Mayor Bloomberg and his fire commissioner came out swinging yesterday after the firefighters union passed a unanimous vote of "no confidence" in the FDNY leadership.
Evoking the alcohol and sex scandals that have disgraced the department over the past year, Bloomberg said Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta is "doing exactly what he should do" by getting tough on illicit firehouse behavior. "We will not tolerate turning a firehouse into a brothel," Bloomberg said, referring to the three firefighters busted for allegedly having sex with a woman inside Engine 75, Ladder 33 in the Bronx in August. "We're not going to tolerate firefighters drinking when they're on the job. We absolutely will not let anyone who's on drugs drive a fire engine. Maybe if they stopped pandering... they'd be a lot better off."
His tough remarks came after Uniformed Firefighters Association President Stephen Cassidy revealed the unanimous "no-confidence" vote. Cassidy said Scoppetta's decision to slice the number of firefighters in 49 engine companies triggered the vote.
A 1996 agreement between the FDNY and the union authorizes the commissioner to cut the number of firefighters assigned to a company from five to four if the department's sick-leave rate goes beyond 7.5%.
Cassidy said that should not matter. "We want the public to know that their safety has been compromised by Nick Scoppetta," he said. Cassidy also criticized Scoppetta's decision to adopt a random, zero-tolerance drug testing policy.
Scoppetta was uncharacteristically aggressive in his response. "Steve's got a lot to be unhappy about," he said. "He's got an election coming up in about six months [and] he's done precious little for his membership, so he's got to look elsewhere for issues for his campaign."
With Lisa L. Colangelo
 |
