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Mayor Menino backs drug and alcohol testing for public safety personnel

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 25, 2009 05:11 PM

By Jazmine Ulloa, Globe Correspondent

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino testified today at the State House in favor of statewide legislation requiring random drug and alcohol testing for all public safety personnel and emergency medical technicians.

"We already have drug testing for conductors of garbage trucks, dump trucks and school buses. Why not a public safety official? Why are they not tested?" Menino asked the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee at today's hearing, adding that the law would "equal the playing field" for municipal workers.

Menino declared support for the same legislation when it was proposed last year by State Representative Christopher J. Donelan of Orange at the request of a city resident. The measure was filed after reports that two firefighters who died in a West Roxbury restaurant fire had drugs or alcohol in their system, with one's blood-alcohol level exceeding the legal driving limit, and the other's blood containing traces of cocaine.

The city is still locked in contract negotiations with its fire union, with drug testing the major sticking point.

This year's bill, also sponsored by Donelan, is only a paragraph long and does not specify the parameters of the testing nor how it would be funded, sparking criticism from police and firefighter union representatives at the hearing.

Robert B. McCarthy called the proposed mandate a "political football," giving public safety workers a bad image in the press.

"It is unconstitutional what you are doing here," said McCarthy, president of Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, a union representing more than 11,000 firefighters in the state. "This about political spin. This is about hurting my firefighters. And this is wrong."

McCarthy said the union was not against drug testing, but thinks firefighters deserve increased wages or benefits in return, something he says needs to be bargained in contract negotiations.
He said mandating it in a state law would violate the rights of public safety workers and would cost the state millions of dollars to implement.

"Drug testing should be bargained at the local level," he said.

In Boston, firefighters undergo random drug and alcohol testing during their first year of employment but after that they are only tested if they show visible signs of being impaired on the job. Boston police approved random testing throughout their career several years ago. The city's emergency medical technicians approved a contract last year that also included drug and alcohol testing.

The current process, where each city's union negotiates drug testing standards individually has led to a "patchwork system" across the state, said Samuel Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.

"A statewide measure is important to ensure uniformity in all communities," Tyler said.