At 9:30 a.m. on Friday, FIRE Retiree Association will rally at St. Louis City Hall, 1200 Market St., to present members of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen with letters requesting an investigation into public safety issues and concerns in the St. Louis Fire Department.
The group will request that the Public Safety Committee address the City Charter and Civil Service rules as they apply to Fire Chief Sherman George’s authority to manage the day-to-day operations of the department.
Chief George is the city’s first African-American fire chief. He has been under intense scrutiny since the appointment of Sam Simon as director of Public Safety in 2002. It is a long-standing complaint by many active and retired black firefighters that Simon has micro-managed and challenged the chief’s efforts to properly and cost effectively manage his department.
In a release, the group asked a series of rhetorical questions:
“Has the fire chief’s authority been usurped by political interests? Has the chief been afforded the legal protections as outlined in the City Charter? Has the city conducted fair and unbiased testing for the promotions of firefighters? Is the City of St. Louis engaging in best practices in resolving racial problems within the fire department?”