A judge will hear a second round of oral arguments in a lawsuit over Jamestown firefighters working too long in temporary job classifications on July 31.

State Supreme Court Justice Stephen Cass heard oral arguments in the Jamestown Professional Firefighters Association’s lawsuit against the city on April 1 after several arguments had been filed with the court. The lawsuit was originally filed March 10 by the firefighters. The firefighters argue the city is consistently leaving management positions such as battalion chief, captain, and lieutenant unfilled with permanent appointments, and instead filling them with temporary appointments when there isn’t an emergency situation that would require the temporary job title change.

Firefighters say the practice violates the state Civil Service Law while the city argued the issue first needs to be heard in arbitration according to the union’s contract with the city. collective bargaining talks between the city and union.

“When a triable issue of fact is raised, it would be erroneous to grant movant’s request relief without a hearing,” Cass wrote in a decision issued recently in state Supreme Court. “The court finds that because the petitioning and responding papers raised material issues of fact, it must conduct a hearing to determine said factual issues.”

Elliot Raimondo, city corporation counsel, said during an earlier filing in the case that the city agrees that assigning employees in acting positions is not the preferred method of operation, but the city in making these appointments is in compliance with the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and state law. The response also states that there are many changes occurring with regard to the structure of the Fire Department that can only occur in a specific sequence. This has led to a delay in certain appointments being made, but the response says that the city is near the end of this process and anticipates all structural changes with department leadership to be finalized in the coming weeks.

Currently, the city has 13 Lieutenant positions with five vacancies, and the city says that permanent appointment into a position does not automatically guarantee that they are properly trained. According to the response, two appointed Lieutenants are not scheduled to attend the required training until September 2026, and the city has no control over the scheduling of these trainings or how many are allowed to attend — adding that historically it can take six months to a year for a newly appointed Lieutenant to be able to take the necessary training.

The response cites the five individuals currently serving as acting Lieutenant have anywhere from over nine to over 17 years of experience in the Jamestown Fire Department.

The firefighters union, meanwhile, is asking the court to require the city to appoint and assign captains, lieutenants and battalion chiefs as well as an award of back pay and benefits, court costs and attorneys fees.

According to a memorandum of law filed by DeAngelo , Civil Service Law section 64 provides limited and carefully circumscribed rights to temporary appointments, which DeAngelo argued cannot occur to cover routine recurring vacancies which are non-urgent in nature. Article V Section 6 of the New York State Constitution also notes in part that appointments and promotions in civil service positions “shall be made according to merit and fitness ascertained, as far as practicable, by examination which, as far as practicable, shall be competitive.”

Another document filed by DeAngelo shows the amount of shifts worked by firefighters in the city acting out of class as Battalion Officers or Lieutenants. In January 2025 there were 116 shifts, February 2025 111 shifts, March 2025 110 shifts, April 2025 131 shifts, May 2025 133 shifts, June 2025 137 shifts, July 2025 143 shifts, August 2025 126 shifts, September 2025 137 shifts, October 2025 146 shifts, November 2025 180 shifts, December 2025 161 shifts, and January 2026 150 shifts. In total the document says there were 1,781 total shifts and 21,372 hours acted out of class in the last 13 months.