51黑料

ST. LOUIS 鈥� In the latest sign of growing friction between an influential group of public employees and City Hall, the firefighters union is accusing interim Public Safety Director Dan Isom of holding up promotions and the Personnel Department, now under new management, of cutting off communication.

鈥淔rom what we鈥檝e been told, the reasoning for the holdup is to study the Fire Department鈥檚 organization from the top down and because the current promotional list is about eight years old,鈥� Fire Captain Dan Clark, secretary-treasurer of Local 73 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, told the Board of Aldermen鈥檚 Public Safety Committee on March 2.

The accusation comes in the wake of a leadership struggle over the Personnel Department, which controls most of the hiring and promotion process for the city鈥檚 roughly 5,000 employees.

The union sued the city over rule changes made by the Civil Service Commission that allowed Mayor Tishaura O. Jones to appoint John Moten Jr. as interim personnel director, arguing it violated the city charter.

Civil service reforms, adopted in the 1940s in an effort to stem patronage and machine politics, were designed to insulate the Personnel Department from political influence, including from the mayor鈥檚 office. But Jones was able to place her own interim appointee in charge after Richard Frank, who had led the office since 2004, abruptly retired on Dec. 1.

鈥淪ince Director Frank has left, it has been really hard to get any type of information back or anything from the personnel office,鈥� Clark told an aldermanic committee last month.

Isom鈥檚 reported review of the Fire Department, meanwhile, follows a major promotion. On Feb. 2, Kenny Mitchell, a former Local 73 official who serves on one of the firefighter pension boards, was promoted to deputy fire chief. A firefighter was also promoted to captain about a week earlier, Clark noted.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not really sure what鈥檚 different from the last two promotions,鈥� Clark told the committee.

Now, three fire captain promotions and one for battalion chief are being held up, Clark said last week. And they鈥檙e being stalled even though 51黑料 Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson officially holds the authority, along with the Personnel Department, to make promotions, Clark said. Jenkerson, who has led the department since 2007, and past fire chiefs have traditionally sent promotions to the public safety director as 鈥渁 courtesy,鈥� Clark said.

鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing in the city charter or civil service rules that state that promotions need to be approved by the public safety director,鈥� Clark told the committee last month.

A letter sent last month by Local 73鈥檚 attorney, Emily Perez, to Moten, made the same argument: Isom lacked the authority to block Jenkerson鈥檚 promotions. In the letter, she said Isom has indicated he was putting all Fire Department promotions on hold. The union has asked for the Personnel Department鈥檚 position on the matter but has not received a 鈥渟ubstantive response,鈥� Perez said.

Clark said the Personnel Department has signed off on at least two captain promotions last month that were apparently approved by Isom鈥檚 office by mistake.

鈥淪omebody from his office did happen to sign them about two weeks ago and Jenkerson sent them over to Personnel, got them signed, and then Isom called, and said, 鈥楬ey, don鈥檛 make those promotions, that was a mess-up we didn鈥檛 mean to sign it,鈥欌�� Clark said in an interview Thursday. 鈥淲hy the personnel director is allowing the public safety director to meddle in his business, I鈥檓 not real sure.鈥�

A ruling in a 2005 case says nothing compels an appointing authority, such as Jenkerson, to fill a position. Clark said he has urged Jenkerson to make the approved appointment even though Isom has asked him not to, but the chief has told him, 鈥淲ell, that鈥檚 my boss.鈥�

A spokesman for the Fire Department said Jenkerson had no comment. Moten told the Post-Dispatch he couldn鈥檛 comment on personnel matters. A spokesman for the mayor also declined to comment.

This isn鈥檛 the first friction between the Fire Department, Local 73 and the Jones administration.

A recent Isom-led effort to consolidate the city鈥檚 911 dispatch centers 鈥� one run by police, one by fire dispatchers and one by EMS dispatchers 鈥� to cut down on long hold times for emergency calls has stalled. Local 73 has said it has not been consulted on the plan. And Jenkerson has voiced concerns about the need for the Fire Department to retain some control over its dispatch staff.

Meanwhile, Local 73 has pushed for pay raises recommended in a salary report commissioned by the city. The Personnel Department at first refused to release to the report to the Post-Dispatch, claiming it didn鈥檛 exist. The department eventually released it after Local 73 filed a Sunshine Law complaint.

In 2021, during the mayoral campaign, Jones was the only one of three leading mayoral candidates to oppose a union-backed change to the department鈥檚 pension system that would have undone some hard-won reforms from a decade prior. Local 73 endorsed Alderman Cara Spencer in that race.

Promotion test due

Promotions in the Fire Department have long been contentious, with a heavy dose of racial politics.

Jenkerson鈥檚 predecessor as chief, Sherman George, was demoted in 2007 after he refused an order from then-Mayor Francis Slay to make several promotions that had been pending since 2004 鈥� promotions caught up in a court challenge brought by an African-American firefighters group. George was the first Black chief of the department, and his demotion outraged many Black leaders.

The Personnel Department has played a leading role in the most recent controversy.

In 2015, dozens of Black firefighters sued over the tests conducted to create the promotion list, alleging that Personnel Department staff ignored a 1998 city study on reducing racial promotion disparities in the Fire Department in administering a 2013 test for captain and battalion chief promotions. The lawsuit alleged that the department graded tests off site, 鈥渟ubject to undisclosed adjustments鈥� and that the results did not indicate which questions were answered correctly or incorrectly.

There hasn鈥檛 been another test for promoting captains or battalion chief since that disputed 2013 test. The list of scores from the test are still used today for promotions to those positions.

A 2017 settlement in that lawsuit, though, stipulated that the city would continue using that promotion list until a new test was conducted, a point Local 73 has made to the city.

The settlement said a new test would be conducted by December 2018, but Frank, the personnel director, continued to extend the existing promotion lists.

It鈥檚 unclear why a new test was never conducted. Clark said Personnel Department officials have claimed it was too expensive, though he suspects they could have found the $300,000 or so they said it would cost if they really wanted to.

Clark has heard that the , a nonunion organization also known as FIRE whose membership is made up of many Black firefighters, does not want the department to make any more promotions off the 2013 list. But he said of the next 12 or 13 candidates on the list 鈥渢here鈥檚 four African Americans, two of them being female.鈥�

鈥淲e just want to see the promotions, we don鈥檛 care who they are,鈥� Clark said.

Representatives for FIRE did not respond to messages left at their office. They endorsed Jones in the mayoral race.

Local 73 agrees that a new test is long overdue, Clark said. Many firefighters with years of service have never had a chance to test into the pool for promotions, he said, spurring some to leave the service. Aldermen last month expressed frustration with the hold on promotions and the fact that a 2013 testing list was still being used.

鈥淭his is beyond unnecessary and I hope we can get past this and get this moved forward and most especially try and get something done with that Personnel Department, because it is a sinful thing to say it has been over eight years since there鈥檚 been a new test,鈥� Alderman Marlene Davis said last month.

Clark said there is a contract with testing company PSI Services LLC, signed in the middle of last year after the Local 73 lobbied to get money into the budget for it. But he said there鈥檚 been no action to actually conduct the test. Again, he said he鈥檚 heard that FIRE has concerns with the company because it acquired the firm, , that conducted the disputed 2013 test.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e holding up another exam,鈥� Clark said of the city. 鈥淭hey have a signed contract with a testing company. They should be already starting this new process.鈥�

Originally posted at 7 a.m. Monday, April 11.