The city attorney's office has finally
given its legal opinion on the police
internal affairs investigation that it's
had since April.
An investigation shows that some members
of the fire department paid older members
to retire so that they could have their
jobs.
The city's conclusion?
No law has been broken, but the
firefighters association isn't happy with
just that. They want to know more.
We were the one at the outset
that asked that that
investigation be made because of
one firefighter supposedly abandoned
examination and we want it public.
How far are you willing to go to make it
public?
Well, I would think that we will probably
go to Mr. Hairshirt.
And if that doesn't work, we'll go to the
city council. And if that doesn't work,
then we may even go to the
courts and seek an injunction.
Firefighters I've talked with also want
to know more about that report.
They feel that no one tried to buy a
promotion, just create a vacancy that
someone had already qualified for through
civil service.
A lot of the firemen said they'd never do
it. Some said they might.
At any rate, the city wants to try to
keep it from ever happening again.
Ken Barnes feels that getting a law is
one thing, but enforcing it something
entirely different.
Well, I'm not sure that we can do
anything about this.
You know, the person who's supposed to
have bought or paid
X number of dollars for a man retired,
this man is number one on the promotional
exam anyway.
So really and truly, I don't know whether
you can do anything about that, but
of course, we're willing and ready
to assist city administration
in any way that we can tighten up this
problem.
Firefighters I've talked to tell me that
since the Internal Affairs audit has come
out, it's like they're living and working
under a cloud. They don't like that.
They feel one of the best ways to make
that cloud go away is to make sure that
that internal affairs report becomes
public Ed Martelle Channel 5 Action
News, Fort Worth.