Mass. fire chief proposes making 10 temporary positions permanent

By Brian Lepire
Sentinel & Enterprise

TOWNSEND, Mass. — The newly appointed fire chief appeared before the Board of Selectmen Tuesday night to discuss his plan to turn several acting officers into permanent leadership positions in the fire department.

The 10 positions — the deputy chief, four captains and five lieutenants — are currently filled by on-call firefighters training to be officers, according to Fire Chief Donald Klein.

Klein, who was selected to head the department full-time in October, told the board he wants to make the firefighters permanent leaders within the force.

"The positions have been filled temporarily for the past seven months or so while those people finished up their officers' training and testing," Klein said in a telephone interview before the meeting.

Selectman David Chenelle explained at the meeting that Klein's current staff of officers took the positions after Klein noticed a lack of structured authority within the force.

"These people graciously accepted to take these positions on a temporary basis while still working at their current pay rate," Chenelle said.

On-call firefighters, who work part-time and respond to fires whenever called, make an average of $15 an hour. Townsend's department is made up almost entirely of on-call firefighters, with only the chief and one firefighter full-time.

If named permanent officers, the 10 firefighters could receive up to $18 an hour whenever they respond.

Klein told the board Tuesday that the department's current operating budget of $798,343 should be able to cover the staff's pay raises.

"The fire side of the house is already budgeted to fill these positions ... anything I am proposing has already been accounted for in the budget," he said.

Klein, who had administered the officers' tests in past weeks, presented a flow chart showing what positions were ready to be filled, noting that he would have to retest four temporary captains who failed the test.

"After talking with them, it's apparent they made an assumption as to what the test would be like, and they never really opened their books," Klein said.

The board also discussed Klein's plan to add a captain and two officers within the EMS department, which currently is made up of two officials and on-call EMTs.

"I'm trying to put the same structure on both sides of the house," Klein said, adding that there are no raises planned for the EMS department.

Board members told Klein to provide them with job descriptions of all the positions, before they would consider approving his selections.

The next meeting will be held on Dec. 18.