Interim fire chief tapped in Medford

Decision made amid mayor-union squabble

Call it a four-alarm feud.

A heated dispute between Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn and the city’s firefighters’ union over the department’s next chief, sick time abuse allegations, and a lawsuit over back pay flared again Thursday as the mayor appointed an interim fire chief she said the union has vowed to contest.

In a statement, Lungo-Koehn said she had appointed Deputy Chief Todd Evans as interim chief. Evans joined the department in 2001 and was promoted to deputy chief in 2021.

Last month, Lungo-Koehn named a different interim chief from outside the department. That candidate was slated to start Feb. 26 but backed out after “being dissuaded by union leaders,” she said in a statement.

“They were basically blocking me from appointing from outside the department,” Lungo-Koehn said in a phone interview Thursday.

In an interview, Walter Buckley, president of the Medford firefighters’ union, said the mayor’s appointment of an interim chief from outside the department violates the law. Lungo-Koehn “has to either negotiate or petition to get out of it,” he said.

Underpinning the dispute is a proposal by Lungo-Koehn to remove the fire chief ’s position from the state’s civil service system. Medford is among dozens of communities that use the system for the hiring and promotion of public employees, according to the state.

The mayor asked the City Council last month to petition the state Legislature for permission to take the job out of civil service. The council tabled the request and sent it to a subcommittee. She has since asked the council not to act on the request for two months, to allow Evans time to settle into the job.

The fire chief ’s job has been vacant since the abrupt retirement last month of John

Freedman, a veteran firefighter who served as chief for two years.

In response to the appointment of Evans, state Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine on Feb. 27 delegated the authority for fire inspections and other safety functions to Lungo-Koehn, according to officials and state records. Under state law, Davine can make such delegations “to whomever the city or town has designated as head of the fire department.”

Steve Smirti, a spokesperson for Lungo-Koehn, said by email that the mayor had “appointed herself head of the department,” not the chief, for “an administrative purpose ... strictly for delegation of authority for the 26 fire inspections that needed to be approved.”

And Jake Wark, spokesperson for the state Department of Fire Services, said in a statement that the fire marshal has authority over certain fire safety permitting and inspection functions.

“Delegating that authority to local officials is the standard administrative process to ensure that these functions continue uninterrupted,” Wark said.

On Thursday, the mayor said she would inform the fire marshal that Evans is now interim chief, formally ending her designation as head of the department.

The union sought a pick “from within, I did that, and they were [still] upset,” she said. “I’m not going to be pressured and bullied into just picking who they want.”

Lungo-Koehn said that when she told Buckley about the interim choice, he said the labor group would file a grievance over the selection.

Buckley said the union objects to Evans’s appointment as interim chief because he is not the most senior deputy chief in the department.

Then there’s the matter of sick time.

Referring to the alleged sick time abuse, Lungo-Koehn said Thursday that “recent events that occurred in early February [cost] our taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.”

On Feb. 3, 21 out of a scheduled 23 firefighters called out sick, costing the city $92,000 over five days, including $58,000 in overtime, city officials said.

“I believe that these excessive sick leave call-outs over the weekend of February 2nd were an orchestrated event and my office will do everything in its power to continue to review it and make sure it does not happen again,” Lungo-Koehn said at the time.

Buckley said that the firefighter’s union “didn’t organize any kind of strike, period.”

On Thursday, Lungo-Koehn’s office said the city is currently in the process of discussing “next steps” regarding the sick time issue.

Separately, Lungo-Koehn last month also submitted a request to the City Council to take the fire chief’s position out of the state’s civil service system, which regulates the hiring and promotion of public employees. The council next meets on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Buckley filed a lawsuit Tuesday against LungoKoehn and the city on behalf of himself and 100 other firefighters in Local 1032, seeking back wages and other compensation.

Buckley, who lives in Reading, accused the city of violating state wage laws, including contractually obligated hazardous duty and shift differential pay as far back as 2021.

The lawsuit stated: “Since November 28, 2023, no bargaining unit members have received retroactive payments for wages, weekend differentials, or hazardous duty pay, and only currently employed members have received the one-time COVID payment. Retired members who qualify for the COVID payment have not been paid.”

When the union inquired about payment late last year, city officials said it could be expected in early January.

When payment still did not arrive, city officials said checks were awaiting signatures. The next delay was blamed on “slow” software, according to the complaint.

Buckley said that during his 18 years with the department, retroactive payments have accompanied every contract and the payments have rarely taken more than four weeks.

“To hold it off for over four months makes us think that there’s a reason for that,” Buckley said. “There’s no way it takes this long to do that.”

Lungo-Koehn said Thursday that the process for getting the payments out is “extremely labor intensive,” as city officials must review personnel records for 102 firefighters to determine their individual payouts, based on factors including promotions and adjustments to hazard pay.

Other unions have waited months to get their retroactive pay, and she cannot sign off on the payments “until every team member says it’s accurate.”

“Those are taxpayer dollars ... thousands of dollars going to each individual,” she said. “It has to be done right.”