April 20 — WEST HAVEN, CT — Allingtown Fire Chief Vincent P. Landisio resigned this week “for personal reasons,” less than five months after being named chief of the City of West Haven Fire Department - Allingtown, two key officials confirmed.
There was no immediate confirmation of rumors that Landisio, a retired New Haven battalion chief and former North Haven fire chief who worked for 22 months as interim deputy chief and deputy fire marshal of the independent West Shore Fire Department before taking the Allingtown job, was headed back to West Shore to be fire marshal.
Landisio, who was hired last November after an exhaustive search following the ouster of former Allingtown Chief Peter Massaro, did not immediately return calls for comment.
Reached by phone Thursday, Michael Doyle, chairman of the West Shore Board of Fire Commissioners, did not deny it.
“If you call me after tomorrow, I’ll be able to tell you” more, Doyle said. “Right now, Chief Landisio is under contract with the Allingtown fire department. He’s not under contract to West Shore.”
West Shore Fire Chief Steven Scafariello did not immediately return a call for comment.
Mayor Nancy Rossi and Allingtown Board of Fire Commissioners Chairman John Panza both confirmed that Landisio resigned from the Allingtown position, effective at 4 p.m. Friday.
Rossi said she received a resignation letter about 7:30 a.m. Thursday, which stated that Landisio was resigning “for personal reasons.”
She said she did not know any more. Rossi said she had not sought the resignation from Landisio, whom the fire commissioners named to the position just six days before former Mayor Ed O’Brien left office.
“I’ve had nothing but a good relationship with the chief,” Rossi said. “It was a blind-side to me. I know nothing about it.”
Panza said Landisio told the commissioners in closed-door executive session during a meeting Wednesday night. The special meeting was called because Landisio wanted to address the board, Panza said.
“He told us it’s for personal reasons and he didn’t elaborate much more,” Panza said.
Panza said Landisio was not being pushed out.
“I think he was doing a great job,” he said. “He didn’t have any issues with the commissioners. I think he respected us, as we did him. ... I think he was a great person, a great leader.”
Panza said he was unaware of any other job Landisio might be considering.
“I think it’s devastating to me,” Panza said of Landisio’s decision to leave so soon after being hired. He said he was not prepared to discuss any other candidates for the job, or whether there was anyone who stood out during the previous search.
“I’d like to act as a group and make the decision together as a group,” he said.
West Haven Fire Chief Jim O’Brien said he spoke with Landisio Thursday morning and he said only that he made the decision to leave the Allingtown job “for personal reasons.”
“It’s too bad,” O’Brien said. “He was great to work with. I was kind of taken aback by it.”
Landisio’s resignation came at a time when the city’s finances are under the scrutiny of the state Municipal Accountability Review Board and there is strong pressure on Rossi to cut the budget and rein in spending.
It also came just days after Allingtown’s primary firehouse, the Minor Park Firehouse on Fairfax Street, sustained significant damage during recent heavy rains, said Rossi.
What began as a roof leak grew so severe that the department had to move all of its apparatus to the antiquated Admiral Street Firehouse, which generally is used for the department’s administrative offices and storage of volunteer apparatus.
The city, which has overseen the formerly independent Allingtown Fire Department since 2012 has filed an insurance claim, Rossi said.
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