Tim Heaton, NYC Firefighter
Sep. 15th, 2022 12:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
transcriberbNew York City Committees on Oversight and Investigations & Civil Service and Labor
Gale A. Brewer, Chair
September 9, 2022
https://councilnyc.viebit.com/player.php?hash=U2mDNKAEkDJA
Source:
https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/Calendar.aspx
TRANSCRIPT
4:15:13
[Transcriber's Note: I was unable to verify the spelling of his last name.]
TIM HEATON: My name is Tim Heaton. I was a lieutenant in the FDNY [Fire Department of New York City] until I was terminated on July 6th, 33 days shy of celebrating my 23rd year. I've been on LWOP [leave without pay] since November 1st, having filed a religious exemption in October.
I grew up in Middletown, Pennsylvania, which is near Hershey. I started as volunteer in my local fire departments. FDNY guys would come out and teach classes and got me interested in working here. I left the Washington DC Fire Department in 1999 to pursue my dream of being a New York City fireman.
Sadly, that dream is taking a most serious turn in the last 2 years. In March of 2020 I was still a fireman at Engine 69 in Harlem. We were performing CPR on a daily basis, often several times per day. I was promoted to lieutenant in May of 2020 and every fire house I worked in in Lower Manhattan had numerous members out for covid. It was obvious there was no way I had not been exposed to covid, and whatever I was doing was working.
To say that we've been failed by those in leadership would be a huge understatement. From those that once banged pots and cheered at 7 PM, to unions that ignored sizable factions of their membership who do not want nor need the vaccine, to the leaders of the Fire Department itself, staff chiefs who went along with the coercion, the previous commissioner's abhorrent remarks, essentially calling us all scumbags, to the current one who continues to allow members to be terminated for not getting a vaccine that obviously does not do what they said it would.
We've seen what failed leadership is. It continues on an almost daily basis for Mayor Marie Antoinette's office as he exempts athletes and entertainers, but decrees to the people that actually live and work in this city, let them eat cake.
We are here asking for your help. We don't need heroes. There are thousands of heroes in the FDNY who do heroic things on a daily basis. What we need is someone in leadership to stand up for us. To champion us and our righteous cause and to simply allow all of us to do what we have been doing long before the last two years inexplicably altered our lives and our careers. Let us work.
4:17:19
[END]
> List of Transcriptions by Transcriber B (home page)
Gale A. Brewer, Chair
September 9, 2022
https://councilnyc.viebit.com/player.php?hash=U2mDNKAEkDJA
Source:
https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/Calendar.aspx
TRANSCRIPT
4:15:13
[Transcriber's Note: I was unable to verify the spelling of his last name.]
TIM HEATON: My name is Tim Heaton. I was a lieutenant in the FDNY [Fire Department of New York City] until I was terminated on July 6th, 33 days shy of celebrating my 23rd year. I've been on LWOP [leave without pay] since November 1st, having filed a religious exemption in October.
I grew up in Middletown, Pennsylvania, which is near Hershey. I started as volunteer in my local fire departments. FDNY guys would come out and teach classes and got me interested in working here. I left the Washington DC Fire Department in 1999 to pursue my dream of being a New York City fireman.
Sadly, that dream is taking a most serious turn in the last 2 years. In March of 2020 I was still a fireman at Engine 69 in Harlem. We were performing CPR on a daily basis, often several times per day. I was promoted to lieutenant in May of 2020 and every fire house I worked in in Lower Manhattan had numerous members out for covid. It was obvious there was no way I had not been exposed to covid, and whatever I was doing was working.
To say that we've been failed by those in leadership would be a huge understatement. From those that once banged pots and cheered at 7 PM, to unions that ignored sizable factions of their membership who do not want nor need the vaccine, to the leaders of the Fire Department itself, staff chiefs who went along with the coercion, the previous commissioner's abhorrent remarks, essentially calling us all scumbags, to the current one who continues to allow members to be terminated for not getting a vaccine that obviously does not do what they said it would.
We've seen what failed leadership is. It continues on an almost daily basis for Mayor Marie Antoinette's office as he exempts athletes and entertainers, but decrees to the people that actually live and work in this city, let them eat cake.
We are here asking for your help. We don't need heroes. There are thousands of heroes in the FDNY who do heroic things on a daily basis. What we need is someone in leadership to stand up for us. To champion us and our righteous cause and to simply allow all of us to do what we have been doing long before the last two years inexplicably altered our lives and our careers. Let us work.
4:17:19
[END]
> List of Transcriptions by Transcriber B (home page)
