Two couples in the Salisbury Fire Department have learned that their marital status within
the department will be in violation of a new city personnel policy effective Oct. 1.Reed and Crystal Linn and Eric and Tamara
Earnhardt received notification Sept. 14 that one person from each couple will have to
leave the department by Oct. 1, 2000.
“How are we going to do
that?” Tamara Earnhardt says. “Am I going to fire my husband, or is he going to
fire me?”
The personnel decisions in the
fire department follow similar moves City Manager David Treme initiated earlier this year
in the Salisbury Police Department.
In the firefighters’ case,
they have been told that a new personnel policy will not allow married couples to work in
the same department anywhere in city government, and there will be no grandfather
provision for couples already married within a department.
“We weren’t the
problem,” Crystal Linn says of the fire department couples. “We didn’t
cause the problem and still they won’t grandfather us. We stand to lose so
much.”
Treme and city human resources
director Melissa Taylor have declined comment on the fire department couples, citing it as
a personnel issue.
In late April, Treme gave
identification specialist Tonya Wilhelm and evidence technician Debbie Belk a year to find
jobs outside the police department because they are married to Capts. Mark Wilhelm and
David Belk, respectively.
Tonya Wilhelm has since taken a
job with the Kannapolis Police Department. Debbie Belk now works for the Rowan Clerk of
Court.
The women strongly opposed being
asked to leave their jobs, and both had excellent job records. But Treme overrode existing
personnel policies and moved to address the marriages within the police department before
new Police Chief Chris Herring inherited the situation. Treme viewed the marriages in
relation to the men’s important supervisory roles as a potential hindrance to the
department’s operations.
With the firefighters, the city
apparently is establishing a new policy. The current policy — the one that applied to
both the Linns and the Earnhardts — reads as follows, under the heading,
“Working with Relatives:”
“Two members of an immediate
family may not be employed in the same department or administrative unit at the same time.
If two employees working in the same department marry one another, they will be allowed to
remain in their department, provided that one does not directly or indirectly supervise,
assign work or lead the other.”
Adopted in 1991, the policy was
not made retroactive to married couples already working in the same city department,
including, up until this year, the Wilhelms and Belks.
As explained to the fire
department couples, the new policy will not allow married couples in the same department
period.
Both the Linns and Earnhardts now
work within the boundaries of the 1991 policy. Each of the couples married within the
department since the 1991 policy took effect, but in each case one spouse was not
supervising the other.
“Our situation is nothing
like the police department,” Tamara Earnhardt says.
Firefighters work a 24-hour shift
on duty, followed by a 48-hour period off. Each of the Linns is a captain, so neither
supervises the other. In fact, they are on separate shifts and at different stations.
Crystal Linn works the
“A” shift at Station 53 on West Innes Street. Reed Linn, a training captain,
works the “B” shift at Station 51 on East Innes Street. They only see each other
at home every third day.
The Earnhardts are both fire
control specialists. Tamara works at Station 53. Eric works at Station 52 on South Main
Street. Neither are in supervisory roles.
The Linns have been married three
years. Together, they have 27 years of experience with the Salisbury Fire Department. When
they were considering marriage, they went to Fire Chief Sam Brady to determine if the city
would allow both of them to keep their jobs.
With Brady, they examined the
personnel policy and were told by Brady their positions and schedules shouldn’t pose
any problem.
“And there hasn’t
been,” Crystal Linn said.
The Earnhardts have been married
for almost a year, but they also considered their employment as allowed under the 1991
policy.
On Sept. 14, the Linns and
Earnhardts met with Taylor, Brady and Assistant Chief Rick Fesperman and learned of the
policy change and their year’s deadline to make a move. Tamara Earnhardt and Crystal
Linn said they were told that married couples within a department put restrictions on
management in terms of staffing and scheduling.
As was done with the women in the
police department, the city has offered to place whomever of the couples leaves the fire
department in other city jobs, or do what it can to help with employment outside the city.
Crystal Linn says the drawbacks
are many. With other positions in the city, she could keep her same salary but not the
same salary range, she says. If her pay topped out for another position, she could only
receive lump-sum merit pay raises over the rest of her career, she says.
Moving to another fire department
will mean trying to progress again from the bottom up, the couples say. They also express
concern over the loss or having to leave city retirement and firefighter pension plans.
The Earnhardts have a combined 15
years of experience with the Salisbury Fire Department.
“Why should the taxpayers
have to train new people when they have experienced people and it’s not a
problem,” Tamara Earnhardt says. “There’s nothing in any of our personnel
files — not one little smidgen about our marriage being a problem.”
The fire department must deal with
all kinds of restrictions when it comes to staffing a station and its equipment, Crystal
Linn says, adding that a married couple would be way down the list and, in her case, not a
restriction at all.
A firefighter with poor eyesight
may not be able to drive a truck or be part of a hazardous materials team that wears a
safety suit, she gives as examples.
This past Tuesday, the couples sat
on the front row during Salisbury City Council’s meeting. They didn’t speak, but
they wanted council members to see them.
“We’re wanting the
council to listen to our side and listen to what we have to say,” Crystal Linn says.
“To look at what they’re losing and see how difficult it is to get
firefighters.”
Tamara Earnhardt adds, “The
City Council needs to know how much this is going to affect us.”
Council members have steered clear
of the issue because it involves a personnel matter over which Treme has ultimate control
in the council-manager form of government.
The couples are involved in
firefighting and rescue work outside the city department. Reed Linn serves as Landis fire
chief. The Earnhardts are volunteers with Locke Fire Department.
“It would kill either one of
us to have to leave the department,” Crystal Linn says. “The career field we
have chosen is firefighting. This is not just a job. This is a lifestyle.” |
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