Symbolic $1 budget cut for Greenwich Fire Department exposes rift between volunteer and career firefighters

2022-05-14 22:33:55 By : Mr. Leon Ye

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The Greenwich Fire Department, shown here at the Byram station, is a combination department using both career and volunteer firefighters. A new policy on scene response has left volunteers feeling demoralized. Both Fire Commissioner Fred Camillo and the career command staff say they are committed to solving these issues.

Greenwich Fire Chief Joseph McHugh says the new policy is about safety and accountability. But he and other career administration say it can be revised as a review process is underway.

Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo, whose duties include fire commissioner, says he is committed to finding a solution that works for both sides.

GREENWICH — The $1 cut in the Greenwich Fire Department’s budget was not about the money. But the ensuing debate over the symbolic gesture by the Representative Town Meeting exposed a split between the town’s career firefighters and its volunteers that both sides said they want to heal.

The RTM’s vote of 145 to 54 with 15 abstentions came Monday night during final votes on the town’s 2022-23 fiscal budget.

A member the Sound Beach Volunteer Fire Company in Old Greenwich, Brad Sry called the $1 cut “a shot across the bow.”

One of several who spoke up at the meeting, Sry said to “air our dirty laundry is very unfortunate” and “slightly embarrassing” for the volunteers. But he said the volunteers do not feel they are heard and they feel their work is “eroded” within the department.

But Fire Chief Joseph McHugh said at the meeting the recent controversial changes were needed for the GFD to follow national operational standards on accountability and to know which firefighters are at a scene.

“I appreciate the work of every single firefighter in this department, whether career or volunteer,” said McHugh, a town resident who became chief in August 2020 and is a former volunteer firefighter at the Sound Beach station.

At issue is a policy put in place in February that requires volunteer firefighters to report to their firehouse first instead of going directly to the scene in their personal vehicles. Once at the firehouse, they must wait for a team of at least three volunteers before they can go to the scene.

“I really do support them. In no way is this a policy put together to take the feet out from under the volunteers,” McHugh said.

But there has been a “continual degradation” of the volunteer firefighters, said a statement from the District Chiefs Association, which is made up of the town’s volunteer chiefs.

“People are up in arms,” said the statement, which was made on behalf of David Walko, chief of the Byram Volunteer Fire Company. “The volunteers are asking, ‘How much more of this can we take and still want to contribute to the town’?”

The volunteers oppose the new procedures, which they say have exacerbated their concerns that career personnel do not see volunteers as important parts of fire coverage.

The new procedure “fundamentally restricts the role of volunteers and relegates volunteers to a helper status at best,” Gary Wilson, chief of the Cos Cob Volunteer Fire Company, said at Monday’s RTM meeting.

That opinion is shared by other chiefs, who fear the policy will cause volunteer numbers to dwindle.

Currently, there are 110 volunteers in the combination fire department.

“We want to contribute to the town of Greenwich as volunteer firefighters, and it’s being curtailed in every direction,” the association’s statement said. “This response SOP is making our job more difficult to perform.”

According to the Greenwich Fire Department’s administration, the policy is still in a 60-day “in-depth review” period with the town’s legal and risk management departments and will not be finalized until June 4.

This issue flared up after the town removed the position of recruitment and retention officer, who had worked with the town’s volunteer firefighters. Both the career and volunteer firefighters had advocated to retain the post, while adding a new assistant fire chief position.

But the Board of Estimate & Taxation voted to remove it, leaving a “sour taste in multiple people’s mouths” and leading to questions among volunteers about “where we are headed as a department,” the association said.

At Monday’s meeting, Assistant Fire Chief of Administration Charlie Lubowicki told the RTM that this was “an ongoing operational issue that was still in the process” and that the department recognized there “are bridges within the GFD that have to be repaired on a foundation of trust, open communication and the needs of the town of Greenwich in mind.”

Career and volunteer firefighters meet twice a month, Lubowicki said.

Assistant Fire Chief Brian Koczak said at the meeting that the new procedures were meant to focus on resource management and “providing the best service to our community while keeping our firefighters safe.”

The feedback from the ongoing evaluation will “likely lead to revisions,” he said.

According to the association, McHugh and other fire administration officials have cited safety for the new standard operating procedures, saying it gives career firefighters more control of a fire scene. There are concerns that volunteers can arrive at a scene and rush in before a proper deployment is authorized.

But the association countered and said it can delay fighting the fire, arguing the scenario of a volunteer driving past a fire, joining up with other volunteers and then returning to the fire.

“That can take several minutes and that puts the safety of residents in harm’s way,” the association said.

First Selectman Fred Camillo, whose duties include that of fire commissioner, said he believes McHugh and the volunteer firefighters share a mutual respect.

“This comes on the heels of many years of ill will between the two sides,” Camillo said. “We’re going to be looking at ways to not only address it but make this job fun again. This SOP will be dealt with. We want to come to a resolution as does the chief — and the volunteers I have spoken to. We want it to be a resolution that’s mutually acceptable to everybody. At the end of the day, they’re all on the same team even if they have some different ideas about things.”

Camillo praised McHugh as “made for this position” of chief due to his experience as a volunteer before joining the Fire Department of New York, where he was a battalion chief before taking the top job in Greenwich. Camillo said he had met with both sides privately and said “99.9 percent of the people there are doing it for the right reasons” and “give it to 200 percent to fix the issue and make it an enjoyable experience.”

On Thursday, McHugh declined to comment, saying he would let Camillo speak for the department on this issue.

In proposing the $1 budget cut, RTM member Lucia Jansen, chair of the Budget Overview Committee, said she wanted to bring awareness to the problem between volunteer and career firefighters.

On Thursday, Jansen said her motion was impartial, and said “we wanted to make sure that we were not taking sides.”

Looking at the RTM’s support, Jansen said she was glad to see such a “strong vote” and suggested the RTM could play a role in bringing both sides together to hash out any differences.

“As a RTM member and the Budget Committee Chair, I would welcome more RTM involvement to address this,” Jansen said. “We want to see solutions.”

To that end, the District Chiefs Association called for an end the new SOP and for the department to instead strengthen the SOPs that are in place for firefighter accountability at a fire scene.

“Instead of doing that, they chose to say volunteers can’t show up to a scene in personal vehicles,” the association said. “We’re all for safety and doing this as safe as humanely possible. We have an inherently dangerous job to do, and we can put safety measures in place that would curtail this without the vehicle restriction.”

Camillo pledged to “do everything in my power” to find a solution.

“This is combination department town,” he said. “We’re very proud of our firefighters. We have outstanding ratings as everybody knows, and we’re very proud of our volunteers. This is something that goes back to the early 19th century and that will continue as we work to make it even better. I look at this as an opportunity.”

Ken Borsuk has been a reporter for Greenwich Time since 2015 but has been covering Greenwich news since 2000. He has extensively covered local government including the Board of Selectmen, Board of Estimate Taxation and Representative Town Meeting.