Firefighting families get approval from Cd’A council
The Coeur d’Alene City Council on Tuesday voted to exempt its fire department from its strict nepotism rules, allowing incoming firefighters to join the same departments as their family members.
“One of the things I love about our fire service is tradition,” said Fire Chief Kenny Gabriel, the brainchild behind the petition to change personnel rules. “When you look at tradition throughout the country and the world, what they want is legacy firefighters. What they want is generational firefighters.”
That push for building family legacies in the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department has been hindered because of internal personnel rules that prohibit any family members from serving in the same department. It’s a hindrance, Gabriel said, that has had tangible consequences.
“What I’ve been seeing lately is,” he explained, “our kids are going through the cadet program, they’re going to paramedic school, they’re going to Firefighter One classes, getting their degree, but they can’t stay at home. They’ve lived their entire life knowing what their mom or dad has done.”
That cadet program is offered to younger generations as early as when they’re in high school. Fire Department public information officer Craig Etherton said last week that the department was investing in resources — educating youth — while remaining unable to capitalize by allowing them to join the department.
The civil service rules that firefighter hopefuls follow when they apply don’t address the issues of family members serving in the same department, in part because many other fire departments and jurisdictions allow family legacies to develop. But city personnel rules state that two family members can’t both serve in the same department.
Tuesday’s vote to approve the exemption effectively keeps Coeur d’Alene current with most other fire departments. The language in the exemption specifically encourages that one family member will not hold an authority position over another, but Gabriel said the exemption provides no guarantees.
“I can’t sit here and look you right in the eye and say Joey will never work for Bob,” Gabriel hypothesized. “... because we call back all the time. So there might be an opportunity that they are on the same rig together once out of 10,000 calls. We have layers in place to where if Joey’s going to Station Four to be under command over somebody, Dad’s not even on the same shift.”
While the vote passed 5-1, Gabriel spoke to concerns from council about the potential for favoritism.
“If one of the firefighters backs a fire truck into a fire hydrant at a scene, and that’s a discipline issue, the public’s not going to really look at you for that, said Councilwoman Christie Wood. “What’s going to happen, though, is on the inside, if their mom or dad is a battalion chief, and people are going to look at that discipline.”
Councilman Woody McEvers, the lone vote of dissent, voiced concerns about the appearance of favoritism in the hiring process.
“So, Kenny, worst-case scenario,” McEvers said, “you got top-five (candidates), and you’re the chief, and one of the five — they all interview, they’re all (qualified) — but one of them is connected. Then you go, ‘Yeah, we’re going to take the connected one.’ What does that look like?”
Gabriel answered by saying the applicants are all scored and quantified based on objective metrics, and that any applicant who makes it to final consideration is usually more than worthy of hiring based on his or her own merits, rather than preferential treatment.
“The fact is, there’s so many steps to get to that point,” he said, “that if they’re not qualified, they’re not going to get the spot. If they are qualified and they deserve it, they should get the spot. They shouldn’t be penalized because of their last name.”