Lynn Fire’s chief exam a hot potato

LYNN – The Fire Department’s top commanders are trading charges and counterclaims of incompetency and compromised public safety even as they prepare for a Dec. 9 examination to choose the city’s next fire chief.Acting Fire Chief James Carritte, Acting Deputy Chief Dennis Carmody and District Chiefs Robert Bourgeois and John Barry plan to meet today’s deadline for signing up for the fire chief test even though the district chiefs say the chief’s test should not be scheduled until the controversy surrounding the 2006 deputy chief selection that promoted Carritte from fire captain to deputy is resolved.Carritte’s promotion to deputy over Carmody and District Chief James McDonald, who both outscored Carritte on the deputy’s test, prompted a grievance by International Association of Firefighters Local 739.An arbitrator last June ruled the selection process violated 739’s contract and called for a new selection process. The city has challenged the ruling in Superior Court and Carritte, who was appointed acting chief by Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. in January 2008, is confident his deputy’s appointment will be validated.”State law says promotions are not arbitrable; they are matters of inherent managerial policy,” he said on Monday.Despite their objections to the 2006 promotion, Carmody, Bourgeois and Barry were compelled as senior department officers to sign up for the Dec. 9 chief test or forfeit their exam slots to less senior district chiefs or fire captains.Although they are participating in the assessment, the three said the exam is not oriented to assessing firefighting management abilities, typically referred to as “fire ground” skills by firefighters.The official posting for the test says it will assess a potential chief’s problem-solving, leadership, decision-making, stress tolerance and other abilities.City Personnel Director Joseph Driscoll said the assessment includes fire scene skills evaluation. Driscoll said the city contracted with MMA Consulting of Brookline in July to administer the fire and police chiefs’ examinations. Clancy called for both examinations following the retirement of former Police Chief John Suslak in July, and the process has taken time since the city had to obtain approval from the state to administer the assessment exams instead of Civil Service tests.Driscoll said the assessment will involve questions, role-playing exercises and take into account the candidates’ background and experience. MMA reviewed Fire Department policies and procedures in preparing the evaluation.The firm will give Clancy the names of the top three scorers on the fire exam by Dec. 19 or 20, Driscoll said.”The mayor’s position is that one exam where the candidates sit down at a desk and answer 85 questions won’t assess skills. This is much broader than an exam,” he said.But Bourgeois said the assessment does not test technical fire skills; instead it gives weight to the administrative skills Carritte’s possesses.Barry agreed.”Jim Carritte is not an experienced fire officer. He’s never commanded a company or an incident,” he said.That complaint underscores criticisms the senior chiefs leveled at Carritte during an Item interview Sunday. They questioned Carritte’s decision to take command at fires even though the district chief or captain at the fire is operating as incident commander.”It’s a problem because it creates a lot of confusion on the fire ground among the operating forces. It could be dangerous,” Barry said.Carritte is not miffed by the criticism, saying votes of no confidence in fire chiefs are fairly common.”I’ve come in and corrected things on the fire ground I didn’t think were done correctly. Maybe they don’t want a strong chief,” he said.Bourgeois, Barry and Carmody also say Carritte only recently began holding regular meetings assessing the department’s needs. Carritte said he met regularly with district chiefs, including four who retired between January and August.He said he has met individually with the curre