By James Pinkerton
The Houston Chronicle
HOUSTON — Houston Fire Chief Terry Garrison said Wednesday he won’t appeal the reinstatement of three Houston firefighters after an arbitrator ruled the city fired them without evidence that they typed a racist slur into the department’s computer system.
Garrison also said he will take no action against Assistant Chief Rick Flanagan, the acting chief who acknowledged during a grievance hearing he fired the officers last year without evidence, according to the examiner’s ruling.
Flanagan fired Ryan Smith, Randall Ricks and Spencer Allred in early September, after the three firefighters were interrogated repeatedly by Flanagan and an investigator from the city’s Office of Inspector General.
The men were suspected of inserting a racially insensitive comment in the computerized patient care record, or PCR, of an elderly African-American woman they transported by ambulance to St. Luke’s Hospital on March 7.
Houston fire union officials say the incident reflects badly on Mayor Annise Parker who supported the firings last year despite questions about their guilt.
But the mayor stuck to her guns Wednesday and insists one of the three is guilty and should step forward.
“You know, two of those firefighters probably deserve an apology and one doesn’t deserve to be a firefighter,” Parker said Wednesday after a City Hall meeting.
“But we don’t know, and we’ll take them all back and we’ll do what we need to do to respond to the arbitrator’s ruling.”
The ruling noted that during a two-day hearing in January, both OIG investigator Douglas Adams and Chief Flanagan “admitted on the record that they had no evidence to show which of the appellants — or even any of the appellants — entered or allowed to be entered the racial slur” into the patient’s record.
The slur was found March 29 by a city contractor who reviews patient information sent by HFD.
Slack investigation?
Jeff Caynon, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 341, said evidence during the hearing showed the city failed to investigate whether other personnel could have inserted the epithet into the computer record.
“The conclusion that you had to come to is all the avenues that were available for investigation weren’t investigated, because from the beginning the decision was made that one of these three firefighters did it,’' Caynon said.
Caynon continued to criticize Parker for what he termed a cynical political decision to fire the three firefighters at a time when HPD was under public scrutiny for a series of allegations of racial and sexual harassment.
“How do you say I lined up three guys against the wall, and I’m pretty sure one of them did it, so I’ll shoot all of them,” Caynon asked.
“These were not just three guys. It was three families who got their financial support yanked out from under them just to make some people downtown feel better.”
Flanagan was offended by claims from Ricks that he remembered nothing about the call and suspected the trio knew who was responsible, the examiner found.
“Chief Flanagan indicated that what he really wanted (particularly from Allred and Smith) was a display of contrition,’' hearing examiner William McKee wrote.
“It is clear that the chief was deeply offended by the comment in the PCR, that he believed that at least one of the members of the crew authored the comment, and he wanted someone to step up to take responsibility and — most importantly — to apologize.”
He added: “When that did not happen, he decided to terminate all three of them.”
Will get back pay
The firefighters will be given their jobs back — with back pay — at Station 55, and the city will pay for the arbitrator’s expenses of $8,640.
Union officials say that in 2010, eight HFD disciplinary cases were appealed to independent arbitrators.
In seven of the eight cases, the arbitrators ruled that the city excessively or improperly disciplined firefighters.
Houston City Attorney Dave Feldman disputed the union figures.
He said in 2010, there were 89 disciplinary actions involving firefighters and two of the punishments were reduced by hearing examiners, and none was overturned.
Caynon said the firefighters and their families are owed a public apology, but Chief Garrison said an apology will not be forthcoming.
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