MEDFORD – The city of Medford is dealing with a mysterious abundance of sick calls within the fire department. The issue started the first Friday in February, when Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn said the fire chief alerted her a few days before he abruptly retired, saying about a dozen firefighters had called in sick. It got much worse the next day. “We had 21 firefighters out of 23, they called out for the day shift,” said the mayor.
Why there were so many sick calls is a mystery since the union settled on a contract back in November. Some wondered if it was a virus that required isolation, but the mayor said most of those who called in sick did show up for their evening shifts later, on the same date. That’s a requirement for them to be on the list to fill in when others call in sick, which would be an opportunity to make overtime pay.
“It was an orchestrated event. It had to be,” said Mayor Lungo-Koehn. She said over five days that week, the city had to pay more than $58,000 in overtime to cover the shifts.