One of the city's 15 firefighters who also serves as a paramedic has been suspended for two weeks for working without the required state recertification for the state's highest-skilled emergency medical position.
The suspension without pay of firefighter and paramedic Jonathan Sanger, one of 73 firefighters on the force, began last Saturday. The punishment was imposed by David Bain, the city's personnel director who was acting as the hearing officer, following a Civil Service hearing Aug. 27.
Efforts to reach Sanger were unsuccessful, but fire Chief Barry McKay said it was his understanding that Sanger intended to appeal the suspension.
According to an Aug. 19 letter to Sanger from Mayor Carolyn Kirk, Sanger had also failed to recertify in 2006. It was a failure for which Sanger received a "oral warning" from the Fire Department's emergency medical service coordinator, Sander Schultz.
The action is not the first involving Sanger. On Sept. 2, 2007, he was suspended three days for abusing sick leave — calling in sick to attend a Jimmy Buffett concert at Gillette Stadium after none of his colleagues responded to a posted request for a shift switch. Sanger's shift was filled in that instance by using overtime to bring in a unscheduled firefighter.
In the latest case, the Aug. 19 letter announcing the decision to take action against Sanger for the second failure to recertify notified him that he could be "terminated."
The department was notified of Sanger's failure to recertify by the state Office of Emergency Medical Services on June 9, according to the letter. In response, the department took Sanger off ambulance duty that day, an adjustment that meant that the city was unable to "provide required paramedic services" on June 9.
According to Schultz, the recertification process involves a 48-hour course and 25 hours of continuing education to refresh emergency medical technician skills, which include cardiac and breathing interventions and the use of medication. The EMT skill set and certification brings with it a salary increase of $6,600 a year on top of a firefighter's $44,526 base pay, according to McKay.
According to the letter from Kirk to Sanger, which was provided to the Times by the mayor's office, Sanger had received a written warning and been given one punishment shift, extra duty without pay, for "an alcohol-related incident" in June 2005.
Two months later, Sanger was given a written warning by Chief McKay for "excessive swaps — that is, Jonathan having other personnel work for him," Kirk noted in her letter.
The letter contained Sanger's detailed disciplinary history.
McKay described the history as part of an approach of "progressive discipline."
The city's failure to follow that approach was cited two years ago during the much-disputed, high-profile, elongated paid suspension of a police patrolman.
Progressive discipline is considered the essential method of building a case that can withstand Civil Service and union appeals.
Union president Barry Aptt said he expected the firefighters union to discuss the Sanger suspension at its meeting last night. He said the union position is that suspensions be done "the right way," but that they are appropriate in some circumstances.
Aptt said Sanger had reached an agreement with the state allowing extra time through April 1 of this year to obtain the recertification that was due Dec. 31, 2007. But he missed the April 1 extended deadline and did not obtain his recertification until June 10, one day after he was pulled off ambulance duty. Since the start of the year, Sanger was working as an emergency medical technician without the required certification.
McKay said the suspension could trigger the use of overtime to fill Sanger's place in the roster should the suspension, combined with other absences, reduce to 12 or below the number of firefighters at roll call. With 12 or fewer firefighters for assignment, under the contract, only Central Station would remain open.
"One of the challenges of discipline," McKay said in an interview, "it does have impact; there is a possible cost to the city."
The three-day suspension for calling in sick to see the Buffett concert was shortened from the five-day suspension initially imposed by the chief as a result of Sanger's appeal. Firefighter Clinton Carroll, who was union president at the time, told the Times then that a number of firefighers were angry Sanger had appealed.
Carroll said they were concerned that Sanger's appeal could give the impression that abuse of overtime was widespread, which McKay said was not the case.
Richard Gaines can be reached at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com
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