As friends and family celebrated the swearing in of the fire department’s new assistant chief, some of his former union colleagues questioned the process that got him there.
Pat Egan was promoted Friday to fill a vacant assistant chief post, ending a 10-year career as president of the firefighters’ union. Friends, family, and fellow firefighters gathered Wednesday afternoon for an official swearing-in ceremony in City Hall.
Meanwhile, the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 825 moved to reexamine the process by which a union president can become assistant chief.
Egan took the oath of office, administered by Mayor John DeStefano. In brief remarks, he thanked his former chief and his family, and welcomed a new relationship with management.
“I’d like to thank Chief [Michael] Grant for selecting me for this position. It’s been great working with him as the president of the local over the last 10 years, and it’s going to be great working with him as his assistant,” Egan said in brief remarks before the crowd.
As Egan spoke, his 3‑year-old daughter, Olivia, ran up and clung to his leg. His 7‑year-old daughter, Maggie, snapped photos. Click on the play arrow above to watch.
Egan’s father, Joe Egan, traveled to New Haven from Florida for the event. The senior Egan was a labor leader himself — he served as business agent for the Iron Workers union office in New Haven from 1972 to 1991. He was asked if his son is following in his footsteps.
“I hope he learned a couple of things from me, but Pat’s pretty sharp on his own,” Joe Egan replied. He said Pat Egan took an early interest in union organizing. When he was new to the firefighting force, he would spend summers studying labor at the UConn labor center. Soon enough, Egan ran for the executive board. Five years after Egan joined the firefighting force, he was elected as president. He never sat for fire department promotional exams, choosing to focus his work on the union.
Melissa Bailey Photo
In his new promotion, Egan jumped from the department’s lowest rank to its second highest. He beat out four captains, two lieutenants and three fellow officers for the job of assistant chief.
Firefighters have been grumbling in online comment forums about Egan’s quick rise to power, and about how he kept quiet the fact that he was seeking a promotion while simultaneously serving as union president.
Some of that frustration came to a head at a closed-door union meeting Tuesday. A firefighter put forward a proposal that union presidents be required to let the union know if they are seeking a promotion to a non-union job. (Egan’s new job, assistant chief of administration, is a non-union job.)
Lt. Jimmy Kottage, who replaced Egan as union president, said Wednesday that he asked the firefighter to submit the proposal in writing. The proposal would then be addressed by the fire union’s bylaws committee, he said.
Kottage, who served alongside Egan as vice president for the past eight years, declined to take a stance on the issue.
“It’s something that I haven’t really thought about,” he said. “It’s something we’ll be looking at in the future.”
Egan, who wasn’t present at the meeting, was asked if a union president should make public his intentions to apply for a non-union managerial job.
“As long as you’re representing the union, it’s really irrelevant what else you’re doing,” he said. “It’s of no consequence.”