A Slay administration appointee is pushing for personnel changes in the St. Louis Fire Department that will cost taxpayers, stress firefighters and endanger public safety, according to the Firefighters Institute for Racial Equality.
“There are too many highly paid chiefs and not enough Indians to keep the reservation safe,” Captain Abram Pruitt, president of F.I.R.E., said of the personnel changes proposed by Director of Public Safety Charles Bryson.
According to documents obtained by The American, Bryson – who oversees the fire department – is asking for a reduction of three low-ranking private positions in the department and the creation of three executive jobs: an administrative captain’s position, a captain’s position and a deputy fire chief position.
“The numbers do not make sense,” Pruitt said, about a personnel move that would cost taxpayers when firefighters are already being asked to make sacrifices because of a looming budget crisis.
According to a July 8 letter from Bryson to the Board of Estimate & Apportionment, these personnel changes will add more than $91,000 to the fire department’s annual budget in salary alone.
The new administrative captain’s position will cost the department $70,631 and the new captain and deputy chief positions will cost a combined $162,498 in salary alone, according to the calculations submitted by Bryson, whereas eliminating the three private positions will save only $141,889 in salaries.
Pruitt said that eliminating the three private positions will cost the City additionally, because expensive overtime pay will be required to make up for the staff cuts. More importantly, he said, cutting ground-level firefighters to hire executives and then overworking first responders is dangerous.
“The department is already down to 12 to 15 privates,” Pruitt said.
“The city is less safe with three less privates and one new deputy chief.”
Then why is Bryson, a Slay appointee, pushing for these changes at a time of economic crisis?
The Jenkerson-Arras ‘twins’
Pruitt said that black firefighters have been provided with little rationale for any changes in the department since former Fire Chief Sherman George was pressured out of the fire service and replaced by Dennis Jenkerson. But F.I.R.E. suspects that cronyism is at work.
The first name on the promotions list for a new deputy chief opening is Battalion Chief Michael Arras.
“Mike Arras is a very close friend of Jenkerson,” said Wayne Luster, vice chair of F.I.R.E.
“They were called twins because they hung around together so much. Arras would be moved up to deputy chief with this scheme.”
Jenkerson and Arras were both District 5 battalion chiefs out of Engine House No. 28 when Chief George ran the department.
The charge of cronyism is not new for Jenkerson. Long before Chief George was demoted and then retired and sued the City, The American printed the theory expressed by black firefighters that Jenkerson – a personal friend of Mayor Slay’s – was being groomed to be the next chief.
After George was demoted, Jenkerson was promoted from battalion chief to become the new fire chief, which was unprecedented in the history of the department. Previously only deputy fire chiefs have been eligible for promotion to chief.
As for Arras, there are other signs that he has connections within the Slay administration.
Last summer Arras was approved as a new member of the Advisory Council for the St. Louis Area Regional Response System. The 12 members of the council’s Board of Directors that approved Arras’ nomination included both Bryson and his predecessor in Slay’s administration, Sam Simon.
A close family friend of the Slays, Simon resigned abruptly in September 2007 after The American reported that he had ordered a City vendor to come take all of the firefighter airmasks it had sold to the City, which would have left the fire department unable to fight fires. Simon was hired immediately as director of public safety for Saint Louis University, and Bryson replaced him on Slay’s executive staff.
Luster said that the Mayor’s Office is keeping tight reins on Bryson. He said Bryson went to Slay’s office via Director of Operations Ronald Smith to get approval before submitting these personnel requests to the Board of Estimate & Apportionment
“Is this further evidence that Bryson is just a figurehead?” Luster asked.
Messages were left with Bryson, Jenkerson and Arras on Wednesday morning, requesting comment. No calls had been returned by press time.
$17K raise for Jenkerson
Other than promoting a friend of Jenkerson’s so that he will become eligible for an eventual promotion to fire chief, Luster said he can’t think of any good reason for these personnel changes.
“We have four deputy chiefs now,” Luster said.
“What safety issue is addressed by the creation of an additional deputy chief position to justify the cost?”
The new deputy chief position would add $88,000 a year plus benefits to the fire department budget, according to a personnel schedule obtained by The American.
“At the same time, firefighters are being asked to bank – to not use – two vacation days per year, and EMS workers are being asked to bank three days a year for budgetary reasons,” Pruitt said.
“This will not save the fire department money, as most folks will end up using sick time, I believe.”
Pruitt also noted that Jenkerson recently accepted a $17,000 raise, even as his staff was facing impingements on their vacation days due to budgetary constraints.
According to a personnel schedule, Jenkerson was hired as chief at $106,365, received a raise to $110,440 and then another to $127,000.
“He could have refused it,” Pruitt said of Jenkerson’s most recent raise.
“At the same time, basic necessities such as disinfect and toilet paper are no longer being supplied to engine houses. Firefighters have to bring their own or pool their money to buy their own.”
F.I.R.E. said for Jenkerson to accept a raise and Bryson to suggest these promotions during the current economic crisis is a failure in leadership.
Pruitt said, “This is like those companies who give their top-level executives bonuses while the little guy gets cut out of their job.”
