TIVERTON, RI—Not all Town Council members were on board with a proposal to amend Fire Chief Joseph Mollo's contract after his recently-completed six-month probationary period, but a majority went along with a recommendation by Town Administrator Jan Reitsma to increase Mollo's salary on Jan. 1 instead of having him wait for an increase that would have been at the end of a year.
It was Mollo's idea to broach the subject with Reitsma after doing a survey of the salaries of chiefs in towns similar to Tiverton and discovering, he said, that Tiverton's salary falls far short of others.
Mollo started his job here in Tiverton in June at a salary of $80,000. His contract called for an evaluation at his one-year anniversary to determine a salary increase for the following year.
Instead, a council majority of John Edwards, Stephen Clarke, Joseph Perry and Donna Cook voted in favor of amending the contract to pay the chief $83,851 beginning Jan. 1, 2020, in addition to a $1,300 clothing allowance that was mistakenly left out of the contract he signed with the town on May 30, 2019.
The vote came after the council met in executive session and then returned to open session to continue the discussion.
President Patricia Hilton and Vice President Denise deMedeiros voted against. Nancy Driggs was absent from the meeting earlier this month.
Mollo, of Johnston, had retired in 2012 after a 31-year career in firefighting, including 10 years as chief in Smithfield, but decided to go back to work because he was still young enough and able enough, he said when he was hired to replace Robert Lloyd who had been Tiverton's chief for 14 years.
He still has to be certified as an emergency medical technician, which was part of the employment agreement with the town. His failure to do that to date is one reason Hilton and deMedeiros didn't go along with increasing his salary at this time.
They also said it sets a precedent for a department head to do a salary survey and then approach the town in a middle of a contract to seek an increase.
"I think a contract means something," said Hilton of both sides adhering to the language. If there was an issue with the starting salary, she said it should have been raised before the contract was signed. "This is a little bit unusual once we sign," a contract.
Hilton said no one disputes that Mollo has done a good job since he took over the management of the department in June, and morale has reportedly increased as well, "but the EMT thing, that's the negative for me. That hasn't been done yet," she told Mollo of his needing to get certified.
The reason Mollo's salary was on the low side was because he had been in retirement for a number of years "and that gave people pause," said Reitsma. "I think he has proven himself," Reitsma said of his recommendation to the council to amend the contract.
"If the administrator is coming to us, it's with good reason," said Edwards. "I would be happy to bump him up. We're a municipality that does not like to pay people."
Clarke said Mollo's asking for the increase in salary "shows good initiative. I'm not opposed to it."
Perry said Mollo has done a good job. "The fact of not having an EMT was a concern. The increase in pay, I don't have a problem with it provided he gets his EMT."
"As much as I appreciate the job you are doing, six months is not a super long time," Hilton said. "The precedent this sets is very troubling."
Mollo said he looked at salaries of fire chiefs in similar communities like Portsmouth, Middletown, East Greenwich and Smithfield and the lowest salary was $96,000 and went up over $100,000, and some of the chiefs haven't been in their positions much longer than he has, he said.
"That's only salaries and it doesn't reflect the total package," Hilton said of having to add in the cost of benefits, which for Mollo totals almost $110,000.
"People look at just salary. It's not really apples to apples," she said.
The town budgeted $87,702 for the salary for a fire chief for fiscal year 2020 that began in July.
A study of department head salaries may be in order, Cook said.
"I'm not opposed to looking at fairness. I just don't know what the fairness is right now," Cook said.
DeMedeiros said her no vote had nothing to do with Mollo. "It sets a bad precedent," she said, adding she'd be willing to consider a higher salary for the next fiscal year after a year on the job, and when the original contract called for a review and pay increase.
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