PORTLAND, Maine — On Tuesday morning, NEWS CENTER Maine received a tip that Portland City Manager Jon Jennings had planned to have a brick with his name on it removed from a firefighter memorial at Central Fire Station on Congress Street in Portland.
It was a move that took firefighters by surprise.
This monument, which is adjacent to the fire house, is to honor fallen firefighters.
It lists the names of 20 Portland firefighters killed in the line of duty.
On the path leading up to the memorial are bricks with supporters' names on them. The very first brick says City Manager Jon Jennings, who was a big supporter of the memorial.
Tuesday, we learned, the brick was slated to be removed.
Chris Thomson, the President of Portland Firefighters Local 740, was at the memorial.
He told our NEWS CENTER Maine crew, he had also heard that Jennings had asked city workers to remove the brick with his name on it from the memorial.
"Not sure what we've done to deserve this, but it's very upsetting."
Thomson says it's clear the fire department has fallen out of favor with the city manager.
He says it has to be the union's public objection to the city wanting to decommission Engine 1 on Munjoy Hill.
Many firefighters spoke out at a city council meeting back in May and urged city councilors to restore funding for the engine.
Their pleas did not sway the council. The council voted 6-3 to decommission Engine 1.
"Obviously we're down to four fire engines in the City of Portland. We've seen two cut off on Congress Street," said Thomson. "A second alarm requires five fire engines, and we now have four -- not sure why he would be upset that we would speak out against that."
Thomson says he also asked several times during the budget process to meet with the city's finance director, to talk about a solution to curb the fire department's costly overtime budget.
Thomson says hiring a new firefighter would be a much more cost effective option, at a starting salary of $18.75 an hour, than paying a veteran firefighter overtime at $40 an hour. Thomson says calls went unanswered.
"We weren't involved in the budget process," said Thomson. "We were excluded from conversations and denied an opportunity to speak to the finance director."
Thomson says the city manager's decision to remove the brick is personal and it hurts.
"This means a lot to us -- it's our guys. Jon has been supported -- I'm stunned. I don't feel like we did anything during those meetings that would have sparked such backlash."
After NEWS CENTER Maine's crew talked to Thomson, the public works crews who were waiting to remove the brick said they were told by someone not to do it.
When asked if it was because NEWS CENTER Maine showed up, one of the men nodded 'yes'.
NEWS CENTER Maine reached out to Jon Jennings for a comment, but we did not hear back from him. This story will be updated if we do.