By Al Lowe
The Pittsburgh Tribune Review
DORMONT, Pa. — Dennis Davis, a 30-year veteran of the Dormont volunteer fire department, is no longer the borough’s fire chief.
Council voted 6-1 against his reappointment this month. Joan Hodson’s was the sole vote in favor.
“They’re making a big, big mistake,” Mayor Thomas Lloyd said.
Dormont’s 27-member volunteer department routinely elects its line officers each year and then asks council to ratify the appointments and re-appointments.
Council balked this year because Davis had not updated the emergency manual since 2003 and had failed to attend important meetings, council vice president Laurie Malka said.
Lloyd has been mayor for 16 years and served on council for 14 years and said this is the first time he can remember that council failed to ratify the fire department’s choice. Lloyd said the firefighters do a good job.
“That’s why they have been attracting so many new people when other departments are hurting for lack of volunteers.”
“I don’t understand where all this is coming from,” said Davis. “My budget has been cut so bad this year.” Council in January overrode the mayor’s veto of the budget in spite of his complaints that funding for the police and fire departments was inadequate.
Davis said he recently asked for money from the borough’s contingency fund to help buy uniforms for eight new volunteers, and his request was turned down.
Davis said the department will consult legal counsel about council’s decision not to reappoint him. He also expects that public objections will be aired during council’s next two meetings on Monday and March 1.
“Any comments that this was done because we don’t like the chief are totally wrong,” Malka said. She and Kim Lusardi, council president, met with the chief, the president and treasurer of the department several weeks ago. “We gained a new awareness of the hours they put into training and the cost of their equipment, and we felt like they had a good, solid organization.”
But, she said, the majority on council was unhappy with the borough’s outdated emergency manual and with the news that Davis did not attend meetings in which information on handling emergencies was discussed.
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