Titone, Esquire, 6299 West Sunrise Boulevard, Suite 205, Sunrise, Florida, appeared in behalf of the Public Employer, City of Lauderhill. The Petitioner presented five witnesses: Richard Korte, Lieutenant, Lauderhill Fire Department; Joseph P. Gannon, Lieutenant, Lauderhill Fire Department; Richard Schwartz, Acting Lieutenant, Lauderhill Fire Department; Joseph King, Firefighter, Lauderhill Fire Department; and James R. Sims, Fire Captain, City of Fort Lauderdale, and President of the International Association of Fire Fighters, Local 1545. The Public Employer presented two witnesses: James McKnight, Fire Chief, City of Lauderhill; and Eugene Cipolloni, Mayor, City of Lauderhill. The aforementioned witnesses testified and were questioned by counsel and by the hearing officer. According to the petition as filed with the Public Employees Relations Commission, effective November 13, 1975, the Petitioner requested the recognition of a unit comprised of the following employees: captains, lieutenants, firefighters of the City of Lauderhill Fire Department, excluding all other employees of the City of Lauderhill. (See H.O. Exhibit 1) In the course of the hearing it was indicated that at present there are no captains positions within the organization of the City of Lauderhill, but prospectively the Petitioner would desire to have the job position of captain included in the unit. The unit then contemplates the eventual representation of three classes of employees; to wit, captains, lieutenants, and firefighters of the City of Lauderhill. According to the statement of the Petitioner's counsel, the City of Lauderhill Fire Department now has (25) employees, to include recent hirings of probationary firefighters.
The Public Employer takes the stance that the lieutenants within the City of Lauderhill Fire Department are managerial employees, due to the nature of the organizational status of the Fire Department. At the moment of the hearing the two permanently assigned lieutenants were the next in command to the chief, and it is for the reason that the chief would need some employees to assist him in the performance of policy and managerial functions, that the Public Employer desires the exclusion of the lieutenants from the proposed unit. However, the Public Employer indicated that at some future date if other senior officers higher in the command structure, such as captains or assistant chiefs
were to be assigned, then their position on the lieutenants might change. The Public Employer is in opposition to addressing the issue of the status of captains, since there ,are no captains in the Lauderhill Fire Department at this time.
The following exhibits were admitted into evidence: Exhibit 1 - by hearing officer, petition for unit recognition, without objection; Exhibit 1 - the Petitioner, a contract between the City of Lauderhill and the Lauderhill Fire Fighters Association Local 2332, dated October 21, 1974; Exhibit 2 - by Petitioner, Rules and Regulations of the City of Lauderhill Fire Department; and Exhibit 1 - by the Public Employer/Respondent, resolution number 489 by the City of Lauderhill, recognizing the Lauderhill Fire Fighters Association, Local 2332, as a collective bargaining representative of the certified members of the fire department of the City of Lauderhill.
The parties stipulated and agreed that the City of Lauderhill, Florida, is a public employer within the meaning of Florida Statutes, Chapter 447.
The parties stipulated and agreed that the Lauderhill Fire Fighters Association, Local 2332 is an employee organization within the meaning of Florida Statutes, Chapter 447.
The parties stipulated and agreed that there was a sufficient showing of interest, as required for the filing of a representation election petition, under Florida Statutes, Chapter 447. The parties stipulated and agreed that the Lauderhill Fire Fighters Association, Local 2332 is an employee organization properly registered with the Public Employees Relations Commission.
The prior history of bargaining between the parties is as indicated in the Petitioner's Exhibit 1, which is a contract between the City of Lauderhill and the Lauderhill Fire Fighters Association, Local 2332, running for a period of one year from October 1, 1974 to September 30, 1975. The basic nature of the document and contents has not changed since the implementation and by the parties conduct, the parties seemed to be in agreement that the contract is still in effect. There is, however, one exception to the effect of the contract implementation, and that exception relates to whether or not the lieutenants are included in the bargaining unit, established by the contract document. As shown in the contract document, the position of lieutenant is included, but the conditions of the contract have been modified by a resolution passed by the Public Employer. This resolution is the Public Employer's/Respondent's Exhibit 1, passed on July 31, 1975. This resolution recognized the Petitioner, Lauderhill Fire Fighters Association, Local 2332, as a collective bargaining agent of the certified members of the fire department of the City of Lauderhill, but it excludes the lieutenants and other officers holding offices higher than lieutenants. Consequently, one of the issues, and probably the major issue, would be the propriety of including the lieutenants in the Petitioner's unit, in view of the Public Employer's resolution. To that end the suggestion was made by the hearing officer that if the parties desire to consider the question of an application for determination of managerial and confidential employees, that they might proceed along the lines of a written application as contemplated by some of the PERC decisions which were rendered prior to this hearing. The response of the parties to that suggestion was to move by oral motion on the part of the Petitioner, to have the question of managerial and confidential employees considered by the Commission. The Public Employer indicated that the record which it intended to produce in the course of the hearing would address the question of managerial and confidential employees, as it pertains to the lieutenants within the City of Lauderhill Fire Department. In the course of the
Council hearing on July 31, 1975, at which time the resolution number 489 was passed, the Petitioner made a request of the City to recognize lieutenants, as well as firefighters, in a proposed unit and this request was turned down with the Resolution number 489 being in effect, the response by the Public Employer to the Petitioner's request.
The City of Lauderhill has a form of government in which the mayor is the chief executive officer. One of the department heads within the city government, is the chief of the fire department. The chief of the fire department would be directly responsible to the mayor and for some matters to the City council. Within the structure of the Lauderhill Fire Department, there is a chief, two permanent lieutenants, two acting lieutenants and the balance of the personnel are permanent firefighters or probationary firefighters. The total number of employees, as indicated before, is currently 25. There are two fire stations within the City of Lauderhill. Station number 1 is under the charge of Richard J. Korte, a lieutenant with the Lauderhill Fire Department. Station number 2 is a station in which the chief of the Lauderhill Fire Department has his office. These two stations contain the emergency fire fighting equipment and other equipment necessary to the operation of the fire department of the City of Lauderhill. The governing documents which control the City of Lauderhill Fire Department, are the Rules and Regulations which are Petitioner's Exhibit 2 and the City of Lauderhill Ordinance number 201, which is a civil service act for the City of Lauderhill.
The Rule and Regulations of the Fire Department of the City of Lauderhill were promulgated effective September 23, 1974. These rules and regulations were an adaptation of the Rules and Regulations of the City of Sunrise, Florida, which in turn had taken its Rules and Regulations from the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Rules and Regulations of the City of Lauderhill were assembled through the present chief of the fire department, James McKnight, with counselling assistance by Lieutenant, Richard J. Korte and Lieutenant, Joseph P. Gannon.
Chief McKnight has been with the City of Lauderhill Fire Department since its inception and was hired in July, 1972, at which time the City of Lauderhill Fire Department was totally voluntary. In February of 1973, the present lieutenants, Korte and Gannon were hired. In July, 1973, four other firemen were hired and Firemen Korte and Gannon were made lieutenants in the fire department. At the time that Firemen Korte and Cannon were hired, the City of Lauderhill Ordinance number 201, Civil Service Code, was in effect and moreover, was eventually made a part of the labor contract of October 1, 1974. Consequently, since the date the fire department became a full-time organization, the Civil Service Code has been in effect.
The chief of the fire department runs the overall operation to include, establishing the overall policy of the fire department as set forth in the rules and regulations and bringing about such modifications as are indicated, in order to meet the needs of the department. The chief of the fire department does the interviewing for hiring and is involved in the civil service process of firing employees, theoretically, and promoting employees, such as with the case with Firemen Korte and Cannon. These decisions are subject to the approval of the Mayor, Mr. Eugene Cipolloni. To fulfill his function, the chief indicated that he must also act in the capacity of all of the slotted positions such as assistant chief, battalion commander, and captain, in order to get the job done that would normally be filled by those type employees. These jobs spoken of for those aforementioned positions are indicated in the Rules and Regulations for the City of Lauderhill Fire Department. In addition, Chief
McKnight stated that the two permanent lieutenants are called upon to fulfill some of the functions, which normally would be the duty of assistant chief, battalion commander and captains. When the chief is on vacation, otherwise out of town, or ill, one of the lieutenants takes his place as the Chief of the Lauderhill Fire Department. The job of standing in for the chief would include making decisions on all the matters which would come up in the day to day process, to include emergencies, ordinary functions of logistics, and the "in station duties" of the fire department. The lieutenants who testified about this substitution for the chief, did state however, that their duty as acting chief did not contemplate major policy changes in the absence of the chief. It was also testified to, that when the chief is off duty, lieutenants, acting lieutenants and at times senior firefighters are in charge of the operation of the fire department. When the chief is in the off duty status, he will only be brought in should a development occur that can not be handled by lieutenants, acting lieu- tenants or firefighters acting in the normal course of their duty assignments.
The chief of the fire department is responsible for the preparation of his budget requests, which is subject to the review of the mayor, and the budget is then passed by the City Council. In the preparation of that budget, the chief of the fire department gets input from the lieutenants and lessor ranks' on the needs of those employees, in terms of equipment and other matters.
When discipline is necessary for one of the firefighters, the chief will call upon his lieutenant and the firefighter, to discuss it in conference, sometimes in an informal capacity or in accordance with the civil service rules, in which a written statement of contentions is outlined by the lieutenant. The chief says that he gives the firefighter an opportunity to explain, but that he has traditionally relied upon his lieutenant's statement of the facts and recommendation for discipline of the employee. One example was given in which a suspension was suggested by a lieutenant and the suspension was carried out by the chief of the fire department.
When there are problems that arise which are not of a disciplinary nature, and these situations have their origins with the firefighters, then the chief suggests that these matters be filtered through the lieutenants before coming to his attention. Nonetheless, the chief indicated that on occasions he does speak directly with the firefighters in the department, about matters of this nature.
The chief makes overall policy, and relies on the lieutenants to see that those policies are implemented and on occasion calls on then to make suggestions on the overall policy.
In the labor negotiations which were in the October 1, 1974, contract, the chief sat down with the representatives of the local union and discussed the items to be contained in the contract, but these decisions were ultimately left up to the mayor and City Council. (The resolution of July 31, 1975, attempted to change the rights of the lieutenants represented by a union).
The lieutenants' function within the City of Lauderhill Fire Department are as outlined in the Rules and Regulations. This function is common to those personnel who would be permanent lieutenants or acting lieutenants. These individuals are essentially shift commanders who have a number of employees working under them, for the purposes of being available to fight fires. The lieutenant is also in charge of the care and maintenance of the equipment while in station, although there isn't any particular written
policy by these lieutenants in carrying out the function of the "in station" supervision of the employees. The lieutenants seen to have no question that they are charged with the function of seeing that these matters are accomplished. The reason given for the informality, is due to the apparent limited turnover within the department. The testimony by the witnesses who are lieutenants or are acting in that capacity, indicated that they have a certain amount of autonomy in directing the employees in their duty station, but that the overall policy is as formulated by the chief of the fire department. The autonomy would be with respect to the house cleaning functions and the direction of the employees at a fire scene, nonetheless, all these procedures are within the guidelines set up by the rules and regulations. The lieutenants acknowledged the participation in the adoption of the Rules and Regulations, and the fact that they have made certain suggestions to the chief of the department, with some of those suggestions being implemented as overall policy. The lieutenants attempt to make "on the spot" adjustment with employee discipline problems, but if there is any question about the severity, those problems are referred to the chief of the department, in accordance with the civil service code. The lieutenants' participation in the budget proceedings is to the extent of indicating what lime items would be necessary for them to fulfill their duty, and this information is relayed to the chief of the department.
The lieutenants indicated their desire to be included in the unit which has been petitioned for, and as a matter of fact, prior to the Resolution of July 31, 1975, Lieutenant Gannon had been a Secretary-Treasurer of the Petitioner, Local 2332.
Another aspect of the lieutenants position should be noted. That aspect is that the acting lieutenants, though they serve the same function as permanent lieutenants, have been recognized for representation in the Resolution of July 31, 1975, because they are not permanent lieutenants.
The firefighters within the Lauderhill Fire Department perform the traditional firefighter function, and the complete description of their function is set forth in the Rules and Regulations. One comment about the possible supervisory function of a firefighter, would be that the senior firefighters might be called upon to be in charge of a group of other firefighters in the absence of a lieutenant or an acting lieutenant.
The witness, James R. Sims, was presented and an attempt was made to develop an analogy between the organization of the City of Lauderhill Fire Department and that of other neighboring fire departments. Mr. Sims is a Fire Captain with City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as such he is familiar with the Rules and Regulation of the City of Fort Lauderdale Fire Department and says that those Rules and Regulations are substantially similar in nature to the, Rules and Regulations of the City of Lauderhill. Moreover, according to the witness, lieutenants and captains within the City of Fort Lauderdale Fire Department have been recognized as members of an employee unit together with the rank of firefighter. It was pointed out in the course of examination however, that the City of Fort Lauderdale in addition to the lieutenants position, has
