the mayor pulls rank? Isn't it enough to be allegedly cheating on tests, short-circuiting the mayor's reform commission, and blatantly ripping off the public? If not, what will it take?
The me-first culture in the Fire Department long predates Menino. However, the mayor has had well over a decade to take it on, and he doesn't have much to show for it.
Ending the disability scam is about more than money, even though it's a lot of money. It is about reforming a culture that lacks accountability.
Figuring out how to take back the Fire Department belongs at the very top of Menino's to-do list.
Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com.
