JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

It would be nice to think that Donna Lake, chief of the Kansas City Fire Department since 2019, actually ran the department, wouldn’t it?

You know, like generals being in charge of armies and c.e.o.s running companies, you’d think the top person at the fire department would actually be in charge.

Well, as many of you well-informed readers know, the chief has some say in how the department is run, but the actual power — the people who call the shots — are the leaders of Local 42 of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

There’s no better example of the department’s upside-down management than the case of “Fire Apparatus Operator” Dominic Biscari, who killed three people last December after careening into the intersection of Broadway and Westport Road while on a fire run that had been called off.

Yes, called off. Canceled. Finished. At least it should have been finished, and Biscari’s foot should have been on the brake instead of the accelerator.

The fire dispatcher had instructed the responders to “stand down” about a minute before the crash — — a very long time in the world of emergency response — because the fire was under control.

But Cowboy Dominic was in no mood to slow down. He was at the wheel of 40,000-pound Pumper 19, speeding unnecessarily and driving recklessly, just as he had done in other, previous incidents.

In one such case, three months earlier, an EMT reported that Biscari, while driving an ambulance — the fire department runs the ambulance service — had accelerated to 70 mph on Broadway while transporting a critically ill patient. The complainant said Biscari was driving so fast and taking turns so hard that EMTs fell off their bench seat in the back.

The complainant also reported two other occasions when Biscari was speeding unnecessarily and driving recklessly.

The complaining EMT wrote: “I went home in physical and mental pain because of my shift yesterday. I will not be getting into another ambulance with [Biscari] ever again. Please something needs to be done. Not only for the safety of other personnel and other citizens but he is tearing up a brand new ambulance.”

And yet, on the night of Dec. 15, Biscari was once again at the wheel — this time of a fire engine — foot depressed on the accelerator, despite the order to “stand down.”

His giant, northbound rig collided full speed with an SUV driven by Jennifer San Nicolas, 41, and carrying a 25-year-old passenger named Michael Elwood. (San Nicolas and Elwood worked at the restaurant Ragazza, a few blocks to the east on Main Street.)

As the fire engine propelled the SUV onto the sidewalk, a woman named Tami Knight, also 41, was about to enter her vehicle on the northwest corner of Broadway and Westport.

The fire engine propelled the SUV and the three victims into the front of a brick building.

San Nicolas and Elwood were killed outright, and Knight was buried in a wall of bricks. She was in the rubble for 10 hours before being discovered by rescue workers who pulled out her out, dead.

**

Now, if Donna Lake was in charge of the fire department, she — or maybe a deputy chief — would have tried to demote or reassign Biscari to a non-driving position. He obviously had no business driving any kind of emergency vehicle. His record clearly announced that fact.

But rank and status in the fire department are sacrosanct. The fire union has made it that way by chipping away — quietly and relentlessly — year after year, City Council after City Council, at management’s power. City administrators go along because their bosses, the City Council members, don’t want to take on the union for one simple reason: the union is the largest and most powerful voting bloc in town.

If a candidate has the fire fighters’ endorsement, he or she has a big leg up over an opponent running without Local 42 support.

And woe betide any Council candidate who gets elected with union support and later has the gall to go against some concession the union wants. Such members will quickly get an “X” marked on their backs, and the union will do all in its power to take them out at the next election.

Fire chiefs traditionally play the same go-along-get-along game with the union; they enjoy their lofty titles but don’t do anything to upset the practical balance of power.

Consequently, a rogue fire apparatus operator was still at the wheel the night of Dec. 15, keeping his foot pressed on the accelerator for 60 long seconds after being told to “stand down.”

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The result of this is that a retired judge who is overseeing a civil suit against Biscari has determined that the victims’ relatives deserve to be paid $32 million by Biscari. That news came out yesterday.

The arbitration award is awaiting approval by a Jackson County Circuit Court judge, but as a practical matter, the chances of the families getting any substantial amount from a “fire apparatus operator” are remote. And whatever they end up getting, if anything, will not have to be paid by the city but by Biscari.

The city’s and the fire department’s day of reckoning is coming, however. The families have also filed suit against both entities, and one day a year or so from now we’ll be reading about a multi-million-dollar payout by the city.

On the criminal front, the Jackson County prosecutor’s office has been evaluating the case for months but has not filed charges so far.

…Will any of this change the Local 42/City Council dynamic? No, not at all. The lives of Jennifer San Nicolas, Michael Elwood and Tami Knight will soon be forgotten by everyone but their friends and families. But for incumbent City Council members and candidates who want on the Council, there will be campaigns to be run and endorsements needed.

Now and for a long time to come, no endorsement is or will be more pivotal in city politics than that of Local 42 of the International Association of Fire Fighters.