FLAG FIREFIGHTERS CONTEST CITY'S DRUG-TESTING POLICY

Flagstaff firefighters absolutely refuse to submit to random drug and
alcohol testing. It's a violation, they say, of their constitutional rights.

City officials say they have the right to not only require firefighters to
submit to the tests but fire those who don't.

Further, if firefighters test positive for illegal substances, they will be
fired. If they test positive for alcohol on duty, they will undergo a
rehabilitation period and more testing.

Now, a judge will decide.

Attorneys for the city and the Flagstaff firefighters' union will square
off Friday in Coconino County Superior Court to present their cases.

City fire officials would not comment about the pending lawsuit and
referred all questions to the City Attorney's Office.

"The union has issues with the drug-testing policy," said Flagstaff City
Attorney Pat Boomsma. "We knew it was coming."

She and city officials met in executive session last Monday to talk about
the threatened litigation by the firefighters' union. Boomsma said she was
unable to comment on the content of the executive session discussion.

Two days later, the local firefighters' union filed a preliminary
injunction, asking a judge to prevent the city from enacting its newly
revised drug and alcohol testing policies.

The firefighters' issues were raised after the city rewrote the
drug-testing policies in November 2004, Boomsma said. The policies were
rewritten to comply with the findings of an Arizona case out of Mesa, where
firefighters sued the city for violating their constitutional rights for
requiring random drug and alcohol testing.

The Arizona Supreme Court concluded "... that the city's generalized and
unsubstantiated interest in deterring and detecting alcohol and drug use
among the city firefighters by conducting random drug tests is insufficient
to overcome the ... privacy interests of the firefighters in this case."

According to a court filing, firefighters with the United Flagstaff
Firefighters Association, IAFF Local 1505, take issue with elements of two
of the city's drug-testing directives.

One, which refers to city employees who drive commercial vehicles, states
that city employees undergo sporadically scheduled drug and alcohol tests
throughout the year.

"The firefighters disagree with all provisions resulting in random,
suspicionless drug/alcohol testing," stated court documents.

Another refers to all city employees and states that public safety
personnel, such as police officers and firefighters, will be tested for
drugs once a year. Officers will be tested within 90 days of their date of
hire. Firefighters will be tested once a year at a designated time.

"This is another attempt at an unconstitutional, random, suspicionless
drug-testing policy," court documents state.

The city also does not have procedures, policies or manuals in place that
spell out what employees' rights are or what the testing process is, court
documents state.

The court documents go on to state that "some firefighters have already
been forced and compelled to submit a urine sample because they were told
that they would be terminated from their jobs on April 1, 2005, if they did
not urinate into a cup."

The attorney for the firefighters' union, C. Mark Schreiner of Flagstaff,
said that all results of the urine samples that were provided should
immediately be sealed and held confidential.

Schreiner did not immediately return a call for comment.

The complaint was filed to stop the city from performing any other random
testing after the city refused to stop testing while negotiations were
taking place.

"The firefighters are forced to file this petition to protect their
rights," court documents state. "That serious and irreparable damages would
occur if the city forced the firefighters to perform random, suspicionless
drug/alcohol tests."

Furthermore, firefighters say they will be happy to submit to alcohol/drug
tests under the following conditions: When a supervisor has reasonable,
articulated, individualized suspicion; When a firefighter has an accident
on the job; When a firefighter has previously tested positive for
alcohol/dug use on the job in the furtherance of rehabilitation;

Boomsma said she is not aware of any other complaints about the rewritten
policies.

"This the first that we were aware anyone had an issue with the revised
policy," Boomsma said.

Deputy Chief Bob White of the Flagstaff Police Department said police
officials have no problem with the changes.

"The policy changes now don't really affect the police department," White
said. "These are the same policies we as a department have had in effect
since about 1986."

The police department conducts pre-employment screens and a yearly screen
for all commissioned and noncommissioned employees.

There is very little randomness in the drug screening, except for narcotics
agents and evidence custodians, White said. Officials have a window of
opportunity to have employees submit for a drug screen and can't request
one any day outside that window.

"Our policy is our belief the public has a right to have faith in their
public safety people, that they aren't coming to work under the influence
of drugs and aren't abusing drugs in their off-duty capacity," White said.

Continued White, "It's important."

Besides, people using drugs like marijuana and cocaine, or are under the
influence of alcohol while driving, are committing crimes, White added.

The preliminary injunction hearing will be in front of Judge Dan Slayton
beginning at 1:30 p.m. Friday.