NORTH PROVIDENCE – Mayor Charles Lombardi is criticizing heads of the town’s police and fire unions for prohibiting members from participating in a 9/11 ceremony at Town Hall.
“I must express my profound disappointment regarding your decisions disallowing participation by your respective department honor guards at the solemn occasion last Friday evening,” he wrote on Sept. 14 to Battalion Chief Jay Petrillo, president of the IAFF Local 2334, and Sgt. Joseph Cole, president of the North Providence FOP Lodge 13. “You knew that this brief remembrance ceremony was planned to “honor the memory of the innocent lives lost and pay tribute to the heroic first responders who demonstrated courage on that fateful day’ of Sept. 11, 2001.”
He went on to state that the lack of attendance was tied to police and firefighters not getting paid overtime or compensatory time for the event.
Petrillo responded Monday in comments to The Local Insider, saying that this had nothing to do with money being more important than honoring fallen responders, and was instead about an assignment outside of regular duties that they’ve historically and contractually been paid for by the town.
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Petrillo said they received two days’ notice from the fire chief, and were told that they were getting paid. He said he “begged, borrowed, and stole” to try to get people there, but subsequently heard from the chief that the mayor had called and asked if they were getting paid. The next thing he knew, he said, they were receiving the letter insulting their character and motives, which he took personally.
“I don’t need the mayor to lecture me about 9/11,” he said, noting that he responded personally to New York City a week after the attacks and other responders were also connected to the tragedy. The comments from the mayor are “completely inappropriate,” said Petrillo.
He mentioned that responders again held their own annual ceremony on the morning of Sept. 11 with a moment of silence and color guard. He said they didn’t also need to be there at what he described as a five-minute ceremony at “the town carnival” that evening (North Providence Village Festival), and again reiterated that this was a simple contract issue and had nothing to do with them not caring.
Lombardi said he fully expected members of the honor guards to embrace the opportunity to pay heartfelt homage to their fallen brother and sister responders, “who lost their lives in this unspeakable tragedy, one that is etched in our nation’s history with immeasurable sadness.”
“Shockingly,” said Lombardi in his letter, they informed him that the honor guards would not take part unless they were paid time-and-a-half premium pay for a 4-hour minimum.
“Alternatively, you asked for payment with compensatory time,” he said. “You sought to extract hours of overtime funds from the town treasury for a mere 15-minute appearance at a memorial honoring your brothers and sisters. I need to remind you that this was not a political event, a swearing-in, an inauguration, or a parade, nor were your honor guards compelled to attend.”
To use the solemnity of the ceremony as an opportunity for monetary gain was not only shameful, he said, “but an indelible sign of disrespect to the memories of those killed in the line of duty, as well as their surviving families.”
Lombardi said while he appreciates, values, and applauds all the good services union members provide every day and night, he condemns this decision to refuse participation “as standard-bearers for our police and fire departments at this community event.”
“When it comes to compensation, as public safety director I have shown appreciation of all your members when collectively bargaining very substantial raises in salaries and other increases and benefits,” he said. “Yet in stark contrast, your honor guard members declined to show respect for their fallen comrades without compensation.”
Petrillo said the color guard often participates in unpaid events unrelated to the town, including memorial ceremonies back around the year of the attacks, as well as funerals. The town has asked that any time there are promotional ceremonies, that they attend for paid time. This was not 15 minutes as described by the mayor, he said, and was probably “more of a 2-hour ordeal,” including travel time, going to the station to get dressed and to pick up their equipment, and traveling to the actual ceremony, all with officers and firefighters coordinating with their families one schedules.
If done properly and planned out a month in advance as an actual town ceremony, they could have been told they weren’t being paid and they would have figured out other plans, including possibly using union funds, Petrillo said. Instead, he added, there was short notice and they were told they weren’t getting paid and they were no longer needed at the ceremony.
Local police officers and firefighters will continue to recognize the sad events of 9/11 for many years to come, said Petrillo, long after he and Lombardi are no longer around. None of this had anything to do with not respecting those lost on that tragic day, he stated, but is instead a simple contractual issue.
