YOUNGSTOWN — The State Employment Relations Board contends there is “probable cause” Youngstown city officials committed an unfair labor practice in violation of state law by attempting to intimidate the firefighters union.

The probable cause report orders a hearing, set to start Aug. 20, accusing the city of “interfering with, restraining and coercing the union when it attempted to intimidate the union; making false and derogatory statements about the union leadership, baselessly accused the union leaders of racism, and refusing to bargain with the union regarding the effects of the EMS (emergency medical services) training courses on the members’ terms and conditions of employment.”

SERB, the state agency charged with overseeing public-sector labor relations and collective bargaining, ordered a hearing, starting Aug. 20, to determine if the city committed an unfair labor practice.

The issues stem from a Sept. 6 meeting between fire Chief Barry Finley, and Jon Racco and Jordan Thomas, then the firefighters’ union’s president and vice president, respectively. Finley, who is black, made racial remarks to the two white union officials at that meeting.

After two investigations by the city’s law department, Mayor Jamael Tito Brown decided Dec. 9 to “not take disciplinary action against Finley regarding this matter.”

The Sept. 6 meeting was to discuss EMS classes for firefighters, which escalated into an argument.

Using statements by Racco and Thomas, Robert E. Fekete, SERB’s general counsel, wrote in a May 8 complaint and notice of a hearing that Finley called the two “punk ass white boys,” and little white (expletive),” adding the chief sought to physically intimidate them.

In Finley’s statement to Deputy Law Director Lou D’Apolito, who conducted the initial investigation that concluded Oct. 4, the chief admitted to loudly telling them, “I am so tired of you white boys constantly coming after me for no reason, and it just never stops.” When Thomas said he wasn’t racist, Finley said he responded “in a loud voice, ‘You know who always says that: a racist.”

D’Apolito’s three-paragraph report contended the statements from the union officials and Finley “were similar” so “there was no need to interview the parties further and draft interview statements for signatures.”

D’Apolito also wrote: “The investigation information was presented to the mayor. The mayor has taken appropriate administrative action.”

Brown told The Vindicator on Oct. 10 that he was waiting for Law Director Lori Shells Simmons to return from vacation “to look at some remedies to deal with this. It is a problem, but it’s on both sides, and that’s what we want to look at. This whole work environment. We started questioning one side, then we question the other side, and a lot of things start coming up that we’re uncovering.”

Brown also said Finley “might be the one in a hostile work environment. We’re going to work through that,” and said, “there’s some racial issues there” from both sides with firefighters not respecting Finley because he is black.

The SERB complaint states after publication of the article, Racco and Thomas “had to assure bargaining unit members, including black members, that neither … hold racist views.”

The complaint states Racco emailed Shells Simmons and A. Joseph Fritz, senior assistant law director, on Oct. 15 about the EMS training, which had started. There was no response to the email.

There’s been a long line of disputes between the fire union and Finley since his February 2018 appointment.

The union’s issue is members have to work additional hours to cover for those released from duty to attend the EMS training and at times that results in fire vehicles being taken out of service. That, they contend, violates the union’s contract with the city.

Shells Simmons told the union leaders on Oct. 16 she was going to conduct her own investigation into the Finley incident.

Her three-page report, finished Dec. 4 and released Dec. 9 to the media, recommended Finley not be disciplined and he “deserves some grace” because “until this moment, the disrespectful incidents the chief has experienced OVER THE YEARS have not been addressed.” The report listed only one incident from a few years prior. Brown agreed not to discipline Finley.

The union on Dec. 23 submitted a request for reconsideration with no response from city officials.

The union filed the unfair labor practice charge on Oct. 23 with SERB determining on April 17 that probable cause exists.

CITY’S RESPONSE

Eugene P. Nevada, an attorney with the Columbus office of the Clemans, Nelson & Associates law firm representing the city in this case, responded that “the complaint is defective on its face,” in that it is required to “specify the remedies sought, but FAILED to do so.”

He wrote: “There is no ‘duty to bargain’ over participation in a ‘voluntary’ program. There is no duty to bargain over safety matters. It is a management right to decide how, if or when to deploy personnel to fill in for an employee who is ‘at work,’ but voluntarily in non-mandatory training.”

Nevada wrote: “The fire chief has, and had, First Amendment protection for anything that he said to the union,” and “the entire complaint is an admission that the union failed to actually contact the mayor’s office to seek any kind of bargaining. The law director and fire chief were never appropriate parties to receive, or react to, any requests for bargaining.”

Nevada added the “complainant has pled inadmissible newspaper stories in derogation of SERB precedent.”

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office, which is working with SERB and the firefighters union on this case, issued a subpoena to the reporter who wrote the articles compelling him to testify as to their accuracy.