by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Asked last July by the mayor’s transition team to name the biggest challenges facing the fire department, Fire Chief Richard Barrett referred to a 133-name roster of mandatory early retirements coming due in 2004. Now the mayor’s office is looking for a way to get Barrett’s name off that list.
Barrett volunteered for the early retirement program four years before Peyton appointed him chief last summer. Barrett agreed to take early retirement in exchange for a lump-sum pension payment.
The program is designed to clear out a top-heavy department, saving money and allowing the City to plan replacement schedules. Until now, the program has been mandatory. However, the mayor’s office is planning to make an exception in this case to keep Barrett and his 30 years of experience at the top of the department.
“The chief is the top public safety officer for the City. The mayor committed and the City Council committed to him a year ago as the best choice for the job,” said Susie Wiles, spokesperson for the mayor’s office.
The mayor’s office was expected to ask the Council to consider removing Barrett from the program at last night’s meeting.
Mayor John Peyton knew Barrett was scheduled to retire in June when he picked the former battalion chief for the job last July over three others. Peyton cited Barrett’s popularity within the department as a key reason for the choice.
All the candidates interviewed for the job said departmental morale suffered under the previous chief Ray Alfred. The choice of Alfred, who came to the department from Washington, D.C., rankled some veterans who wanted the chief to come from the hometown ranks. Peyton said last July that promoting Barrett would be a large step toward repairing morale.
Wiles pointed to the department’s respect for Barrett as a reason to keep him. However, at least one department veteran thinks Peyton is risking more morale problems by making an exception for Barrett.
Retired Capt. Johnny Usry, a 35-year veteran, told Peyton in a letter that “a decision to keep Chief Barrett would be detrimental to the department.” Barrett should be held to his commitment to retire, said Usry.
Usry said he turned down an administrative job with the City because his own retirement loomed.
“If I had known this would happen, I would have taken the job with the hopes that I would have been considered irreplaceable when the time came for me to leave and been extended, too,” he said.
The exception could cause a “serious morale problem,” Usry wrote. “Everyone I have talked to about this situation is very upset.”
Other department veterans shouldn’t view the chief’s stay as a precedent. Wiles said it was a one-time exception made specifically to keep Barrett.
“The mayor’s office believes in the integrity of the DROP plan,” said Wiles, referring to the early retirement plan. “The Fire and Rescue Department is blessed with a deep and talented pool of members.”
The Deferred Retirement Option Program has stashed money away for Barrett monthly since he signed up five years ago. He would have collected a chunk of that money following his scheduled June retirement. Police and Fire Pension Fund administrator John Keane said the lump-sum payments can reach $60,000.
Keane said he didn’t know how Barrett’s removal from the program would affect his retirement benefits.
“Nobody from the mayor’s office has talked to us about this,” said Keane. “All we’ve heard is rumor that it might happen. I’m not really sure how it would work.”