YOUNGSTOWN — In its latest dispute with the city, the firefighters union filed a grievance saying fire Chief Barry Finley improperly and arbitrarily removed Battalion Chief Charlie Smith from his commander position in retaliation for his past activities as union president.

Finley denies the decision was made for that reason.

Smith said: “I am disappointed in the actions of our fire chief against me for simply doing my job as union president. I’ve spent my career protecting the citizens of Youngstown and the firefighter to make safety a priority. I take issue when my intentions are called into question especially when it comes to safety. I will do everything to protect myself from this unprofessional action.”

Finley referred comment to Daniel P. Dascenzo, deputy law director who was appointed by Mayor Jamael Tito Brown to oversee the grievance filed by the union. After Dascenzo’s decision, the union can seek an outside arbitrator to resolve the grievance.

Dascenzo said Finley’s “position is the employment action wasn’t retaliatory. It was done for the purpose of getting Battalion Chief Smith trained to perform the administrative duties of being” commander.

Smith has held the position for the past three years.

MOVED

Finley made the decision March 4 to move Smith as commander and based at the downtown fire station to a secondary role at Fire Station No. 2 on the city’s South Side.

In a March 4 email to Smith and Jon Racco, who replaced him Jan. 1 as fire union president, Finley wrote he was making the move “in order to have you trained more in the administrative aspects of (commander) as well as (incident) report writing. First, this is absolutely not a punishment but a training opportunity for you to be successful in your career. I also would like you to learn the correct strategies and tactics for fire ground for the safety of all firefighters and civilians.”

In response, Smith wrote: “This instance is only the most recent harassment in a years long campaign of thinly veiled punishments for our discord when I served as president of Local 312.”

He added: “Just because you say the words ‘this is absolutely not a punishment’ in your email does not make it so. This is a punishment and it is intended to make current and future union leaders think twice before standing up to you to defend our members and our contract. I refuse to be bullied or intimidated and your continued attempts to do so have created a very real problem.”

Smith also wrote the decision is “both unprecedented and in violation of the collective bargaining agreement. Further, your solution defies any logical rationale and is only intended to humiliate me in front of my peers.”

Smith didn’t object to learning more about report writing and fire ground tactics, but opposed being transferred and being under the supervision of the least-senior battalion chief.

Racco declined to comment, saying it’s “not appropriate” to discuss “an ongoing grievance. We’re working with the city on the process.”

CAUTION

Smith receive a “letter of cautioning” from Finley in June 2020 for clerical mistakes on five attendance sheets and a written reprimand in August of that year for an error affecting out-of-rank pay for a captain.

Dascenzo heard the latest grievance during a Tuesday meeting with Finley and union officials. He said he will consider arguments and at some point make a decision to sustain or deny the grievance or see if a mutual resolution can be made.

“Chief Finley indicated there’s been performance issues in regard to administrative responsibilities with many mistakes made,” Dascenzo said. “It’s caused problems with processing payroll and with the finance department and caused problems with firefighters whose vacation requests were not properly taken down and gathered.”

Dascenzo said Finley and union officials talked about “a short training period” on writing incident reports for Smith to improve on that and a class with Battalion Chief Fred Beehler on “administrative skills for a period of time. Once that is done, it would go back” to Smith being commander.

Until then, Beehler has the job.

Finley and the city administration have had problems with the firefighters union for more than three years.

HISTORY

With Smith as president for a three-year term that ended Dec. 31, the union filed 43 grievances and three unfair labor practices against the city.

The 7th District Court of Appeals in December agreed with the union and the State Employment Relations Board that the city illegally retaliated against the fire union when it agreed to provide upgrades to the department’s radio equipment and then decided to save the money from that expense by eliminating three battalion chief positions through attrition.

The appeals court also upheld a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court decision that failing to promote a captain to a vacant battalion chief’s position was contempt of court.

City council in February agreed to restore the three positions, two of which were vacant. One spot was filled while the other remains empty as it’s the subject of separate litigation.

Also, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation’s Public Employee Risk Reduction Program issued four health and safety hazard violations in July 2020 against the city for failing to protect firefighters from the COVID-19 pandemic. Those issues were resolved.

The administration has been closing fire stations since June 2020 on a rotating basis because the fire department’s overtime costs are too high. The union has objected, saying the decision is dangerous and the city not filling positions caused the overtime issue.

The department is also down 17 firefighters in the past four years.

CONTRACT

City council approved a three-year contract Oct. 20 with the firefighters union that increases starting pay by 46 percent. The city plans to hire 10 firefighters this year.

Those at the top of the pay scale got 2 percent raises this year and will get a 2.5 percent raise, effective Jan. 1, 2023.

Of the 116 members of the fire union, only 30 are currently below the top of the pay scale and another 10 get thereby Jan. 1, 2023.

The city also closed fire stations on a rotating basis for about three months in 2018 because of overtime costs.

The union issued a no-confidence vote against Finley in December 2019 after expressing concern about his leadership, and the city closed Fire Station No. 7 on the North Side that same month over the objections of the union.

Other problems between April and June 2019 included Finley telling Smith he would no longer accept grievances from him on behalf of the union, the city’s allegation of the union participating in an unauthorized strike, the city filing an unfair labor practice charge related to the alleged unauthorized strike, an arbitration decision in the union’s favor concerning involuntary transfers and the union filing an unfair labor practice for Finley bringing in outside chiefs instead of battalion chiefs to cover for him when he wasn’t in the city.