Holding firm in backdraft
Roderick Fraser is not going to fire Albert Arroyo today. Monday could be a different story.
"If he doesn't come in, he'll be fired," Fraser said calmly yesterday in his office at Fire Department headquarters. "But I think he'll be sitting downstairs Monday morning."
By now, most people have heard the story of Arroyo, the firefighter who claims to be permanently disabled, yet is healthy enough to successfully compete as a professional bodybuilder. Fraser ordered Arroyo back to work July 21. He has 14 days to comply or face termination for abandoning his post. Arroyo's only response so far has been to press his claim for disability retirement.
I asked Fraser a question I've heard from a lot of frustrated Boston taxpayers - why hasn't he fired him already?
"I could just fire him, but it would be a symbolic gesture," the fire commissioner said. "He could go to civil service and the courts and they would give him his job back. That would be irresponsible. You can't just trample on people's rights."
The Arroyo case has actually been a godsend to the commissioner, because it so graphically illustrates the abuses allowed to fester in the department. Anyone watching Arroyo pose onstage - the video is online - would immediately conclude that he is healthy enough to carry a clipboard and check out smoke detectors. That is the physical challenge faced every day by the Fire Prevention Division, where he is assigned.
I asked Fraser about scuttlebutt making its way through the department. By this account, Arroyo decided he was disabled when he was warned, erroneously, that the department was considering placing GPS devices on the cars in his unit. That might have disrupted his daily four-hour workouts.
"That's the first I've heard of that," Fraser said. "That doesn't mean it isn't true."
Dubious disability claims are a huge problem in the department, abetted by a Boston Retirement Board that is at best clueless and at worst corrupt. The board makes the final judgment on disability retirement claims.
Or, in many cases, it renders no judgment at all. Of the 96 pending cases involving Boston firefighters, 71 have been sitting for more than six months. Some have languished for 18 months or more. Firefighters who have gone out on disability collect their entire salary, tax-free, while they wait for the Retirement Board to decide whether they can ever go back to work. The longer the board takes to act on your case, the more money you pocket.
"In my opinion, the entire Retirement Board system needs overhauling," Fraser said.
The former Navy officer has had an awakening in his short tenure running the Fire Department. He has clashed with the union over issues ranging from disability to drug testing to overtime.
That has been a surprise to Fraser, who grew up in a union household and assumed that the union would be his willing partners in reforming the department. "That was a Pollyanna-ish view," Fraser conceded yesterday.
The long-running collective bargaining negotiation stands at impasse, mainly over drug testing. "Either it's the right thing to do or it's not," Fraser said. The union doesn't seem to agree.
The scandals in the Fire Department have sparked a federal grand jury investigation. I asked Fraser what he believes the outcome will be.
"I think people are going to prison," he said. "The union doesn't think anything is going to happen, but I've never seen a US attorney spend this kind of time on an investigation and not charge anyone."
For the first time in our interview, he seems to think he may have said too much. "I'll get [grief] for saying that tomorrow. But I don't care."
Internal criticism has become routine for this commissioner who has never fought a fire and has taken on a deeply entrenched culture. A thick skin is mandatory.
"I don't worry about what people say," Fraser said. "I haven't done anything wrong."
Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at walker@globe.com. 