Opinion ID: 526031
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Zone Fire Chiefs

Text: Figueroa-Rodriguez v. Lopez-Rivera 22 The plaintiffs in Figueroa-Rodriguez each held the position of Zone Fire Chief. Puerto Rico's Fire Department is an island-wide, rather than a municipal, organization. The Department is headed by a Fire Chief, and, reporting to this Chief are four Zone Fire Chiefs, each responsible for one-quarter of the island. Plaintiff Figueroa was the Metropolitan Zone Chief, responsible for San Juan, Rio Piedras, Bayamon and Carolina. He supervised 553 employees. Plaintiff Roig was Chief of the Central Fire Zone, responsible for Caguas, Guayama and Humacao; he supervised 312 employees. Each Zone Chief held one of the twelve Fire Department positions classified as positions of trust. 23 The undisputed job description for Zone Fire Chief describes the job as comprising: 24
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26 3. [F]ormulation of the policies to be followed with respect to the prevention and extinction of fires. 27 4. [D]irect supervision over the Chiefs of the District Firemen in their zone and generally over the remaining personnel of the ... Department assigned to the zone. 28 The description adds that the Zone Fire Chief [p]erforms his functions with entire freedom of criteria. 29 The job description goes on to enumerate as typical examples of the job the following: 30 1. Plans, directs, supervises and coordinates the activities of the Fire Department in the Zone under his command. 31 2. Supervises the personnel assigned to his zone. 32 3. Sets forth the work plans of the zone and gives follow-up to the same. 33 4. Directs the task of fire extinction and rescue work in his area. 34 5. Edits and reviews correspondence and reports on fires and other required aspects of the job. 35 6. Interprets the laws, regulations and norms applicable to the job. 36 7. Assumes command over all the fire extinction operations in his zone, unless relieved by the Chief or Assistant Chief of the Fire Department. 37 8. Maintains a system of work shifts of the Officers assigned to the districts comprised within the zone. 38 9. Insures that the fire equipment assigned to the zone is always maintained in optimum working conditions. 39 10. Visits and effects periodic inspections of the fire stations in the zone. 40 11. Coordinates a plan for inspecting fire hydrants with the Chiefs of District Firemen under his supervision. 41 12. Coordinates with the Chiefs of District Firemen under his supervision, a plan for effecting inspection visits on factories, businesses, industries and other facilities in the zone as part of the fire prevention program. 42 13. Prepares reports for the Chief and the Assistant Chief of the agency on the work performed in the zone. 43 In our view, the Zone Chief, rather like a typical Fire Chief in a large city, holds a job that potentially concern[s] matters of partisan political interests. Mendez-Palou, supra. The planning of Fire Department activities, the formulation of fire prevention ... policies, the direct[ion] ... of extinction and rescue work (all to be carried out with entire freedom of criteria), do not sound like purely technical or scientific tasks, particularly given that a major fire (such as the fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan) can produce critical, and public, reexamination of whether, for example, the Department devoted adequate resources to safety checks, whether it had the capacity to respond rapidly enough, or whether it distributed its resources and services efficiently and sensibly among different neighborhoods. High level officials of major service-oriented departments in municipal and state government must adequately take into account competing public needs, matching them with available resources. They must react with sensitivity to anticipated, or actual, public criticisms of their decisions--all of which is to say that they have politically sensitive jobs. As the court in Tomczak v. City of Chicago, 765 F.2d 633 (7th Cir.1985) recognized, to believe that a high official in a (technical-sounding) water department, sewer authority, parks department, or similar activity need not possess these qualities is to fail to understand the realities of local political life. Of course, we recognize that a fire department, like a police department, is an agency that is mostly concerned with public safety and law enforcement. But, we do not believe that fact alone a sufficient distinction to make a difference, at least not in respect to quite high officials who must respond sensitively to the public, and therefore take account of the public's perceptions of the manner in which the department fulfills its responsibilities. 44 We add that the job description before us shows that the Zone Fire Chief possesses more than a modicum of policymaking responsibility. He is, in fact, the alter ego of the Chief in the zone under his supervision. See Juarbe-Angueira, supra (regional director of Building Authority); Roman-Melendez v. Inclan, 826 F.2d 130 (1st Cir.1987) (regional director of the General Services Administration); Echevarria v. Gracia-Anselmi, 823 F.2d 696 (1st Cir.1987) (regional director of Right to Employment Administration); Perez-Quintana v. Gracia-Anselmi, 817 F.2d 891 (1st Cir.1987) (same); Raffucci-Alvarado, supra (regional director of the Department of Social Services); Alicea-Rosado, supra (same); Monge-Vazquez v. Rohena-Betancourt, 813 F.2d 22 (1st Cir.1987) (regional director of Department of Natural Resources); Collazo-Rivera v. Torres Gaztambide, 812 F.2d 258 (1st Cir.1986) (regional director of the Rural Housing Administration for the Department of Housing); Jimenez-Fuentes v. Torres-Gaztambide, supra (regional director of Urban Development and Housing Corporation). 45 In sum, the jobs in question fit within Mendez-Palou 's criteria. Nothing in the Supreme Court's Elrod/Branti opinions, or their examples of football coach and assistant public defender, permits the conclusion that a job with major civic responsibilities, such as a Zone Fire Chief, clearly fell outside their exception.