Peabody parents: Dozing dispatcher doesn't deserve back pay

PEABODY — The firefighter who slept through their 911 call has his job back and will collect lost wages, and Traci and George Bisson aren't happy about it.

The police and an ambulance showed up to tend to the Bissons' sick infant early one morning in March 2005. The Fire Department was supposed to be there, as well, but dispatcher John Brophy wasn't awake to answer the call. Mayor Michael Bonfanti fired him soon after the incident, but an appeals court recently upheld the ruling of an arbitrator who found that punishment too harsh.

"I wish I could get paid for doing something wrong," Traci said yesterday. "I don't disagree with (Brophy) getting his job back, but I highly disagree with him getting back pay. You get in trouble and then you're rewarded for it, almost. It doesn't sit well with me."

It doesn't sit well with her husband, either. "What kind of message does that send to say, 'It's OK, here's your job back with all the money?" George said while sitting at the kitchen table in the couple's Moulton Road home. "What has to happen? Does somebody have to die? Do we have to lose a life? What line has to get crossed before there's a consequence?"

The amount Peabody has to pay Brophy and the date he will return to work are still to be determined, according to the city's lawyer.

"We have an obligation to try and get this done as soon as we can," Assistant City Solicitor Daniel Cocuzzo said.

A timely resolution helps limit what the city owes Brophy in back pay, he said. That total is also potentially reduced by subtracting all or a portion of the money Brophy might have earned working another job during his three years away from the Fire Department, Cocuzzo said.

The city is not on the hook for at least 30 days of Brophy's absence, which is the suspension length Arbitrator Robert O'Brien found to be an appropriate punishment.

Reached on his cell phone, Brophy said that the city had not yet contacted him about negotiating his reinstatement. He refused to add any further comment, and attempts to reach him later yesterday afternoon were unsuccessful.

On the night in question, police called the Fire Department dispatch center 15 times but received no response. Eventually, officers had to sound their sirens and pound on the fire station's locked doors to rouse Brophy.

The missed call was not Brophy's only infraction. He had a physical altercation with a fire captain during a fire at his father's house. The arbitrator, however, found that the subsequent five-day suspension given Brophy was unwarranted because Brophy was off-duty at the time of the incident.

Brophy, 45, also failed a drug test, but it was eventually tossed out because the testing method had not been agreed upon by the union. The failed test has had far-reaching effects on Peabody's firefighters, who must now submit to random drug testing, as well as drug testing after an incident and for cause.

That night in 2005, the 6-month-old was gasping for air. George feared he might have swallowed something. Traci, then a new mom, called the doctor.

"When the pediatrician tells you to call 911, you get even more nervous," she said.

"We have no bad feelings toward the Fire Department at all," Traci said. "We still think the firemen are heroes."

But they don't think Brophy should be paid for the time he missed. Traci called it the equivalent of a "paid vacation" funded by the taxpayers and the city.

"I believe in second chances," she said. "But I also don't believe in being rewarded for your irresponsibility."

Photos

It has been three years since George and Traci Bisson, with their son, Brendan, 3 Staff photo

Traci Bisson of Peabody reacts to news that firefighter John Brophy will be getting his job back, and securing back pay, after sleeping through a 911 call in March 2005. Staff photo