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Fort Wayne’s fire merit commission officially adopted new rules and regulations governing Fort Wayne firefighters Monday.
Despite months of work, a mayoral veto, and a City Council move to overturn that veto, the commission’s vote brings no substantial changes to the way the department will hire, fire, discipline or promote firefighters.
The five-member panel began meeting in March with Chief Pete Kelly and union representatives to review the department’s rules and regulations and had 90 days to adopt a revised document. With the commission’s vote of approval, firefighters have 30 days to review the final document before the new rules take effect.
The commission will begin handling fire department-related business June 8.
Since the City Council adopted the merit commission ordinance last summer, the city’s Board of Public Safety continued to handle firefighter matters relating to hiring and discipline.
The five-member citizen-review panel will continue handling similar police matters and taxi regulation.
The mayor appoints all five members of the safety board. But firefighters choose two members of the fire merit commission and the mayor chooses the remaining three, giving firefighters more say in personnel matters.
Despite lengthy meetings and much debate, the commission members made few substantive changes to existing rules, Kelly said.
They changed how components such as seniority and test results will be weighted for both new hires and promotions. But both processes remain largely unaltered.
The chief does have more wiggle room to determine who joins the next academy class if he thinks a qualified recruit didn’t make the final cut.
And for promotions, the chief will now pick among the top three candidates for any available position instead of having to choose the top candidate.
Someone could be skipped over repeatedly, but Kelly said that’s not likely to happen.
Jim Ridley, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 124, said he was pleased how everyone, including commission members, worked together to finalize the rules.
He said the department is among the most progressive in the county in how it promotes firefighters.
