Union holds off protest of mayor
But tensions grow between Menino and firefighters
The Boston firefighters union backed off a threat to picket Mayor Thomas M. Menino's State of the City speech last night, but that did not stop the escalation of a political feud between the union and the mayor.
The mayor used the platform of his annual address to say he was astounded by the union's aggressive negotiating positions on key contract changes.
He cited the union's unwillingness to accept random drug and alcohol testing, as well as its opposition to eliminating what he called "unethical personnel practices," without winning a pay raise in return.
"These union leaders do not seem to realize what everyone in this city knows, that it is not right to ask for pay raises as a reward for putting a stop to these abuses of the public trust," Menino said.
The mayor's remarks drew applause, but some public officials in the audience refrained from responding.
The union, while canceling plans to picket the mayor's speech at the Strand Theatre in Dorchester, held a press conference at which its leaders leveled charges at Menino's administration.
The union said the city was "engaged in a plot" to interfere with a department's investigation of the death of two firefighters in August.
"The city is trying to manipulate the independent report, thus revictimizing the families who have had to endure a horribly tragic event," said Edward Kelly, president of Boston Firefighters Local 718.
Firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne were killed in the fire Aug. 29 at a West Roxbury restaurant. Autopsy results showed that Cahill had a blood-alcohol content of 0.27, more than three times the legal limit to drive in Massachusetts, and that Payne had traces of cocaine in his system, said public officials who spoke to the Globe last year.
Kelly said the report, as it stands, gives no indication that Cahill and Payne were impaired by drugs or alcohol when they fought the fire.
He said he was concerned that the Menino administration would try to "conjure up" some claims of impairment. He cited draft changes the city's legal department submitted to the Board of Inquiry.
According to two public officials who have read the draft report, the board's original findings did not touch on whether supervisors on the night of the fire followed Fire Department procedures or whether they noticed any sign that Cahill and Payne were impaired.
The suggested additions sought answers to some of those questions, the officials said.
The city's legal department also made recommendations for "more substantive analysis," said William F. Sinnot, lawyer for the city. "The sole goal of this process is to arrive at the truth."
Since the fire, Menino has been pressing for random drug and alcohol testing of firefighters in negotiations with their union.
The firefighters have been working without a contract for 18 months.
Boston police and the fire departments in many major cities, including Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, have adopted random drug and alcohol testing.
Yesterday's exchange was the most public to date since the feud between City Hall and the union erupted last fall after the autopsy results became public.
Other concessions sought by the administration include tightening sick and injured leave and disability pension policies, which have skyrocketed in recent years.
The Globe reported last week that between 2001 and 2007, 102 firefighters were granted tax-free and substantially higher accidental disability pensions after reporting on-the-job injuries while they were substituting for their superiors at higher pay.
On Monday, the state Department of Labor Relations agreed to begin a mediation process that if unsuccessful, could land the contract dispute in binding arbitration.
But the absence of pickets took some of the drama out of the fight. When the mayor arrived at the Strand on Columbia Road yesterday, there was just one demonstrator with a sign protesting a 9/11 conspiracy.
Bill Gaylord and three other firefighters showed up at the mayor's speech because they did not get word that the picketing had been canceled.
Gaylord said he wanted to know why city officials and the union did not iron out a new contract.
"It kills morale," said Gaylord, a 23-year veteran firefighter.
The mayor also used last night's speech to address another sensitive topic: school busing. Menino said he plans to redraw bus zones to save $10 million annually.
Currently, the city is divided into three zones: North, which encompasses Charlestown, East Boston, downtown and Allston-Brighton; West, which includes Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, and West Roxbury; and East, which covers Hyde Park, Dorchester, Mattapan, and South Boston. Parents can choose to enroll their children at any school within their zone. But smaller or redrawn zones could mean fewer students travel far to go school.
The current zoning is costing the city some $40 million per year for transportation and could cost as much as $60 million annually five years from now, Menino said.
"This is crazy," he said. "I will not allow us to pour dollar after dollar into gas tanks, when we could put more of that money into our classrooms."
A similar plan came to naught in 2004, when after a year of public forums, the city scrapped its proposal to cut back on busing in the face of criticism from parents who live near underperforming schools and wanted the choice to send them to better schools in another neighborhood.
Megan Woolhouse of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com. 