By Mike LaBella
The Eagle-Tribune
HAVERHILL, Mass. — The city’s lawyer said firefighters secretly recorded a private conversation between their chief and the lawyer who presided over hearings for four firefighters accused of abusing sick leave.
Mayor James Fiorentini said city officials are looking into the possibility that the taping was illegal.
City Solicitor William Cox said it could only have been firefighters who recorded fire Chief Richard Borden and Attorney Michael Marks chatting about firefighters, the work they do and how they are perceived. The conversation happened at one of last month’s hearings where the sick time abuse was reviewed.
Cox said firefighters posted a “snippet” of the audio on the Internet on You Tube yesterday, as well as on the Haverhill Firefighters Local 1011 Web site, www.haverhillfirefighters.com.
He said the behind-closed-doors hearings at City Hall were not recorded by the city or Marks, who was appointed by the mayor to preside over the hearings.
“I don’t know if they did it with a cell phone or how they did it,” Cox said. “The only ones in that hearing were city officials, the hearings officer and the firefighters, who secretly recorded this private conversation.”
A phone message left yesterday by The Eagle-Tribune with Capt. Paul Weinburgh, president of the local firefighters union, was not returned. Marks could not be reached for comment.
Yesterday morning the headline on a new You Tube posting read “Haverhill firefighters get fair hearing?”
Hours later it was changed to “Haverhill firefighters DO NOT receive fair hearings from Mayor James Fiorentini.”
Cox said the posting was intended to divert attention from the fact that the four firefighters who the mayor suspended this week for abusing their sick leave refused to testify during the hearings. Cox said that during the hearings they “hid behind their lawyer.”
“The real story is this is a red herring put out by the firefighters who want to talk about anything but the facts,” Cox said. “This isn’t about whether they got a fair hearing. This is about whether they abused sick leave or not.”
This week, Fiorentini suspended firefighters Christopher Cesati, George Sarrette and Andrew Lafferty for 10 days without pay for violating Haverhill’s sick-leave rules. Fiorentini also has ordered a five-day unpaid suspension for firefighter Raymond Robinson Jr. Sarrette and Lafferty are former presidents of the firefighters union.
After what the mayor called a trend of sick time abuse in the Fire Department, the city hired a private detective in December who videotaped the now-suspended firefighters doing activities like moving furniture, shoveling snow and running errands on days they called in sick.
Yesterday, Borden said the You Tube posting included text that did not accurately reflect the recording, while the recording itself was only a portion of the entire conversation he had with Marks in the hearing room.
“I am most concerned about the apparent attempt to misrepresent what I said,” Borden said after he learned of the posting and then reviewed it. “I won’t attribute motive to this, but being misrepresented is disturbing.”
The posting, which can be found by entering “Fiorentini” in the You Tube search bar or the firefighter’s Internet site, shows an image of City Hall overlaid with this text: Hearing officer Marks..."I think since 9/11 firefighters are full of themselves.” Chief Borden..."Firefighters you see on the news putting water on a fire aren’t the real heroes.”
The posting came two days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, in which New York firefighters were proclaimed heroes.
Borden said the text does not reflect his true quote in which he talks about which part of the job makes firefighters heroes.
“Those are the guys working inside, where they can’t see their hands in front of their face and they’re feeling the heat,” Borden said in explaining what he was talking to Marks about. “The unfortunate thing is you don’t catch that on camera, you don’t catch that on film. And by the time you get there (to the fire) those aren’t the things you get to see. The guys who are the heroes are the guys who take a beating in less than ideal conditions. It wasn’t meant to cast a dispersion on anybody.”
Cox said he heard nothing in the recording that would challenge any of the facts at the hearing. He wants those who made the recording to post the entire conversation and not just a portion of it.
“If they did tape the whole hearing, then why are they putting out some irrelevant conversation and not allow people like me and you to hear the rest of their secret tapes, and about the substance of the matter,” he said. “Let the people hear all of the evidence that was introduced, or not introduced because they refused to testify. Then let people make up their minds as to whether the hearings officer (Marks) was biased in any way.”
Last night, Fiorentini said he agrees.
“I challenge them to release the whole audio,” he said.
Cox said the mayor brought the post to his attention and that he is looking into the possible illegality of secretly recording a private conversation.
“And obviously, parties that were recorded have their own rights, the right to take action on their own,” Cox said about Borden and Marks.
Later in the recorded conversation, Borden says he would like to see “100 percent” of his guys “beat the retirement system.” He goes on to talk about a 90-year-old retired firefighter and how he would like to see more firefighters reach that age after they retire.
“Statistically, the average firefighter who retires at 55 only lives about 11 years,” Borden said yesterday. “What I meant is I would like to see everyone make retirement age, retire legitimately and then live beyond the actuary tables, which never figured for the old guy to make it 45 years after retirement. He beat the retirement system, that is what I meant.”
Borden said the issue of sick time abuse has harmed his department and that it will take a long time to regain the public’s trust.
Excerpts from the conversation posted on You Tube:
Attorney Michael Marks: “In 2001, people looked at firefighters as heroes ... you know I think they got a little full of themselves and now, if anyone disagrees with them on almost any issue it’s like they’re disrespecting them somehow.”
Marks: “The public is eager to embrace firefighters cause firefighters are always there to help them... It’s not like cops ... firefighters are there to help people. It’s natural that people would like them and respect them. Unfortunately, I think some of the things that you read in the paper, these guys, I don’t think get it. And I think they have only themselves to blame. In Boston, the notion of...the drug testing, that’s crazy, people don’t get it, nor should they, especially after two guys died...”
Fire Chief Richard Borden: “I’d like to think that I could get 100 percent of my guys to beat the retirement system for ... for everything they’re worth... “
Marks, responding: “They’re already doing a pretty good job.”
Borden: “You know what I mean. We used to have an old-timer come around who was 90-something. We want to see more of them make that.”
Borden: “You know what, the greatest thing about being chief, whether they like me or hate me, I recognize I have 90 guys, with very few exceptions, who came to this job to do good... so while we may butt heads on negotiations, there are 90 people for the most part, in my case I’ll tell you it’s 88 out of the 90, who came to this job to do good.”
Marks: “Have you heard guys go out on disability and then come back? Best hope they don’t. You know it used to be, the department head, if a guy wanted to come back, the department head had veto power over whether they would allow him to come back now or not. They changed the pension laws... If he gets doctors to say that he is able to come back, they come back. They come back with all of their seniority, and all those years of service and at a new salary. And they’re all the same, they all come back after a year or two to get their highest three years and then they go out again.”
Copyright 2009