CLEVELAND — It's no secret, there's no love lost between Cleveland firefighters and Chief Angelo Calvillo. They tried to get him out of office earlier this year with a no confidence vote which the city ignored.
Now the union says the administration has no choice but to fire him, because he broke the law.
Attorneys for the union sent a letter Wednesday morning demanding that the city of Cleveland remove the Chief, and charge him with criminal acts for violating the city's charter.
WKYC obtained copies of petitions certified by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, which show that the chief gathered signatures on behalf of Mayor Frank Jackson for the primary election in 2017.
Fran Lally, President of the Firefighter’s Union says this shows that there’s "A systemic problem with the Division of Fire and that's a systemic problem that the Chief has perpetuated.”
According to the Department's policies and procedures, as well as the city's Charter § 140, civil-service employees are prohibited from engaging in any political activity, specifically the circulating or seeking of signatures to any petition provided for by primary or election laws, or acting as a worker in favor of any candidate for public office.
Mark Guidetti of Diemert & Associates, which represents the Union, says of the city's law, "It makes sense from both the practical and legal stand point that people should not be campaigning for or against their bosses essentially. It creates a conflict of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest."
I asked Lally whether the Union was just looking for a reason to go after the Chief because of the bad blood between them.
He said it comes down to one thing, "He (the Chief) has two sets of standards. There's the standards for everybody else who he maximizes the discipline and penalties for. And there's a standard for him who doesn't have to follow the rules.”
Problems between the firefighters and the Chief have been smoldering since he was appointed 4 years ago.
In February, they voted overwhelmingly to remove him from office in that no confidence vote by a count of 604 to 14. But the city ignored it, siding with the chief.
"I think Mayor Frank Jackson puts people in charge and he gives them the reins to run their department, to run their division, to run the Division of Fire, and he supports them to a fault," says Lally.
And attorneys for the Union say, if the city doesn't take action against the Chief, they're filing a lawsuit.
Guidetti says, "I'm not above the law. You're not above the law. Certainly, the Chief of Fire for the City of Cleveland is not above the law."
We spoke with city officials this morning who denied knowing anything about this, even though we were told they had a meeting with Fire Department representatives last week. And on Tuesday, attorneys say the city told them they didn’t see a problem with Calvillo’s actions.
The city said they would get back to us on the issue. They never did, in what has become common practice for this administration.
At 6:05pm though, after our story ran, Cleveland City Hall emailed us this statement:
"The Civil Service Commission’s Rules do not prohibit a City employee who is a member of the classified service from circulating a candidacy petition in a nonpartisan election. Cleveland’s Mayor is nominated in a nonpartisan primary election. The Charter gives the Civil Service Commission authority to adopt rules."
- Barbara Langhenry, Director of Law
We have attached the City of Cleveland's Charter spelling out the rules prohibiting civil service employees from taking part in political activity below: