Ready for duty

But return of Medford firefighters from disability causes turmoil

If three retired lieutenants get back on the Medford Fire Department, it would keep current firefighters from moving up. (Pat Greenhouse/Globe staff)

Medford Fire Chief Frank Giliberti is feeling the heat these days, but it's not from battling blazes in his city.

Giliberti's department is roiled by the attempt of three formerly disabled fire lieutenants to return to the job, a move allowed by law but which would supplant three active firefighters seeking promotions.

The active firefighters are not happy, each believing that he is more qualified to be lieutenant now than the three seeking to return, who have been collecting disability pensions for 15 to 23 years.

Neither are the formerly disabled lieutenants, who accuse Giliberti of deliberately resisting their return even though the Massachusetts Human Resources Division, the Civil Service Commission, and the Public Employees Retirement Administration Commission have all demanded that the chief follow state law and bring the three back to active duty.

Giliberti has not yet developed a retraining program for those who want to return, and says the situation is not so simple.

"It is not a matter of taking people who haven't been on the job in 15-20 years and putting them on a truck and saying, 'Here, you're in charge. You're a supervisor,' " he said in a recent interview. "Each one of these individuals has been off the job with injury for . . . years. A lot of things change in that time."

Complicating the matter and adding to some of the unhappiness in the department is that, if they return, the three retirees would earn on average 82 percent more in salary than their current disability pensions. And when the three - Richard Monagle, Randall Rideout, and James Morse - retire a second time, they would add on average $16,500 to their annual pensions, because the years they were sidelined with injury and receiving tax-free payouts would now count as if they had been on active duty the whole time.

In January, the Massachusetts Human Resources Division tried to compel Giliberti to begin reinstating the trio by refusing to allow him to fill an open lieutenant's position from within his active ranks.

The three firefighters in line for promotion to the open position - Frank Cappuccio, Paul Faggiano, and Robert Jones - appealed to the Civil Service Commission. But the commission denied the appeal, ruling in July that the retirees' reinstatement took precedence over any pending promotions.

Cappuccio, who has been with the department for 12 years, has since filed a lawsuit in Middlesex Superior Court against the commission, the human resources commission, the retirees, and the city government. He has also elicited support from state Representative James Miceli, chairman of the House Committee on Personnel and Administration, who has asked that Cappuccio be promoted to lieutenant immediately and then be demoted if necessary should the retirees be reinstated.

In the Medford Fire Department, only one or two lieutenant positions become available each year. Candidates for lieutenant must take a civil service exam that determines - along with experience - their ranking on a list for the next open position. Until they get promoted, the candidates must retake the test every two years to remain on the list. Because Monagle, Rideout, and Morse were lieutenants when they went out on disability, they don't have to take the exam to be rehired as lieutenants - a situation that rankles active firefighters who could have their promotions pushed back years.

"These guys - they don't have a fraction of the experience that I have," said Faggiano, who has been with the department nine years. "After 15 years, don't you think they would have to start the whole process over again?"

The situation could become even more delicate after the next lieutenant's exam is held on Nov. 22 and the new promotion list is released in May: Giliberti's son, Frank Giliberti III, will be eligible for promotion for the first time, five years after he was hired as a firefighter in 2004 to complaints of nepotism because he was picked ahead of 13 other applicants who were ranked higher on the firefighter's exam.

Meanwhile, Monagle, Rideout, and Morse say they are eager to return. They insist their bid for reinstatement is not so that they can quickly pad their retirement pay.

"He is trying everything possible not to bring us back," Rideout, 51, said about Giliberti. "It is not like I'm going back to enhance my retirement, because I still have almost 15 years to work. That's a long time."

Firefighters must retire by age 65.

Rideout believes his rank is what's holding up his reinstatement, and through his lawyer he has told the Civil Service Commission that he would return as a regular firefighter. But the law says his reinstatement must be as a lieutenant.

Rideout, Monagle, and Morse would make $66,000 per year if reinstated - significantly more than what they receive on disability, which is 72 percent of their salary when they went out. Rideout's current disability payment is $37,605.60 per year, Monagle's is $42,019.44, and Morse's is $29,084.64.

Their new pensions when they retire again could be at least $52,800. For firefighters to earn the maximum allowable pension - 80 percent of the annual average of their last three years' salary - they must have 32 years experience and be at least 55 years old when they retire.

For firefighters on disability who are reinstated, the years they were out with injury would count toward their 32 years of experience, even though they weren't paying into the pension system during the off time. Monagle needs three more years to get 32, while Rideout needs eight and Morse needs two.

Monagle's lawyer, Robert Houlihan, said the trio want to return because of their passion for the job and because they have to return to duty following rehabilitation of their injuries. By law, the Public Employees Retirement Administration Commission retests those who are out on disability every two or three years to see whether they are rehabbed from their injuries; in the case of the Medford trio, the commission had suggested after tests that they attempt to return to duty. Monagle started his reinstatement process in 2005, while Rideout and Morse started theirs in 2007.

The major roadblock appears to be retraining. Giliberti's initial plan was to have the three attend the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy, but the institution won't accept them because they already have more than five years of experience. Giliberti could make an appeal to the academy, but he said he has not done so.

"What the chief has done is institute a retraining policy that is impossible to complete," said Robert Benoit, who represents Rideout and Morse. "The city is dragging its feet."

The active firefighters say they are just as frustrated.

"If [Giliberti] wanted these guys retrained, he could have done it already," said Jones, who has been with the department seven years. "I'd like to see these guys come back if they could, but I'd like to see this done and not held in limbo for years."

Giliberti said a solution may be for Medford to set up its own drill school or retraining program for the returning firefighters. The lieutenant's position is not the same as it was 20 years ago, he said, with additional training in areas like computers, weapons of mass destruction, and National Incident Management System now a necessity, and it could be very difficult for the retirees to handle it all upon their return.

Rideout called the chief's concern "a bunch of nonsense.

"The job has changed, but it is not something that can't be learned."

Brad Kane can be contacted at brad.j.kane@gmail.com.