BY DIANA MOSKOVITZ
Miami Herald
A Hallandale Beach firefighter-paramedic should have been promoted and get retroactive pay back to June 2004, a city board ruled on Wednesday.
The decision closed a series of hearings and investigations by the the city’s Civil Services Board stretching back to last year.
Board members voted 5-0, saying they believed passing up Daniel Alford for lieutenant violated civil service rules.
They voted 3-2 for him to receive the pay he would have earned as a lieutenant going back to June 2004.
The board’s opinion will go to City Manager Mike Good, who will decide whether to follow it. A negative decision could prompt legal action.
Alford said he was unfairly passed over at least five times for a promotion to lieutenant even after finishing first in a series of tests.
He said he was passed over because decisions he made while on the Civil Service Board went against what Chief Dan Sullivan wanted.
Alford recused himself from his own case before the board.
Attorney Richard Weiner, representing Alford and the firefighters’ union, said he believes the chief’s decisions run counter to a 1976 case where an appeals court said the city of Hollywood unfairly passed over two workers.
''If there is a vacancy, they must promote according to ranking,’' Weiner said.
City leaders said nowhere in city code does it require Sullivan to promote candidates in order of test scores, and the Hollywood case does not apply.
The allegations of favoritism were unfounded, they said.
''Of course, he has to pick, and how do you pick? Our position is that is up to the department head,’' City Attorney David Jove said.
Alford finished first in the skills tests and was top on the list then certified by the Civil Service Board. Both steps are required by city code.
But afterward the department issued two extra tests. Alford refused to take them because he believed they were given unfairly and aimed at keeping him from a promotion.
Sullivan issued the additional tests and also had his management staff evaluate the candidates because he wanted to get different views and see who would work hard when given a task, according to a memo sent by George Amiraian, the city’s director of personnel/labor relations, to Good in October 2004.
Alford brought the issue to the service board, and the board ordered an investigation done by Amiraian.
Amiraian told board members he found Sullivan’s decision was valid, Weiner said.
But in his memo to Good, Amiraian wrote that he believed issuing the two extra tests without notice was wrong. Later in the memo, Amiraian said he felt the projects did not affect Sullivan’s promotional decisions.
The union found the memo during a public records request, Weiner said, and used it to appeal the decision again.