STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ) FIREFIGHTERS, NUMBER 2157, )

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) CASE NO. 75-1236

) PERC NO. 8H-RC-756-1118

CITY OF GAINESVILLE, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

This matter came up for final hearing on September 17, 1975, at 9:00 a.m. at Gainesville, Florida, on the petition of the Firefighters of Gainesville to the Public Employees Relations Commission for the recognition of a bargaining unit composed of lieutenants, driver operators, firefighters, fire apparatus and equipment technicians, communications operators and chief communications operators. At the start of this hearing, the Petitioners announced that they would like to submit an Amended Petition for recognition which deleted communications operators and chief communications operators. This hearing officer granted permission to file such an Amended Petition and at that time both parties announced the only point of contention was the appropriateness of lieutenants to be included in this proposed unit.

APPEARANCES

For Petitioner: Larry G. Turner, Esquire

Goldin Turner

Post Office Box 1251 Gainesville, Florida 32602

For Respondent: A. Bice Hope, Esquire

Fagan, Crouch, Anderson Folds

527 East University Avenue Gainesville, Florida 32601

1. On behalf of the City of Gainesville, it was not seriously argued nor was any evidence presented which would establish that lieutenants were managerial employees as defined in Chapter 74-100, F.S. Rather the contention was that lieutenants were supervisory employees and the inclusion of lieutenants in a unit with firefighters and driver operators would create a conflict of interest among the different groups of employees, and, therefore, lieutenants should be included in a separate unit.

   
   

2. The Gainesville Fire Department maintains 6 fire stations around the city. Its personnel that are actively engaged in firefighting are organized on the following hierarchy of rank: First are the firefighters; next above them in rank are the driver operators followed by lieutenants, captains, battalion chiefs, superintendents and a director of fire services. Each fire station is

   manned round the clock and on each shift there is a "company officer" in charge. Generally lieutenants or captains are designated as company officers. The duty of a company officer is to be in charge of the fire station during that shift.

   
   

3. The city contends that this makes the lieutenant a supervisory employee and the union contends that the functions of the lieutenant are not supervisory. Actually, any employee in charge of other employees has supervisory responsibilities and certainly lieutenants have some supervisory capacities. However, every employee that outranks other employees has certain supervisory responsibilities. The crucial issue is to what extent a lieutenant actually works in a supervisory capacity as compared to a firefighter's capacity.

   
   

4. Lieutenants play very little role in the hiring of firefighters. An evaluation board composed mostly of lieutenants rates prospective applicants. Applicants for the position of firefighter must pass an objective examination and although lieutenants may perform some function interviewing prospective applicants, the type of interview that a lieutenant might perform and the type of evaluation given after such an interview appears to be mostly perfunctory. A promotion from firefighter to operator requires passing, an examination and an evaluation by captains and battalion chiefs familiar with the person's performance. Following that the applicant is interviewed by a board of suitable rank, which classifies the applicant as suitable or unsuitable. The chief of the department then makes the final decision.

   
   

5. Lieutenants do not perform evaluations of employees in the promotional process. They do on a regular basis evaluate employees below them. There evaluation is used as a means of improving the employee's performance, but not as a guide to determine possible promotion. Firefighters, driver operators, and lieutenants all get paid overtime. Lieutenants do not participate in the preparation of the firefighters budget. Lieutenants do wear an officer's uniform which visually distinguishes them from firefighters and driver operators. At the scene of a fire, a lieutenant must participate in the actual combatting of the fire and not act in a purely supervisory capacity directing others the way a fire should be handled.

   
   

6. The lieutenants of the Gainesville Fire Department must consider themselves to share the same community of interest as firefighters and driver operators, for the evidence indicated practically all of 22 lieutenants on the Gainesville Fire Department supported this petition. Under the old Firefighters Bargaining Act, which was repealed by Chapter 74-100, the city took the position that lieutenants were non-supervisory employees.

   
   

7. If a lieutenant were to recommend that an employee of the fire department be suspended or dismissed, that recommendation would be passed up to the chief and the personnel director of the city and the lieutenant, after making his recommendation, would no longer be actively participating in the disposition of that matter except to give his version and reasons for his recommendation. Lieutenants do recommend whether firefighters and driver operators receive merit raises, but the practice of the Gainesville Fire Department has been to withhold merit raises only rarely.

   
   

8. The evidence presented at the hearing in this matter showed a lieutenant's supervisory capacity is more passive than active. That is to say, certainly the lieutenants supervise the men of their company but do so only when necessary. This is, as opposed to a construction foreman, whose only duties may be to supervise all the workers under him. In the latter case the foreman is completely and continuously engaged in active supervision. The lieutenant in

   the Gainesville Fire Department may supervise the conduct of the men on his shift, but participates along with them in that function and may even permit himself to be directed or supervised by those who are technically below him.

   
   

9. In the actual running of the fire stations, lieutenants in their capacity as company officers participate in maintaining the landscaping of such stations, and along with the other men, participate in the cleaning of the station and the equipment.

Done this 28th day of October, 1975, in Tallahassee, Florida.

KENNETH G. OERTEL, Director

Division of Administrative Hearings Room 530, Carlton Building Tallahassee, Florida 32304

(904) 488-9675

COPIES FURNISHED:

A. Bice Hope, Esquire

Fagan, Crouch, Anderson & Folds

P. O. Box 1307

Gainesville, Florida 32601

G. Turner, Esquire Goldin Turner

P. O. Box 1251

Gainesville, Florida 32602

Docket for Case No: 75-001236

Orders for Case No: 75-001236