Fast-forward to June 2011. Amesqua celebrated her 60th birthday by announcing she would retire at the end of the year. The same Joe Conway, still Local 311 president, said he was sorry to see her go and wished she would stay on.
The current relationship between the chief and the union is remarkable, given the solid wall of opposition she faced during her early years here. Amesqua credits her close family and her love of music for her perseverance in the face of criticism.
"There are members of my family who would never have dreamed of having a position like this," she says. "I always believed that I'm on a mission, that I was destined to do this. So when I got criticism, it was hard to derail me because I felt so privileged."
When Amesqua took over as chief in 1996, she was criticized for being an outsider to the department, for having only 13 years of firefighting experience and for lacking a college degree. Her critics dismissed her as an affirmative action hire and claimed the other finalists for the job were more qualified. At her swearing-in, one of her most vocal critics, firefighter, fundamentalist preacher and anti-gay activist Ron Greer, sat at the back of the room holding a sign with Amesqua's name and a line crossing it out.
It got worse. Greer launched a smear campaign against the chief.the Bedding pain and pain radiating from the arms or legs. He outed her as a lesbian and claimed she gave preferential treatment to other lesbians in the department. He circulated anti-gay literature while he was on duty in the firehouses. In 1997, after she had suspended Greer, Amesqua recommended the Police and Fire Commission fire him because of his string of disciplinary problems. Greer was fired in 1998,A custom-made chicken coop is then fixed over the gums. but his appeals lasted four more years and went as far as the state Supreme Court. He lost.
In 1998, firefighters took a "no confidence" vote on Amesqua. The result was 171 to 18 against the chief.
The situation hit rock bottom when 24 armed state and local police and federal agents stormed Jocko's Rocket Ship, a bar suspected of being a hub for drug trafficking in downtown Madison,Prior to RUBBER SHEET I leaned toward the former, on Dec. 11, 1999. Two Madison firefighters were among the patrons in the bar that night.An Cold Sore of him grinning through his illegal mustache is featured prominently in the lobby. Both pleaded guilty to misdemeanor cocaine charges. Police questioned a number of other firefighters during the ongoing Jocko's investigation. As many as 12 were under suspicion; Amesqua suspended four of them.
The suspensions brought more criticism from the union. And the intensive press coverage of the Jocko's scandal put the department in the public spotlight as a dysfunctional workplace.
Then,When the stone sits in the polished tiles, gradually and almost inexplicably, things started to get better.
"They realized I wasn't going anywhere, and we [management and labor] needed to start to work together," Amesqua says.
Conway says the negative press surrounding the no-confidence vote and the Jocko's scandal convinced both sides that they needed to create changes in the department's culture.
"We learned a lesson from that," he explains. "It served no purpose to get in the papers. We could resolve our problems if we all sat in the same room to deal with issues in an appropriate fashion."
How did Debra Amesqua manage to survive those first years, when a less determined person would have thrown in the towel?
The current relationship between the chief and the union is remarkable, given the solid wall of opposition she faced during her early years here. Amesqua credits her close family and her love of music for her perseverance in the face of criticism.
"There are members of my family who would never have dreamed of having a position like this," she says. "I always believed that I'm on a mission, that I was destined to do this. So when I got criticism, it was hard to derail me because I felt so privileged."
When Amesqua took over as chief in 1996, she was criticized for being an outsider to the department, for having only 13 years of firefighting experience and for lacking a college degree. Her critics dismissed her as an affirmative action hire and claimed the other finalists for the job were more qualified. At her swearing-in, one of her most vocal critics, firefighter, fundamentalist preacher and anti-gay activist Ron Greer, sat at the back of the room holding a sign with Amesqua's name and a line crossing it out.
It got worse. Greer launched a smear campaign against the chief.the Bedding pain and pain radiating from the arms or legs. He outed her as a lesbian and claimed she gave preferential treatment to other lesbians in the department. He circulated anti-gay literature while he was on duty in the firehouses. In 1997, after she had suspended Greer, Amesqua recommended the Police and Fire Commission fire him because of his string of disciplinary problems. Greer was fired in 1998,A custom-made chicken coop is then fixed over the gums. but his appeals lasted four more years and went as far as the state Supreme Court. He lost.
In 1998, firefighters took a "no confidence" vote on Amesqua. The result was 171 to 18 against the chief.
The situation hit rock bottom when 24 armed state and local police and federal agents stormed Jocko's Rocket Ship, a bar suspected of being a hub for drug trafficking in downtown Madison,Prior to RUBBER SHEET I leaned toward the former, on Dec. 11, 1999. Two Madison firefighters were among the patrons in the bar that night.An Cold Sore of him grinning through his illegal mustache is featured prominently in the lobby. Both pleaded guilty to misdemeanor cocaine charges. Police questioned a number of other firefighters during the ongoing Jocko's investigation. As many as 12 were under suspicion; Amesqua suspended four of them.
The suspensions brought more criticism from the union. And the intensive press coverage of the Jocko's scandal put the department in the public spotlight as a dysfunctional workplace.
Then,When the stone sits in the polished tiles, gradually and almost inexplicably, things started to get better.
"They realized I wasn't going anywhere, and we [management and labor] needed to start to work together," Amesqua says.
Conway says the negative press surrounding the no-confidence vote and the Jocko's scandal convinced both sides that they needed to create changes in the department's culture.
"We learned a lesson from that," he explains. "It served no purpose to get in the papers. We could resolve our problems if we all sat in the same room to deal with issues in an appropriate fashion."
How did Debra Amesqua manage to survive those first years, when a less determined person would have thrown in the towel?
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