Writing in Bridge Magazine, Bill McGraw -- a co-founder of Deadline Detroit -- reports the city of Detroit and the union that represents firefighters have reached a tentative agreement to overhaul the fire department’s 128-year-old promotional system that mayors have tried to overturn for nearly half a century.
Since virtually the founding of the department in 1867, firefighters’ promotions have been governed by a strict seniority system in which new firefighters advance through the ranks only as fast as their colleagues with more years of service retire or leave the department.
Merit counts for nothing, and the DFD’s mayoral-appointed commissioners have almost no say in the selection of uniformed officers who run the department’s rigs, stations and districts day-to-day.
Under the agreement, starting next July 1 the mayor’s appointees will have vastly increased powers to make personnel decisions, and the culture of the department is sure to undergo a profound transformation as smart, ambitious firefighters begin to compete for high-ranking positions.
Seniority will account for only 45 percent of the yardstick for advancement in the new DFD; merit –- including work record and education – will make up much of the rest.
“It’s huge,” said Jeff Pegg, president of the Detroit Fire Fighters Association.
“It’s not what we want. There is nothing wrong with our seniority system. We believe seniority is the fairest system out there. It doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t pick and choose. It puts the most experienced people in leadership positions in the Detroit Fire Department.”
Duggan told the union he wants the "best and the brightest" to run the department. How did he succeed where so many other mayors have failed to change promotions?
Bankruptcy. The fire union leaders believe that Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr eventually would have imposed a contract that did away with the seniority system, so they negotiated to influence the outcome.
PHOTOS: Top -- A battalion chief and firefighter in September 2010, when 85 homes were destroyed or scorched from wind-whipped fires. At left -- Worn gear in a storage room at the quarters for Squad 3, Engine 23 on E. Grand Boulevard.
