Fire Fighters Local 311’s response to City of Verona’s “implementation plan” & Notice of filing formal charges with PFC
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Last night, the City of Verona issued a press release that detailed a multi-point implementation plan to address Local 311’s complaints and the condemning report by the Riseling Group. The City claims to have “acted” on this plan on October 10, 2018.
Local 311 takes exception with this claim. Up until last night’s press release, no firefighters were aware of this plan or provided a copy of said plan. Additionally, no such plan was ever provided to Fire Fighters Local 311, the original complainant, and no firefighters or union representatives were included in the creation of the plan. Ironically, by neglecting to inform firefighters about the month-old plan (and excluding them from its formation), Chief Giver violated the plan itself: “Fire Department leadership will…communicate with great collaborative focus on matters of Department importance, including seeking input from members, and formalizing programs.”
By violating a tenet of his own plan right off the bat, we have a low-degree of confidence that Chief Giver has any intention of actually following through on a plan that appears to be mostly a boilerplate, sterile, and PR-focused gesture meant to more pacify a crisis than to build coalitions and produce meaningful improvements.
The damage that Chief Giver and Asst. Chief Don Catenacci inflicted upon the fire department was years in the making and will not be undone with vague and non-quantifiable bullet-points in a press release. The City is attempting to treat symptoms of the disease rather than cure the disease itself; which, in this case, is the hapless leadership of Chief Giver and Asst Chief Don Catenacci.
Fire Fighters Local 311 will be filing formal charges with the PFC against Chief Giver and Asst Chief Don Catenacci and will be seeking their terminations or resignations for creating and condoning a toxic culture of harassment, intimidation, lack of leadership or discipline, discrimination, threats, and physical assaults.
We hope the PFC will consider our case, show compassion for those victimized by Chief Giver and Asst Chief Catenacci, and restore order and leadership in the Verona Fire Department by removing the bad actors.
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