Capitol NY – April 13, 2015
by Gloria Pazmino
An ongoing pension dispute with the firefighters union could make for a tense annual medal ceremony, which will take place this summer on the steps of City Hall for the first time in at least five years.
The ceremony is attended by the FDNY’s top brass, the mayor and hundreds of members of the department. Medals are awarded to those firefighters whose “most heroic actions” saved lives during the previous year.
“There will be tension in the air if this has not been resolved,” Steve Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, told Capital. “It’s not going to go away. I will not let this drop. It’s too important of an issue to all of my members.
Having the ceremony at City Hall would normally be a public relations coup for the mayor. George Artz, a former City Hall reporter and spokesman for Ed Koch, says the fire department’s annual medal ceremony is “exactly what you want on the tube and in the papers the next day.”
“You want to show the mayor’s leadership and you want to show that he’s in charge. Having a sea of uniforms in front of you while the mayor speaks and hands out medals is a great visual and shows great leadership,” Artz said.
Cassidy says that imagery will be complicated this year by the dispute in the background.
“I’m sure [the mayor] will talk about the great bravery of firefighters, and I think there is some irony in that in that we’ve got 1,400 new firefighters who, if they’re permanently disabled in the line of duty doing what the medal recipients are receiving awards for—heroic acts—they’re not going to get anything but 27 dollars a day,” Cassidy said.
At issue is an effort by the union to change the current pension law, which places uniformed workers into a tier system based on when they are hired. Workers with less time on the job receive 50 percent of their pensions if they retire on disability. Workers hired before 2009—the last time the law was changed—get 75 percent of their pension in disability benefits. The union wants all its members placed into the higher tier.
The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, which represents the city’s rank and file police officers, has been fighting for the same change.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he opposes changing the law, citing the costs involved.
The higher pensions would cost the city $72.2 million for police officers and $23 million for firefighters by Fiscal Year 2019, according to figures from the city actuary.
To change the law, the City Council must first pass a “home rule” message, indicating to Albany that it supports the legislation and urging governor to sign it into law. But the home rule resolution has yet to get a hearing in the Council despite having an overwhelming support.
A spokesman for Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, said the Council is trying to schedule a hearing.
Cassidy says that’s not good enough.
“The rules say you have to have a hearing, but the speaker’s office has not given us a reason why we can’t have our hearing,” he said. “To me it’s disgraceful. The speaker and many others in the Council have talked about how transparent the new City Council is. If you don’t have a hearing about a critically important issue, it seems to me you’re not being very transparent.”
Cassidy acknowledges the home rule message is largely procedural, but it “gives me an opportunity to resolve this. I still then have to go to Albany, convince the Assembly, convince the Senate to support it and get the governor to sign it.”
Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for de Blasio, said the administration is open to finding a solution.
“The administration takes police officer and firefighter safety very seriously,” Spitalnick said in a statement. “While there are issues with this specific legislation, Mayor de Blasio’s door is always open and he is committed to working together with police and firefighters to protect these brave public servants who protect us every day.”
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