Conn. Assist. Chief Resigns Following Controversy

March 19--STAMFORD -- Peter Brown, the Stamford Fire & Rescue assistant chief who drew the ire of Mayor Michael Pavia last summer by publicly criticizing his plan to reorganize the city's fire service, put in his retirement papers this week and plans to leave the department for the private sector.

Brown, a 38-year veteran of the city fire department, said March 30 will be his last day on the fire service. A business opportunity came up in the private sector, Brown said, and the longtime firefighter decided to pounce on the chance. Brown announced his retirement this past Tuesday.

"I think I've done a very good job and I think I've made a mark on the city," Brown said Thursday.

As assistant chief, Brown handled administration and oversaw the budget at the Stamford Fire & Rescue Department. During the past two years, Brown also became the public face of the opposition to Pavia's plan for merging four of the city's five volunteer-run fire departments into a new organization since summer 2010, when the mayor first announced his proposal.

Pavia did not return messages left with his office on Friday. Last April, Pavia threatened to fire Brown for insubordination because of his vocal opposition to the mayor's plan. At the time, Brown had become the spokesperson for a competing plan for the city's fire service.

Brown said his decision to leave the department had nothing to do with the mayor's direction for the city's fire service. In addition to the business opportunity, he wanted to end his career before he potentially lost parts of health benefits and pension through contract negotiations with the city, Brown said.

Brown said he and the mayor put the public disagreement behind them and that he supported the current administration on every issue -- except the fire service.

"The mayor's plan is what it is," Brown said. "I've done everything in my power to change his mind. He has his mind made up in the direction he wants to go, and I can't change it."

Before Pavia unveiled his plan, he asked Brown to serve on a task force to study the city's fractured fire service, where six independent fire departments operate autonomously in their own fire districts with their own chiefs, budgets and firehouses. The current system is plagued with communication problems, oversight concerns, and uneven staffing levels in certain fire districts.

While on the task force two years ago, Brown and other Stamford Fire & Rescue officials developed a "cost-neutral" plan that would move professional firefighters into volunteer districts in order to provide a uniform, city-wide response. Under the plan, both the professional and volunteer firefighters would operate under one chief.

Created by Brown along with several Stamford Fire & Rescue officials, the proposal was labeled the "Peter Brown" plan by those playing a role in reorganizing the fire service.

Instead Pavia's approach favored a plan proposed by volunteer fire department representatives that separated the city into two fire districts instead of six, and having four volunteer companies operate as a joint venture comprised of volunteers and nearly 50 newly hired paid firefighters. The new department would operate under its own chief, separate from Stamford Fire & Rescue.

In order to implement the plan, the mayor wants the city's Board of Representatives to approve a five-year, $43.8 million service contract between the city and the new joint venture. City representatives haven't voted on the contract and haven't discussed it since January. The board plans to take up the issue at the March 27 meeting of the Public Safety and Health Committee.

Stamford Fire & Rescue Chief Antonio Conte, who took over the department this January after spending several months as interim chief, said he'll miss Brown, one of the last firefighters at Stamford Fire & Rescue whose career stretched back to the 1970s. Conte said he and Brown will continue to work together, though on the golf course as partners in a Wednesday night league. The two met while drilling behind Stamford High School, which at the time was a requirement to stay on the hiring list before becoming full-time firefighters, Conte said.

"It's been nothing of an honor to work with that gentleman," Conte said.

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