Cleveland Firefighters Sue City, Ask for Court Order to Remove Chief

CLEVELAND—Cleveland’s firefighters’ union filed an affidavit Friday with Cleveland Municipal Court accusing Fire Chief Angelo Calvillo of breaking the law by helping with Mayor Frank Jackson’s re-election campaign.

By swearing out a misdemeanor criminal charge against the chief, the union is attempting to force the city to prosecute the chief for violating the city charter.

The union contends the chief violated civil service rules in Cleveland’s charter, violations that would constitute a misdemeanor crime and would be grounds for dismissal.

“We are taking the citizens route, which is allowed by the Ohio Revised Code," attorney Joseph Diemert told cleveland.com.

Diemert represents the Association of Cleveland Fire Fighters, Local 93 of the International Association of Fire Fighters. He filed the affidavit Friday morning with the Cleveland Municipal Clerk of Courts.

You can read the affidavit here

The Revised Code provides that the charge be reviewed by a judge, who could refer it to the Cleveland prosecutor. If that happens, Diemert said, the union will ask the prosecutor’s office to step away from the case, citing a conflict of interest.

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Cleveland’s prosecutors are employees of Law Director Barbara Langhenry, who already has said she disagrees with the union’s position.

The action is the latest in a dispute between the Association of Cleveland Fire Fighters and Mayor Frank Jackson’s administration over complaints they have with the chief.

On Thursday, the union sued the city, asking that a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge order the city to enforce terms of Cleveland’s charter that prohibit civil service employees from engaging in political activity.

“To date, Chief Calvillo remains as fire chief and the defendants have failed and refused to remove him from his position of employment …,” the suit says.

“Defendants’ failure to remove the Chief Calvillo for his conduct constitutes a continuing failure of each of the defendants to enforce a public right to a democratic and unbiased government comprised of trustworthy government actors.”

The union says Calvillo violated a charter provision that says civil service employees may not “act as an officer of a political organization or take part in a political campaign, … or circulate or seek signatures to any petition provided for by primary or election laws, or act as a worker in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office.”

Violating that provision is a misdemeanor crime, punishable with a fine up to $1,000, up to six months in jail and immediate dismissal as a city employee, the charter says.

Calvillo testified at a deposition in 2017 that while off duty early that year he helped circulate petitions for Jackson’s re-election.

Langhenry on Wednesday issued a response to the union in which she disputed the union’s legal analysis and said the chief did nothing improper.

“The cases upon which you rely involve activities that are different from circulating a nominating petition in a non-partisan election,” Langhenry wrote. “You are raising an issue about whether a person may voluntarily and on his own time circulate a petition to nominate a person for candidacy in a non-partisan election."

Despite the tensions over the legal dispute, operations in the fire houses have continued as normal and fire personnel are continuing to do their jobs, said Francis Lally, president of Local 93. Lally is a lieutenant in the fire department.

“All we are asking for is for the administration to hold the chief to the same standards as the rest of us,” Lally said.

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