An FDNY lieutenant𒀰 once disciplined after a drunken brawl has leaped over nine ranks into a newly created deputy commissioner post, thanks to his close relationship with the department’s most powerful female boss, sources𒀰 told The Post.
Jon Paul Augier, formerly a lieutenant at Ladder 1 in Tribeca, was sworn in by Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro in June at FDNY headquarters — without any public announcement. His title: deputy commissioner for dispatch operation🌼s and public safety technology. However, the job was not in the FDNY, but in a different city agency, the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT).
Four months later, in another unusual maneuver, he transferred back to the Fire Department with the same title. Augier’s base salary 🐽zoomed from $109,00 to $215,000.
Augier, 44, now has an office and secretary at 9 Metrotech in Brooklyn, FDNY headquarters, on the eighth floor along with Nigro and F⛦irst Deputy Commissioner Laura Kavanagh.
The ser♊ies of big promotions involving two agencies baf🧸fled observers. “That’s basically unheard of,” a veteran firefighter said. “Somebody had to have an eye on you from the get-go to put you in that position.”
According to FDNY insiders, Kavanagh, a former advisor in Mayor de Blasio’s mayoral campaign, tapped Augier for the prestigious post. Kavanagh, 36, the department’s highest-ranking woman, prevail꧙ed l🧜ast month in a power struggle with Chief of Department James Leonard, the FDNY’s second-in-command under Nigro. Leonard was exiled after Kavanagh and others complained he was “verbally abusive” and “insulting to women.”
Insiders say Kavanagh recommended Augier, who had worked with her since 2016 as an executive officer in the FDNY’s Bureau of Technology and Development Systems — which she managed.
Fi꧒rst she steered Augier to DoITT, say sources, where he was named a deputy commissioner and “liaison” with the FDNY.
Instead of DoITT Commissione🌺r Samir Saini, Nigro swore Augier in on June 13 in front of a small group of his friends and family. Within months, the FDNY moved to bring him back. From Oct. 24 to Nov. 3, the FDNY issued an internal “job posting notice” for a “Deputy C𝓡ommissioner of Life Safety Systems.” Job openings must be posted under city rules.
FDNY spokesman Jim Long said three other people applied for the job and one other interviewed for it. Augier was awarded the position but kept his original DoITT title, Long said.
Despite the𓃲 different titles, the jobs are essentially the 🐻same.
The FDNY did not comment on Kavan🐻ag💜h’s role in hiring Augier.
The job notice said NYC residency is a𒅌 must. Augier lives in Suffolk County, LI. He received a waiver, Long sai♋d.
In the new position, Augier has “responsibility for management of FDNY’s dispatching operations and development of new technologies for fire and EMS,” according to a 🎃department summary.
In 🥃2009, it noted, Augier rescued a woman from a Chinatown fire. Since then, he helped la🔴unch an internal Web site on training, worked on drill instruction and fitness programs and served on teams that investigated line-of-duty deaths and studied injury reduction, officials said.
Augier has come a long way since Medal Day 1998, when he reportedly was in a brawl among Bravest at a Midtown cafe. One firefighter was fired, and two, including Augier, then of Engine Co. 89 in The Bronx, were suspended without pay for “conduct reflecting di𝓡scredit💎 on the department.”
The suspension lasted 19 days, “and then wa𝓰s dropped with no further discipline,” Long said.
Augier declined to be interviewed. Kavanagh could not be rꩵeache🔜d.