STAMFORD, Conn. -- At a public event at the city's fire training facility on Magee Avenue Sunday afternoon, unionized firefighters met with city legislators to tout a proposed plan on November's ballot that would unite the city's career and volunteer fire personnel under one chief who would hold jurisdiction over all operations, training, personnel and resources.
Stamford Fire Capt. Paul Newman told two city legislators at the event that if voters support it, a charter revision to merge city's volunteer and career firefighters into one department could result in greater recruitment of volunteers.
"The plan requires from the city side that they promote volunteerism in the department and some of them will probably become career firefighters," said Newman, legislative aide for the Stamford Professional Firefighter's Association.
The city's current charter divides the city into six fire districts, five of them volunteer and one professional department, with the latter primarily in the downtown area but often aiding the manpower strapped volunteer houses on calls, Newman said.
Under the reorganization, the overall fire chief would be aided by two assistant chiefs, one each to oversee the career and volunteer ranks.
The proposal is one of nine suggested charter changes that will appear on Stamford ballots on Election Day.
Because of the sparse attendance, firefighters scrapped plans to carry out high angle rescue drills using ropes, or to exhibit their teamwork with vehicle extrication and hazardous material containment skills.
City Rep. Ben Velishka, D-2, asked Newman whether the merger of the departments would likely result in the necessity to hire many more career personnel in the department.
"What about taxes?" Velishka said. "This is all great stuff, but taxes is the first thing people ask about."
Newman said some opponents of plan are trying to motivate residents to vote it down through fear of higher taxes, and told Velishka the plan doesn't require increasing the number of career firefighters on duty on any given shift above the current 52 to assure adequate staffing for emergencies.
Volunteer firefighters oppose the proposed charter change, which they say will result in higher taxes and result in less volunteer involvement in the fire service.
"The claim that it would take many more people to replicate what we have down here is patently false," Newman said. "The truth is we're already responding to calls in Long Ridge and the other districts from downtown."
Brendan Keatley, president of the Stamford Professional Firefighters Association, which represents the city's 280 unionized fire personnel, said the plan doesn't marginalize volunteers, but provides a long, necessary adjustment to grant a single chief the ability to enforce training and other standards for members of the department.
Keatley said the current structure is not tailored to serve Stamford as it grows.
"If you look at Greenwich, it is a combination system but under one chief, or Danbury, it is a combination system with one chief," Keatley said. "In a city of 170,000 people during the day, including commuters, the risks and hazards do exist and we need one chain of command."
At the event, Stamford Fire Capt. Brian Fontneau showed City Rep. John Zelinsky, D-11, the city's mobile Hazmat decontamination unit, a vehicle Fontneau said is geared toward decontaminating residents in the event of a regional terrorist attack.
"In the post 9/11 world, we're worried primarily about the train station and addressing people who might be arriving in Stamford after a terrorist attack such as a dirty bomb," Fontneau said.
Zelinsky said the proposed charter change to reorganize the fire department was better than a plan proposed last year by Mayor Michael Pavia, which would have imposed an additional tax on residents of volunteer fire districts to hire additional firefighters to provide coverage.
"It seems like the plan covers both the paid and volunteer firefighters, and I don't believe the career firefighters want to exclude the volunteers," Zelinsky said.
Long Ridge Volunteer Fire Department Chief Stuart Teitelbaum and former Turn of River Fire Department chief Ray Whitbread said taxpayers should question the purported benefits of the plan vs. cost efficiency, and that it will lead to much higher costs as the career ranks grow.
Whitbread said the expanded responsibility of the career force for the proposed single citywide fire district will almost inevitably be used to justify requests to hire a significant number of additional firefighters.
"It's just common sense that should tell you that you can't expand your fire district three times the size without increasing manpower," Whitbread said. "Eventually within a few years they will need to increase their staffing by at least 100 firefighters."
Copyright 2012 - The Stamford Advocate, Conn.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
