PEABODY FIRE DEPT. TO START DRUG TESTS

PEABODY - The Peabody Fire Department is on the verge of instituting
its own drug-testing policy.

"We're hoping it begins in November," Chief Steve Pasdon said.

If so, it will come on the heels of the tragic deaths of two Boston
firefighters, who died while fighting a blaze at a West Roxbury
restaurant and whose bodies later tested positive for alcohol or drugs.

Peabody's move toward drug testing came after firefighter John Brophy
Jr. slept through a 911 call in 2005. He later failed a drug test, a
test subsequently ruled improper. The city's efforts to fire him are
currently being determined by the courts.

Pasdon avoided speaking on record about Brophy or the Boston tragedy,
but in an interview he stressed that the Peabody program, part of the
most recent contract, is intended to help his firefighters. All that
remains, he said, is for the firefighters union to agree on a testing
laboratory, per the agreement worked out in the current contract.

"I applaud that," Pasdon said.

Tying the issue to the recent controversy over sick time - the
approximately 100-person department took more than 1,400 sick days
last year - he focused on the need, when rushing into a burning
building, for men who are in top physical condition. It makes sense
for men who are sick or impaired to stay home, he said.

Union leader Jim Lendall said his members are not resisting testing.

"We knew it was coming and as soon as it starts, it starts," he said.

The procedure, he said, involves some random testing of some
firefighters - less than a dozen - each year. Hair samples will be used.

"It's more than random," Lendall said. "If you're out more than 90
days, you get tested. If you're out more than 90 days in one year,
you get tested. Where there's reasonable suspicion, you get tested.
And for promotions."

The testing will increase public confidence and keep firefighters
safer as it weeds out those under the influence, Lendall said.
Previously, the drug-testing policy was tied to Civil Service, which
did not allow random testing and wasn't explicit about what was allowed.

Union relations

All this comes while union officials in Peabody are decrying the
state of labor relations.

"The differences between the chief and the union are the worst
they've been since I've been here," union vice president Steve
Rizzotti told The Salem News recently. "And I've been here 20 years."

The latest three-year contract took so long to negotiate that it
expired only weeks after it was agreed to. For his part, Pasdon said,
"Currently, the relations with my firefighters - maybe not with the
union leadership - are good."

Lendall agreed that Pasdon does have a good relationship with most
rank-and-file firefighters.

"He has his job. He does his job, and I do mine," Lendall said. "A
lot of times, we don't see eye to eye. ... It will be nice to finally
sit down and get this going."

Pasdon said having a good relationship with firefighters is important
to him, and he grows emotional over what he describes as a series of
misunderstandings stemming in part from disagreements over the
department's level of sick time. In a memo to all members of the
department Sept. 28, Pasdon told firefighters how much sick time
they've used this year.

"At current trending rates, I am reporting that 1,706 days will be
used in 2007 at year's end and 1,280 days have been used to date," he
wrote, later calling that data "raw."

"I never said sick time was excessive," he said in an interview last week.

Instead, his complaint has been over the sign in front of the fire
station, a sign put out by the firefighters, advising the public that
Engine One is closed due to budget cuts. It isn't always true, Pasdon
said. Sometimes it's closed simply because of sick time.

The numbers on sick time can be hard for civilians to interpret.
Firefighters work 24 hours, then spend three days off. A firefighter
who misses the morning is required - because of a quirk in the
contract - to skip the evening shift, too.

"We're trying to fix that," Pasdon said.

But missing 24 hours isn't the equivalent of three sick days - as it
might be in the private sector - it's the equivalent of two. Each
employee is entitled to 16 paid sick days.

"The public might not like it," Pasdon said, but he noted that the
firefighters union negotiated in good faith. With 23 years as a
Peabody firefighter and six as chief, he pointed out that the union
also agreed to give away one of its 14 holidays in order to avoid layoffs.

"They risk their lives," he said. "They have fallen down and had to
be dragged out of fires. And I have fallen down and had to be dragged
out of fires by them."

It's a dangerous job, he said.

"Close your eyes as tight as you can." He covered his eyes with his
hands. "Until you can't see a thing." That's when firefighters face
killing smoke, toxic chemicals and damaged structures where a wrong
step can lead to disaster. "That's when things go wrong."