The FDNY boss will be banned from dating their unders under new, long-term policies on job-related relationships, officials told the Post.
“Managers and supervisors are prohibited from engaging in romantic or intimate relationships with subordinates who they regularly supervise,” the directive issued this week said.
Under this policy, such couplings should be disclosed to a higher level so that one of the people can be transferred.
It states when someone who could be initiating a romantic relationship with a subordinate or “expects” that “both parties have an obligation to secretly notify the Deputy Chief of Human Capital,” he said.
That was FDNY's first such policy, as the legions of female firefighters rose steadily to 177, but still increased to less than 2% of a total of 11,030.
The policy also covers EMS staff (1,189 women in the power of 4,727) and civilian employees (624 women out of 2,010).
Violators are subject to discipline that may include dismissal.
FDNY hopes the new policy will reduce sexual harassment cases.
Of the 113 complaints of sex harassment in FDNY over the past five years, 22 have involved subordinates to supervisors, the spokesman said.
Of these, the department has demonstrated eight complaints, two under investigation.
Amid the scandal, the city agreed to pay $350,000 in 2020 M Angelina Pivanic, Staten Islandthe reality television “Jersey Shore” star complained that one supervisor had attacked her for sex, and another director sought out her.
When the ban was enacted for debate a few years ago, Laura Kabana served as FDNY's first female commissioner, but she did not enforce it, sources said.
“This was sitting on the previous commissioner's desk for a long time, so she ultimately didn't approve it,” an insider told the Post.
When a drill instructor at the Fire Academy began dating a provider of firefighters, one impetus for the ban emerged, and it became an open secret.
“It made people uncomfortable, but there were no written rules for that,” the official said. The drill instructor was moved to work with other proes.
The issue comes back after Robert Tucker became a fire commissioner last August, and after the Post exposed NYPD department head Jeffrey Madrid explosive allegations that he had requested sex from his subordinates in exchange for massive overtime.
Firefighters learned that the NYPD had enacted a policy in 2022 that banned sexual relations between bosses and subordinates.
It came right after the post broke the story about a video showing that he was getting a lap dance from the underling in the bar.
In 2022, the city paid FDNY paramedic Maria Miranda $205,000, when male colleagues and supervisors (protected by the department's “boys club”) attacked her with a penis photo and date request, and when she cleaned up a bloody ambulance and reported it to her.
The new policy will not prohibit relationships between members of the same rank working in the same unit or facility – but it raises eyebrows.
They say they are “encouraged to request a transfer.”
The FDNY Rules state that “managers and supervisors are not discouraged from engaging in romantic or sexual relations between managers and supervisors, even when they are agreed upon.”
