Medford firefighters deny abusing sick time, call mayor's comments "rumors and gossip"
MEDFORD— Frustrated Medford firefighters and community members made up a standing-room-only city council meeting that was heated and dramatic Tuesday night.
Firefighters blasted the mayor for investigating their sick calls and wanting to choose the next chief.
But the union leaders didn't have an answer for why there were so many callouts.
"I can't explain it. They used their contractual right to use their sick day," said Local 1032 Medford Fire Union President Eddie Buckley.
Instead, union leaders denied the mayor's accusations that a recent spike in sick days was an "orchestrated event."
"It's a systemic issue in Medford that this mayor attacks unions and labor and it's an ongoing problem and every chance she gets she attacks us," said Buckley.
Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn says on the first Friday in February, about a dozen firefighters called out sick.
A day later, 21 out of 23 firefighters called out sick for their day shifts, but then a majority came back to work the night shift for overtime, costing the city $92,000 for sick and overtime pay, according to the mayor.
"I'm not dividing the community whatsoever, I'm trying to get to the beginning of what happened at the beginning of this month," said Mayor Lungo-Koehn.
Tuesday night, the mayor wasn't physically at the standing-room-only council meeting but said she's investigating the callouts because it put the city at risk.
"I respect the job they do every day," said Mayor Lungo-Koehn. "What I don't respect is that we have a contract, it is settled and there was an orchestrated event, and I don't know what lesson they were trying to teach me."
A few days after the sickouts, Fire Chief John Freedman retired unexpectedly.
Now, there's a fight between the mayor and council over the next chief.
The mayor wants to change the chief's classification to pick her own chief to have better oversight in the department.
But the department wants one of their own to have the job, saying she wants control.
"The gall to say that the delay in all this is a joke," said council member George Sarpelli. "We have capable qualified fire fighters that can step in as an interim chief while this process moves as it's supposed to."
The council decided to delay the vote about the next chief and sent the resolution back to committee, which was very frustrating to union leaders - who say by the end of the week there will be no fire chief.