Report: Tensions rile Fire Dept.

Club Valiants Inc., an organization of black firefighters, recently settled a lawsuit with the city that charged white firefighters with making racist Internet postings while on duty and from city computers.

The black firefighters also have complained that Local 22, whose leadership is primarily white, has become "a hostile, anti-minority, and offensive union for African American firefighters."

Gillison said that despite those fissures, firefighters suspend their differences on the job.

"They bring who they are to work, but I can tell you they work together well on the fire ground," he said. "Professionalism usually will trump racial issues."

The management study, which cost $219,000, was paid for by the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Agency (PICA), the state agency that oversees the city's budget planning.

The idea was to allow a disinterested third party to pay for a study of the issues that bedeviled the 2,100-member department.

The city and the union both had input on choosing the Berkshire consultants, who heard from a steering committee that had administration and labor representatives.

PICA chairman Sam Katz said the report was "not a to-do list - PFD, labor, and management will have to work together to make the recommendations their own."

"PICA is not interested in one-day news coverage of a report that gathers dust on a shelf," he said. "We will monitor how and when these recommendations are implemented."