Ronnie Polaneczky: The firefighter, the commissioner and the double standard

Editor's note: This article has been corrected from an earlier version.

SOMETHING about Nipplegate smelled like tar on a burning roof.

It was one thing for Philly Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers to reprimand firefighter Jack Slivinski because he posed shirtless last week for a charity beefcake calendar called "The Nation's Bravest."

It's the prerogative of the commish to define his department's standards of public decorum, which apparently prohibit firefighters from displaying their uncovered mammaries.

"We get letters from children. They look up to us," Ayers told the Daily News last week. "We cannot [be] showing nipples in photographs of Philadelphia firefighters."

I thought he would've been more disapproving of the way Slivinski's low-slung pants barely covered the old fire hose. But maybe the commissioner is a breast man.

But what really stank was Ayers' sending Slivinski from a longtime position with Rescue 1 - an elite, FEMA-certified unit at 4th and Girard that conducts daring rescues throughout the city - to Engine 54 in West Philly, where the young firefighter was banished until he met face-to-face with the commissioner yesterday.

The Fire Department had charged Slivinski with conduct unbecoming a firefighter. But after investigating Nipplegate from all angles, Ayers decided that Slivinski's actions didn't warrant harsh discipline.

Slivinski got a tough talking-to about making smarter decisions in the future and was told that he could resume his old post at Rescue 1 tomorrow.

It was a sensible ending, the right ending, but I couldn't help but wonder: Was it wise to deny citizens access to the services of a highly trained firefighter in a city battered by firehouse closings and brownouts?

"He's not Lloyd Ayers; he's Lord Ayers," one fed-up department veteran said of the commissioner's rebuke of Slivinski (who-listen up, ladies - is 31, straight and single). "He's just p----- that homage wasn't paid."

The vet was referring to the fact that Slivinski didn't ask Ayers' permission before posing for New York photographer Katherine Kostreva, who is also snapping shots of 11 other big-city firefighters for a calendar that she will begin selling at the end of the year.

All of the proceeds are going to charity. Slivinski and Bill Gault, president of Fire Fighters Local 22, wanted Philly's share of the proceeds to benefit the widows of fallen firefighters.

Gault says that he gave Slivinski the OK to pose for the calendar.

"I should have called the commissioner and let him know, and I didn't," Gault (who didn't return my calls) told my colleague Dave Gambacorta last week.

Benefiting widows is a cause close to Slivinski's heart. In 2004, his firefighter friend Lt. Derrick Harvey died while attempting to rescue Slivinski and another firefighter who'd gotten trapped while battling a house fire.

Slivinski and the other firefighter survived. Harvey did not.

"He gave his life to come back and find me," says Slivinski, whose father was an original member of Engine 1, which was founded in 1991. Slivinski sleeps in what was once his dad's bed in the firehouse and uses his dad's old locker.

On Sunday, photographer Kostreva bused down from New York to collect signatures on a petition requesting Slivinski's return to Engine 1. She circulated among the crowds at the SundayOut! festival at The Piazza in Northern Liberties, where Slivinski works part time as a sous chef at Appolinare restaurant.

A thousand people signed the petition, and nearly 400 people supported Slivinski's return to Engine 1 on a Facebook page called "Mr. Philly Jack Slivinski."

"I'm shocked by the support," says Slivinski. "It makes me feel great."

You know what would have felt even greater? If Ayers would have just realized that Nipplegate (and, yeah, that's what firefighters are calling this silly dustup) happened because of an honest mistake, and wasn't worth a big drama.

I mean, it's not like the commissioner doesn't understand what it's like to have his own innocent behavior similarly misunderstood.

Ayers recently promoted an independent Philly store whose website's home page might be considered racy by those offended by exposed nipples.

Black and Nobel is a North Philly book/video/music shop near Broad and Erie that the commissioner patronizes, if we're to believe a YouTube video featuring Ayers.

"[I come to] Black and Nobel for all of my intellectual sources, whether it's videos, tapes, music, a book that I have to have - it's here," says Ayers, who is wearing his commissioner's sweater in the amateur video, which was shot inside the store.

(To see the video, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsJPEzYZF64)

If you scroll the home page of Black and Nobel's website, it's peppered with promos for books whose covers are meant to titillate.

Must-reads like "Taka," a thriller whose book jacket features a handcuffed, g-stringed vamp. And "Raunchy," whose sole image is of a woman's shapely, lace-clad rump.

I'm not saying the commissioner reads these books. What I care about is the response he gave to "Action News" when asked about his endorsement of a store whose website uses smutty book jackets to pull in customers.

"I went to the store to get black literature and the guy stuck a camera in my face to say things about the store, but I didn't know he was going to put it on YouTube," Ayers said defensively. "I don't see how this issue ties in to the calendar controversy."

Here's how it ties in:

The commissioner did something well-intentioned that he never expected would be taken the wrong way. Just as Slivinski did something well-intentioned that he never expected would be taken the wrong way.

Ayers' first response should've been to extend to a decent, hardworking underling the same compassion he affords himself.