Mass. Selectmen Back Off Power Shift For Fire Dept.

Jan. 30--TRURO -- The board of selectmen is considering ignoring the advice of a paid consultant to scuttle the town's board of fire engineers, as a possible change in department management looms.

Last year, the board unanimously recommended a change in governance for the department, making its oversight the selectmen's responsibility. But on Tuesday night at their regular meeting, selectmen appeared to backpedal.

"The future of the fire department is in the voters' hands," said Selectman Breon Dunigan, chairman of the board.

In 2011, a paid consultant, retired Brewster Fire Chief Roy Jones, recommended the town put the authority of the on-call fire department directly in the hands of the fire chief, and that the selectmen hire the chief directly. The move would eliminate all management of the department and fire chief by the volunteer board of fire engineers, which is appointed by the selectmen annually.

In response to Jones' study, the selectmen in 2012 recommended -- backed by a 5-0 vote -- a town meeting article that placed the hiring of the fire chief in the hands of the selectmen. Annual town meeting voters on April 24, 2012, approved the selectmen's article, which would a require a charter change to implement. The charter revision, however, still needs to be approved at the annual town election May 14.

Now, the selectmen have asked town counsel what would happen if they decided not to place the measure on the ballot, Town Administrator Rex Peterson said this week.

On Tuesday, Dunigan said the board is still gathering information on the planned transition and needs to make final decisions, particularly given the uncertainty of a ballot vote.

"We have to figure out together how the transition is going to work, and how we're going to manage that," Selectman Jan Worthington said. "It's an incredibly difficult situation. If we make the wrong decision, it may affect people, maybe badly."

On Tuesday, the three fire engineers made a pitch to the selectmen that they keep their management roles.

"You have zero fire administration experience," fire engineer John Garran said. Garran offered up himself, Fire Chief and engineer Brian Davis, and fire engineer Arthur "Butch" Lisenby as having experience collectively in fire service, airport management and business. "We do have management skills. In the last eight months, we've accomplished a heck of a lot, and the board works well together."

In part, Garran was responding to comments made in Jones' interim report on Oct. 3, 2011, that said the board of fire engineers, at the time with seven members, was mired in internal dissent with no professional goals or leadership. Jones said the poor management could leave the town vulnerable to lawsuits, if, for example, a firefighter was injured or property was damaged because of improper training.

The on-call department has about 26 paid, on-call members but could use at least 40, one former fire engineer said in 2011.

The selectmen plan to ask Jones to give a final presentation within the next few weeks, Dunigan said. The selectmen also expect to meet with the fire engineers again on Feb. 26, particularly at the urging of Selectman William Golden.

"I want to know how it's moving forward, and the specifics of it," Golden said, echoing the concerns of at least two members of the audience.

The selectmen and the fire engineers are also crafting a proposal that would essentially turn the on-call department into a fully staffed one, with two firefighters with medical certifications in the fire station 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Currently, the annual operating budget for the fire department is $333,000, town records state. The proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year has come in initially from the fire engineers at $622,000, but that figure is still being finalized, Peterson said.

The Truro Fire Department is one of two departments on Cape Cod managed by fire engineers, and it is the Cape's only paid, on-call department. Provincetown is also governed by a board of fire engineers, but all its members are volunteers. Both towns also pay annual fees to the nonprofit Lower Cape Ambulance Association for medical emergency response and medical transportation to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis.

Copyright 2013 - Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.