A Brooklyn federal judge rubber-stamped an upcoming raft of FDNY demotions, rejecting the chiefs’ argument that the department wouldn’t be able to handle a major crisis without their leadership and experience.
Judge Rachel Kovner denied a request for a temporary restraining order against the demotions of assistant chiefs Michael Gala, Joseph Jardin, and Fred Schaaf late Thursday.
FDNY Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh ordered the chiefs demoted on Feb. 3. In short order eight more chiefs, including John “Jack” Hodgens, the FDNY’s most senior uniformed official, and Chief of Fire Operations John Esposito, relinquished their ranks and asked to be put back in the field in solidarity.
The demotions will all be in effect come Monday, leaving a major staffing vacuum in the top levels of the FDNY, officials said.
Attorneys for the chiefs said if the demotions went through the department will be left without experienced leaders to coordinate the battling of massive fires such as the Staten Island blaze that critically injured three firefighters last month, or the blaze at a Brooklyn NYPD warehouse in December that destroyed the building, as well as scores of case evidence that was being held inside.
“This case is about one thing: the safety of the public and valiant firefighters of the New York City Fire Department. (Kavanagh’s) demotions pushed the FDNY past the tipping point,” Attorney Jim Walden, who is representing the chiefs, noted in his law papers.
The judge didn’t buy the argument that the chiefs were unreplaceable.
“(The chiefs) have not established that irreparable harm will occur if the court does not immediately require plaintiffs to be restored to their previously held duties and prevent their formal demotions from going into effect,” Kovner wrote. “(They) have not even alleged that they themselves will suffer irreparable harm as a result of their demotions.”
The FDNY did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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