Nov 30, 2007 12:51 am US/Eastern
I-Team: Fire Review Panel To Call For Drug Testing
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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Firefighters Paul Cahill and Warrren Payne were killed when a ceiling collapsed during a fire at a West Roxbury restaurant.
CBS
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Warren Payne, left, and Paul Cahill
CBS
The Boston Fire Department could be on the brink of a major change.
The WBZ I-Team has learned that a review panel created after two firefighters were killed on the job has finished its work. Fire officials will get the results Friday.
It was the deaths of two firefighters in a West Roxbury fire -- one with alcohol in his system and the other with traces of cocaine -- that sparked a review of the Fire Department.
The I-Team has learned the recommendations of the three-member Boston fire review panel will include:
• Changes to the overall organization and management of the department
• Better handling of personnel and human-resource issues
• Drug testing for firefighters.
"I think the public wants every one of their public safety officials tested," Mayor Thomas Menino said.
Menino says drug testing is a must but he hasn't reviewed the panel's full report.
"The panel's been working hard, they've interviewed a lot of individuals," he said. "I think there has to be some type of drug testing, and as we move forward it has to be part of their everyday job."
"We're willing to negotiate a contract that includes a drug-testing policy," said Edward Kelly, president of Boston Firefighters Local 718. "We haven't seen the review panel's recommendations, but we're sure some of those recommendations will be on the city's priority list in negotiations."
Any drug testing of firefighters would have to be negotiated with the firefighter's union. Right now there are tests only for pre-employment, recruits and for firefighters enrolled in the department's employee-assistance program.
We asked Mayor Menino if drug-testing is a bargaining issue.
"How can that be a bargaining issue?" he replied. "Give me a break. This is about safety."
"Local 718's agenda has always been to work as safely as possible to provide the best product to the citizens of Boston," the union's Kelly said. "If this review panel will give us recommendations that will help us do that, we welcome it."
Menino asked the panel to come up with two types of recommendations: some feasible ideas that will stick immediately and some with longer-term goals. Fire and safety officials will be briefed Friday morning on the panel's findings and then the report will be made public.
This is the third time Menino has appointed a commission to recommend changes for the Fire Department.
To date, none of the recommendations has been been adopted.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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