Fire Chief Seeks Performance Evaluations

Firefighter Timothy Borer passed all the required tests and assessments, so he was promoted and sworn in Tuesday to become a fire inspector.

However, as long as he stays in that position, there will be no formal annual review of his work to help him improve at the job. Neither the department nor the firefighters’ union contract requires one.

Fire Chief John Alston, Jr. wants to change all that. By going first.

Borer was sworn as the city’s seventh fire inspector at Tuesday morning’s regular monthly meeting of the Board of Fire Commissioners.

Alston took the opportunity, as part of the commissioners’ new business, to announce to the commissioners that since his contract is coming up for renewal, ​“I sent the board an evaluation document. This has not been done in the past. It is a performance evaluation. I want to do it. To lead by example. Please be brutally honest.”

Alston said his action was voluntary;the mayor is the only person who must approve and offer to renew or renegotiate his contract. But he said he hopes that eventually every sworn officer in his department will have a similar department-level review.

For such annual performance review to occur, the firefighters union would have to agree to it, confirmed Assistant Corporation Counsel Audrey Kramer.

In an interview after the meeting, Alston said that this practice in not uncommon in other fire departments: Your boss reviews you. You comment on the review, not in a punitive way but in the spirit of improvement. Then the two of you sign the completed review document.

He said the practice would be ​“progressive” for the NHFD.

Alston said the vast majority of his firefighters do a good job, and that should be acknowledged more. He took pains in October, on the occasion of the 155th birthday of the department, to do just that: Give out acknowledgements and award of merit for courage and performance. That type of recognition had not formally taken place since 2002, he said.

Hand in hand with that, an annual performance assessment would be a big plus for the department, he contended: After a promotion, for example, a person can stay in a job for years, at any level, with no formal review.

“It’s the only way we have to inspire ourselves: to ask questions and ask questions of ourselves as to what can I do and how to be better,” he said.

In the short document Alston gave the commissioners, he outlined the different areas of his work, and solicited their commentary on each. They included leadership; management effectiveness; personnel management; innovation; special contributions; and public service orientation.

“They might say, ​‘This guy puts out fires,’” but his interaction with the public needs improvement, Alston said by way of giving a theoretical response.

“I make my case” after receiving their comments, he added, and then the documents are forwarded to the mayor to review in connection with making a renewal offer, if that is decision, to the chief.

How all this would work with the rank and file, of course, is to be determined down the road.

After the meeting, fire union President Frank Ricci said he’s open to including Alston’s idea in negotiations on a new contract, expected to begin in March.

​“The fire union is always willing to discuss anything with management that will improve the department,” Ricci said.

The department currently has 41 vacancies, with a civil service list of approved potential firefighters which the deparment is waiting to be approved. When it is, Alston said, the department will begin fielding a class of 40 new firefighters as early as Feb. 20, he said, to begin the 16 weeks of training.

Fielding that class and one more as soon as possible is the department’s way of preparing for current and expected waves of retirees in the coming months.

One of those is Thomas Neville, an assistant chief, now in his 30th year, who serves the final shift of his 30-year career Tuesday night.