Rather than fight to save his job, a city firefighter accused of posting a racist comment on Facebook put in for retirement Friday — seeking up to $85,919.59 year, depending on his luck.
The firefighter, Lt. Kevin Owens, signed two sets of retirement papers Friday afternoon in the fourth-floor city pension office at 200 Orange St.
He did so four days before the Board of Fire Commissioners was scheduled to consider his future in the department. Chief Allyn Wright earlier this month suspended Owens for 15 days for allegedly posting a comment using the “n” word on an anti-immigrant group’s Facebook page. That was an initial measure; Owens faced possible dismissal Tuesday.
Instead, he decided to sign the two sets of papers Friday.
One set was for a traditional “age annuity” retirement. He will now be officially retired as of Sept. 22 and receive a $69,667.45 annual pension based on his 20.48 years a s a firefighter, according to city payroll and pension chief Jerry Sagnella.
Owens also seeks to cash in 120 days of unused sick pay. But he has to wait in line to find out if that’ll happen: Based on seniority, he is number 23 on the list of firefighters eligible to do that. Each calendar year 20 retiring firefighters can trade unused sick pay for years of service, at the rate of 30 days for a year of service. That means that if only three other firefighters above him on the list either don’t retire this year or retire without cashing in sick time by Dec. 31, Owens will qualify for $85,919.59.
“Kevin put in his time. Contractually he has the right to retire and secure the benefits,” said fire union President Jimmy Kottage. Kottage had criticized Owens’ alleged Facebook position and supported his suspension; he said Owens neither denied nor admitted posting the comment when confronted by officials. (Owens could not be reached for comment.)
Owens, who is 54 years old, seeks an additional bonus, as well: He signed a second set of papers Friday for a disability retirement. He can’t get that automatically. He will have to be examined by Yale Occupational Health doctors, who will report to the trustees of the Police and Fire Pension Fund on whether they believe he truly has a debilitating work injury. Then the trustees will vote. “You have to conclusively prove to the trustees that you are disabled,” Sangella said. “You can’t just go in and cough.” The city may not by law release information about Owens’ alleged medical condition.
The spark for Owens’ suspension was a comment posted to the Facebook page of an anti-immigrant group called “English and Proud.” “Wake Up England! Chased by Muslims with machetes — South Yorkshire police don’t want to know!” the group’s Facebook item read.
In screen shot of the page that began circulating among members of the department, and then city officials, beginning noon Monday, a comment appears in the name of a New Haven firefighter. It shows the picture from his Facebook page. The comment reads: “In the U.S. we call them niggers.”
Hours later, that comment was not visible on the English and Proud Facebook page.
A screenshot of the post circulated among department members Monday evening. It quickly reached the attention of top city officials including Mayor Toni Harp, who called the post “unacceptable behavior” that “has to be addressed.”
“It is an action that is unbefitting an officer in our our public safety service,” Harp said. In suspending Owens, Wright wrote that the lieutenant violated department rules “not limited to” Rule #16G, forbidding the use of “obscene, immoral or disrespectful language”; and Rule #16H, forbidding “conduct in any manner prejudicial to the good name and reputation of the Department.”
The city is in the process of writing a policy governing employees’ social-media activity.
“It’s an unfortunate episode. Above him, I think the department is going to send a statement out specifying how this does not represent our department,” said Rev. Eldren Morrison, chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners. “This does not represent our city very well. We do not expect that to happen again.”
Chief Wright said Friday he hadn’t yet decided whether he was going to seek Owens’ dismissal.
“Everything was on the table,” he said. “I didn’t know which way I was going to go. Since he has put in his papers to retire, I’m going to end it right there.
“Basically right now it played out to his benefit.”