A top-ranking fire department official was demoted amid a sexual harassment probe. The city refuses to discuss the case.
Former Deputy Commissioner for Operations Anthony Hudgins — who had been the second-highest ranking official in the fire department — was recently demoted and reassigned.
A former top-ranking deputy with the Philadelphia Fire Department has been demoted amid two ongoing investigations into sexual harassment and overtime abuse, The Inquirer has learned.
Former Deputy Commissioner for Operations Anthony Hudgins — who had been the second-highest ranking official in the 2,800-member department — was recently downgraded to deputy fire chief and reassigned to the Incident Safety Office, according to spokespeople with the city and fire department. The demotion cut his annual salary by nearly 25%, from $202,550 to $155,106, payroll records show.
Hudgins was the subject of an array of sexual harassment allegations, which led the city to hire an outside law firm to investigate the claims and interview department personnel. In a May interview with The Inquirer, Hudgins called the probe baseless and claimed he was targeted with false allegations after uncovering rampant overtime fraud. He acknowledged that as many as 10 employees had lodged complaints against him. The city inked a $35,000 contract with the law firm Campbell Durrant to investigate the allegations.
Hudgins, a 30-year department veteran, did not respond to a request for comment this week.
The fire department has for decades faced allegations of pervasive sexual misconduct, and yet the Hudgins probe is significant in that it targeted a top-ranking department official. Although they acknowledged that Hudgins had been demoted, spokespeople for the city and fire department declined to confirm whether any of the allegations against him had been substantiated, citing the city’s policy to not discuss personnel issues.
» READ MORE: Harassment and overtime fraud probes collide at top levels of Philly Fire Department
Fire department leadership did not elaborate on the results of the investigation. A request for comment from Mayor Cherelle L. Parker resulted in a prepared statement from City Solicitor Renee Garcia, who said the city “takes any allegations of sexual harassment or fraud, including overtime fraud, very seriously.”
“We investigate any such allegations thoroughly and, if misconduct is found, we will take appropriate action to implement any warranted discipline expeditiously,” Garcia said.
The city has also declined to reveal whether any fire department employees have faced discipline as a result of the related investigation into alleged overtime abuse. Inspector General Alexander DeSantis — who as far back as January launched a probe into the overtime fraud claims — said his office’s investigation is “still ongoing and may be for some time.” He described the probe as “active” but declined to elaborate.
City officials have declined to release public records that would shed light on some of the fire department’s top overtime earners — and are taking The Inquirer to court in an effort to keep those records hidden.
In an affidavit submitted to the Office of Open Records, the agency that enforces state open-records laws, DeSantis argued that releasing the records to the paper would jeopardize his office’s investigation and that it could not release the files “without identifying or implying who may be directly involved in this investigation.” Records related to noncriminal investigations are exempt from release under Pennsylvania’s Right-to-Know Law.
The Office of Open Records ruled in May that The Inquirer is entitled to receive the records, which cannot be withheld simply because the OIG opened an investigation.
The city again declined to release the overtime sheets and instead appealed the OOR ruling to the Court of Common Pleas. In a 21-page brief filed in that case, attorneys for the city urged the court to vacate the OOR’s ruling on the grounds that releasing the records would raise questions about “the efficacy of investigations, witness confidentiality, and harm to reputation.”
The OIG probe has yet to publicly reveal any findings. DeSantis offered no timeline for its conclusion, and the results may not be made public even after the investigation ends.
The OIG’s stated mission is to “keep City government free from fraud, corruption, and misconduct,” but the office rarely releases specifics related to the outcome of its fraud investigations. Instead, it publishes an annual report summarizing the office’s work from the previous year.
The OIG has yet to release that report for 2024.
Staff writer Samantha Melamed and Ryan W. Briggs contributed to this article.