There’s a firestorm brewing in top leadership ranks of the New York Fire Department. The brass is denying “requests for demotions from some veteran chiefs.” Over half a dozen ranking officials. The administration thinks that squirt of gasoline will put out the blaze of controversy which has raged like an inferno since newly appointed Commissioner Laura Kavanagh demoted three top officials.
Fire department chaos
New York Post is reporting that in the wake of Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh’s controversial shake-up in the department, “FDNY brass is nixing requests for demotions from some veteran chiefs who asked to be knocked down in rank.”
They may be forced to stay in their leadership roles but won’t be happy about it. That could turn dangerous.
More than a half-dozen assistant and deputy assistant fire chiefs asked to be returned to field posts in solidarity with three top FDNY officials who were abruptly demoted by Kavanagh last month. Kavanagh is hoping some time will soothe everyone’s hurt feelings and is “pushing for a 90-day ‘cooling off‘ period in which she is no longer accepting requests for demotions.”
Thread: @FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh says the city is not at risk after personnel changes. pic.twitter.com/oSl5oeJldZ
— Dan Mannarino (@DanMannarino) March 5, 2023
She wouldn’t be in this jam if she had gone to her other ranking chiefs and let them handle the three who needed pruning from the ranks. They have come to the conclusion that since she wants to do their job so bad, she can.
Holding the disgruntled chiefs’ feet to the fire is only a stopgap solution and one sure to produce ripples of unforeseen “quiet quitting” type sabotage.
Both Kavanagh and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks are going frantic, “finding it difficult to fill the top ranks as Big Apple firefighters are balking at taking the assistant chiefs test.” Nobody wants to be seen siding with the administration on this one.
Nobody wants the job
The problem, relates one of several sources within the New York Fire Department, “is nobody wants the job, so they can’t allow these chiefs to leave the current job.” Another adds, “they have a real problem — one they created.” Chief of Uniformed Personnel Michael Massucci is one of those who’s request to go down in rank was denied “pending the search for his replacement.”
They won’t let him step down but don’t trust him to do his job either, so he “has been relegated to the department’s tool room.”
As confirmed by Chief of Department John Hodgens, when Kavanaugh went behind the backs of her chiefs to demote Assistant Chief of Fire Prevention Joe Jardin, Assistant Chief of Operations Michael Gala and Assistant Chief of Operations Fred Schaaf, the “move backfired.”
Police officers are resigning in record numbers and the NYFD is in shambles. Are you trying to bring the city down? Or do you just not care? https://t.co/WUzDLzgRcY
— PugsofGloom🌏 (@ComixGalore) March 13, 2023
Soon, “Kavanagh and Banks were flooded by a slew of requests for voluntary demotions in solidarity.”
Eight chiefs soon “asked for demotions, six of them in writing.” All were denied. Last month, the three originally demoted lost their bid for reinstatement. The court ruled that nobody, not even a veteran fire chief is “irreplaceable.”
Neither are 11 of them at once. While that sounds really good in theory, finding those 11 replacements may be “possible” but isn’t an easy task to accomplish. Winning the Powerball jackpot is possible too.
