Fed judge allows FDNY demotions to proceed
A Brooklyn federal judge approved an upcoming raft of FDNY demotions, rejecting the chiefs’ argument that the department would not be able to handle a major crisis without their leadership and experience.
Judge Rachel Kovner denied a request for a temporary restraining order against the demotions of assistant chiefs Michael Gala, Joseph Jardin, and Fred Schaaf late Thursday.
FDNY Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh ordered the chiefs demoted on Feb. 3. In short order eight more chiefs, including John “Jack” Hodgens, the FDNY’s most senior uniformed official, and Chief of Fire Operations John Esposito, relinquished their ranks and asked to be put back in the field in solidarity.
The demotions will all be in effect Monday, leaving a major staffing vacuum in the top levels of the FDNY, officials said.
Attorneys for the chiefs said if the demotions went through the department will be left without experienced leaders to coordinate the battling of massive fires such as the Staten Island blaze that critically injured three firefighters last month, or the blaze at a Brooklyn NYPD warehouse in December that destroyed the building, as well as case evidence that was being held inside.
“This case is about one thing: the safety of the public and valiant firefighters of the New York City Fire Department. [Kavanagh’s] demotions pushed the FDNY past the tipping point,” Attorney Jim Walden, who is representing the chiefs, noted in his law papers.
The judge did not buy the argument that the chiefs were unreplaceable.
“[The chiefs] have not established that irreparable harm will occur if the court does not immediately require plaintiffs to be restored to their previously held duties and prevent their formal demotions from going into effect,” Kovner wrote. “[They] have not even alleged that they themselves will suffer irreparable harm as a result of their demotions.”
Walden on Friday filed paperwork asking the court for an emergency hearing to “reconsider its decision,” claiming Kavanagh has yet to find a replacement for Hodgens and Esposito.
“The commissioner had no operational succession plan in place to replace petitioners and is now scrambling,” he wrote in his plea for reconsideration. “History will view [Kavanagh’s] callous dismissal of the imminent risks differently and more cynically if tragedy ensues.”
Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesman for the city Law Department, said they were “pleased with the ruling.”
“In denying plaintiffs’ request for a TRO, the court recognized that the fire commissioner’s personnel decisions were consistent with her commitment to furthering public safety and that the FDNY would be able to continue providing seamless fire protection services to the citizens of New York,” Paolucci said. “We are confident of prevailing in this case.”
Earlier this week Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Philip Banks tried to put the kibosh on the upcoming step-downs by calling Hodgens and Esposito personally and urging them not to return to the field.