Southampton Chief dispute

[NJFFSA16]

Lawyers get involved in Southampton fire chief dispute

(Southampton-AP) -- The man passed over for the job of fire
chief in Southampton in favor of the former chief's son has hired a
lawyer.
Deputy chief Stephen Hyde had been in charge of the department
since former chief William Barcomb retired at the end of last year.
Earlier this week in a 3-to-1 vote, the town's select board made
Lieutenant Robert Barcomb the new chief instead of Hyde.
Hyde is a 24-year veteran of the force.
Robert Barcomb is a 14-year veteran.
Hyde tells the Daily Hampshire Gazette that he was wronged and
that is why he went to a Holyoke law form specializing in labor
issues.
But a member of the select board says the process was open and
fair and the younger Barcomb got the job in part because of his
innovative cost-cutting proposals.
William Barcomb says he had nothing to do with his son's
promotion.


(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[dchydesr]

would like info on any similar cases of political collusion that were challenged in the courts, this actually is an ethics issue , if anyone has any knowledge of anything similar you can contact me at my e mail address ( dchydesr @aol ) , Thanks

[DaSharkie]

the younger Barcomb got the job in part because of his innovative cost-cutting proposals

I can't wait to see what those involve. Layoffs anyone?

[jjccoonn]

From what I under stand is that he will be setting up call groups, so for example you wont get 15 firefighter (each getting paid) showing up on a fire alarm. In stead you will have a group called out of about 5 firefighter and the rest of the dept if the incidents changes. Also I do believe southampton is a call dept.

[dchydesr]

sfd is a paid call dept ,duty groups are nothing new to call / volunteer depts ,the same type of system was tried in another local dept several years ago , they tried it for a couple of years and moral was so bad they had to discontinue , because of small fire call volume a lot of members never get to respond and they lose interest. In the past six months SFD has actually been able to trim the budget without cutting fire response.We already have a hard enough time staffing ambulance teams let alone volunteer fire groups,if one were to look at the budget you would see there is no need for the duty groups the board had other motives!!!!

[dchydesr]

he does not even have a real plan for this duty group idea , on several occassions now he has been shooting from the hip and deceiding if the call is a false alarm and either responding by himself to check it out or respond with a three - man Ambulance team to check it out . From there he will determine if he needs more of a response.I can see where we will be looking at a lot of celler holes.This is basicly the same thing that full time fire departments are facing with budget cuts . The mayors of these departments can only wish they would have a Chief who would be as easy as this guy and willing to sacrafice the safety of his men and the people waiting for help.We will end up sending two people in with back up at least ten - fifteen minutes away.