Show FIRE AND POLICE BOARD I S Cases of Two Discharged Firemen Fire-men Come Up t DEVINE FILES HIS CHARGES S MAKES A SUPlJjBirDVTAIj STATEMENT STATE-MENT = TO THE BOARD 1 Both Clark und Byrne Deny Everything Every-thing and Demand u Hearing Billing of thc Board Special Police Po-lice 1ovrcr Routine Matters DhI S Posed Of The board of fire and police commissioners commis-sioners met in regular session last Jiight all members present Alter the reading of the minutes the communication from the city council relative to the adoption of the finance committees report adding another desk sergeant to the present force i was read As the matter is now in the hands of the city attorney who will draft an ordinance no steps were taken to appoint anyone to fill the position Commissioner Cohn reported that J179 95 was in the hands of Chief De I I vine the amount beIng derived from the sale of old hose and from fines An order was made requiring the amount to be turned over to the fire committee which is composed of Commissioner Com-missioner Cohn to be deposited to his credit In some bank NO TYPEWRITER FOR DEVINE Mr Cohn also recommended that the file department be supplied with a typewriter at a cost not to exceed 75 S Commissioners Noble and Jennings could not understand what possible use the fire department had for a typewriter type-writer S Mr Cohn said the chief had a great deal of correspondence in connection wan tee coming lire chiefs convention conven-tion I dont think there is an office in the I city rejoined Chief Devine that has S more work for a typewriter than my office The other membeis did not think so S for both Messrs Noble and Jennings f xotPd against purchasing the machine and so Mr Devine must be content to drive the quill instead of manipulating the keys SPECIAL POLICE POWER When a communication from City Recorder Emery was read notifying the board that Dog Catcher Davis had qualified for the position and asking that special police power be conferred upon him the question was brought up whether the board has the authority t f author-ity to confer special police power < Chairman Varian was of the opinion that the board had no such power and pending an investigation several requests re-quests for special authority were laid over In the case of the dog catcher it was not deemed necessary that he J should carry a star and accordingly his request was denied FIREMAN CLARKS DISCHARGE A communication from the thief of S the fire department relative to the discharge S dis-charge of Fireman J J Clark was then S read as follows To the Hon Chairman and Members 5 of the Board of Fire and Police CornS Corn-S mission I S GentlemenI beg leave to report that on April 7 1S96 I dismissed J J Clark J from the fire department The imme t dlate cause was that onthe day abovementioned above-mentioned the said Clark was guilty S of using obscene profane disrespectful 5 5 impudent and other improper language in and about the headquarters of the fire department 5 That on the said occasion he was under un-der the influence of intoxicating liquor and acted in a grossly insubordinate disrespectful and disobedient mannerS manner-S ignoring the orders of the chief andS and-S the rules of the department Respectfully I I 1 JAMES DEVINE Chief Engineer EFFECT OF THE NEW LAW Chairman Varian said the suspension or discharge came under the new lawS law-S So far as he knew there were no rules governing such an emergency but in the absence of these there ought to be 1 a reviewal of the case at least that was the contemplation of the new lawS law-S The chief had power to make rules governing the discipline o > l the de 5 partment but the board must make such rules governing suspensions discharges dis-charges etc Commissioner Cohn believed that the new law contemplated that the chiefs S S action In such matters should be finalS final-S and that unless the board by a majority majori-ty vote decided to review the case the t S chiefs action must be final r Chairman Varian thought that a man who desired a hearing had a right tc expect that the board review the case He did not think the law construed a review to mean a hearing hut simply a statement from both parties interested inter-ested S As Chief Devine as well as Clark andS r and-S Byrne the discharged men were present r pres-ent an opportunity was given them to make a statement to the board THE CHIEFS STATEMENT z Chief Devine stated that they had ket returned from a run and he was standing in front of the entrance i Clark was standing from sixteen to I twenty feet away There were quite ft I C S a number of people on the sidewalk I 1t nt the time The chief was standIng I ll4 f and conversing with a gentleman r when Clark looked toward him and I made usf of some foul expressions the 5 exact language of which the chief I I H repeated The chief then asked Mr Clark into th office and discharged him1 Clark r made objections and the chief tlfn told him to get out of the office that S he would give him fifteen minutes InS t in-S which to vacate the premises S CLARK DENIES IT ALL t Mr Clark who was present said he 1 i S Denied all that the chief had said and i5 had witnesses to prove that he used t S no such language The whole affair was spite work he said on the part of ti the chief who had always borne a K dislike to him I t > BYRNE WANTS A HEARING I Fireman Byrne who was dismissed i from the department shortly after Clarks discharge appeared before the 1 board and asked that he be given a j hearing He could prove that the I S charge of using abusive language top i to-p Lieutenant McCarthy was false He I had witnesses to prove it I Chairman Varian informed both men is that the board would take the matterS matter-S under consideration and decide whether to review the cases EXECUTIVE SESSION k The board then went into 5 executive session and considered the matter When the door was S thrown open again Chief Devine entered and was informed that the board had decided that all suspensions S or discharges by the chief whether of S regular men or substitutes must be S S followed by an explanation to the I board In the case of Mr Byrne the S board would expect the chief to tileS tile-S the reasons for making the discharge f S toy next Monday night No decision t 5 5 was arrived at whether the cases will be reviewed S The usual batch of bills were al S lowed those of the police departmentS department-S Amounting to 70SO while the bills al 5 lowed for the tire department S aggregated I aggre-gated 7C934 Of this latter sum 460 iD U was for the newly completed hose wason Adjournment was then taken until next Monday f |