METHUEN — Veteran firefighter Tracy Blanchette has been promoted to captain after a state board said she had been wrongfully passed over for the promotion previously.
City councilors this week approved the promotion at the request of fire chief Tim Sheehy, who shared details about Blanchette’s firefighting career, noting that her husband, David Blanchette, and father, Dennis Ouellette, are respectively retired firefighters from Lawrence and Methuen.
“I want to congratulate Tracy on her promotion and welcome her to her new role as Captain with the Methuen Fire Department,” Sheehy said Thursday.
Councilor Steve Saba offered his immediate congratulations to Blanchette.
“I know the road has been tough for her,” he said.
In November, the Civil Service Commission ruled in favor of Blanchette, saying she had been passed over for promotion from private to captain because she is a woman, as well as because of departmental patronage.
The decision also required that she be paid back pay at a captain’s salary level dating back to February 2019, when she was passed over for a position.
It was unclear on Thursday how much Blanchette would receive in back pay.
Blanchette and other witnesses testified before the commission that a “reciprocal employment culture” that is available to male, but not female, firefighters exists at the Methuen Fire Department, according to the ruling.
According to the decision, Blanchette said she was bypassed for a promotion in favor of Matthew Tulley, a close friend of the chief, and further ostracized in the department.
The city’s first female firefighter to join the department in 1993, Blanchette also filed a sex discrimination lawsuit in Essex Superior Court in November 2020, seeking $2.75 million in damages for back pay, lost wages, pension benefits and emotional distress.
This lawsuit arose out of his complaint to the Public Service Commission.
Blanchette holds an associate’s degree in fire science from North Shore Community College and graduated from the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy in 1995.
During her career at MFD, Blanchette served as the department’s paramedic and worked at various fire stations around the city.
Blanchette was working Tuesday night when her promotion was approved by city council, Sheehy said.
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