THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 13, 1996 TAG: 9608130004
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 57 lines
Chesapeake is attempting to make three city firefighters and a police officer pay for a ``clerical error'' City Hall made.
The four employees received promotions and 10 percent raises several years ago. At the time they reportedly questioned the size of the raises but were assured all was well.
Now the city has filed suit against the four men, seeking to recover more than $10,000 from each in salary that was admittedly overpaid.
The employees believe they are being penalized for someone else's mistake, and they are absolutely right.
There's irony here. Governments complain about the eagerness of citizens to sue if anything goes awry; now the city is suing to recover money it wouldn't have paid if its own officials had not erred.
We don't doubt that an error was made, as the city says. Last month it was revealed that a consultant and the city had overlooked about a third of the footage in a proposed courts building - causing the cost estimate to be more than $5 million low. If the city can make a $5 million error, it can bungle four raises.
At this point, the lawsuit should be dropped and the effort going into it should instead go into finding ways not to make the same mistake again.
The city should be backing its employees - not suing them. Firefighters and police risk their lives for their city. Their reward should be something better than a lawsuit.
The Chesapeake Fire Department does not appear to have problems one at a time.
A second problem could affect the safety of the whole city.
Current and former city firefighters say training records are routinely fudged to meet the department's two-hour-per-shift training requirement.
They say there isn't time to do all that training and inspect buildings and keep fire stations and equipment in order.
Staff writer June Arney reported Saturday that firefighters say records are falsified on as many as nine of every 10 shifts in fire companies across the city.
The department's training and procedures came under scrutiny after the deaths of two firefighters last March in a fire at the Advance Auto Parts Store on Indian River Road.
Chesapeake Fire Chief Michael L. Bolac refused to be interviewed on the subject of training and forbade his staff to discuss it with The Pilot. But to do its job, the city must require Bolac to explain the training situation. Furthermore, city officials need to interview other firefighters about their training in a way that does not jeopardize their jobs or advancement.
As an example of the apparent lack of emphasis on training, Chesapeake has only three fire trainers, compared with eight in Virginia Beach and 11 in Norfolk, counting two temporarily assigned to that department. Also, Chesapeake lacks a firefighter training ground.
To say the least, firefighters deserve good training. Residents deserve well-trained firefighters and also a city government that makes fewer mistakes and refrains from suing victims when mistakes do occur. by CNB