New Haven Register
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Fire Chief Allyn Wright said what he’ll miss most is being looked up to as a leader when he retires from his position on January 4.
A native son of New Haven, Wright has been chief for a year and eight months, entering his tenure with goals of fixing a department from the ground up.
“Like flipping a house,” he said. “I wanted to flip the department.”
Wright said he accomplished or got the ball rolling on many of the goals he had when he took the position in March 2014: minimizing overtime, hiring new personnel and beginning to fix the antiquated fire stations. Still, the burden of balancing an entire department on his shoulders coupled with a job opportunity was too much for Wright to pass up.
Wright said Wednesday that he’s “a little tired” and ready to slow down and spend more time with his family. A job offer to be a private investigator for Intelligence Options LLC gave him the out he needed. Wright previously worked for Intelligence Options LLC—though it had a different name then—from 2007 to 2014.
Wright, who grew up in Newhallville and attended James Hillhouse High School, first joined the New Haven Fire Department in 1975, becoming assistant chief in 1998 before resigning in 2000 to help run a telecommunications company. Wright returned in 2014 and was appointed to replace former Chief Michael Grant, whose contract was set to expire. He was sworn in on March 31, 2014.
“I couldn’t fix everything, but I fixed a lot of the things that needed to be addressed,” Wright said. “I had a lot of doubters that didn’t think I’d be able to do it. I wanted to prove them wrong.”
Under Wright, 122 new recruits were hired and there have been promotions of both captains and battalion chiefs. Wright said he’s saved the department over $2.5 million in the overtime budget and that the training budget is at $300,000 for the first time in the department’s history.
Police Chief Dean Esserman called Wright a “great partner in uniform.”
“Often police chiefs and fire chiefs are rivals. But, I thought we were true partners and often sat together at Compstat—which he regularly attended—or at the Mayor’s weekly meetings. He will be greatly missed, I believe, by everyone who wears a uniform in New Haven whether they be firefighter or police officer or this police chief,” Esserman said.
City hall was alerted Wednesday with a letter of resignation from Wright. In the next several weeks, Mayor Toni Harp plans to finalize plans to appoint an interim chief and create a succession strategy, according to spokesman Laurence Grotheer. Harp, in a release, lauded Wright for his work to “modernize and streamline department operations.”
“The chief’s imminent return to private sector employment will prompt a thorough search for a successor to continue advancing the department’s reputation for duty and service,” Harp said in a release.
Wright said that if City Hall deems it necessary, he’d like to help with the transition of his duties, along with recruiting and training his replacement and helping the new chief develop an action plan for the next two years. As of yet, Wright has not recommended anyone specifically for the job.
“I told the Mayor that I’ll be at her beck and call as needed. I’m not turning the lights off. I’ll only be a phone call or an email away,” he said.
The chief’s plans to resign have been known for months, according to several sources in the fire department.
Fire Union President James Kottage said that Wright came in during a very difficult time and did a fine job.
“The union has a very good working relationship with Chief Wright. We’ll miss him dearly and if it was up to me I’d like him to stay,” Kottage said.
A natural fit for an interim, Kottage said, would usually be the Assistant Chief of Administration. The New Haven Fire Chief and the Assistant Chief of Administration are the only non-union positions in the department. However, Kottage said, the Assistant Chief of Administration is currently on paid administrative leave and has been since September 2014.
“It would be a natural fit; you could have someone temporarily take over the department. They could take their time, do a search. And that’s not the case,” Kottage said. “If the city handled the [Assistant Chief of Administration Patrick] Egan situation, they wouldn’t be in this predicament.”
The department’s other assistant chief—Matthew Marcarelli—is a union member. The Assistant Chief of Operations is a union position. Kottage said that Marcarelli would need to leave the union if he were to become interim chief, given that the decisions he could make as chief would violate his contract. This only applies to the interim position, Kottage said. If Marcarelli was to become full-time chief, he would automatically be filling a non-union position.
“If it’s not done right, we would file charges against Marcarelli,” Kottage said. “As for Marcarelli personally: he’s qualified, he’s intelligent and he’s a good operational chief.”
Matthew Marcarelli could not be reached for comment.
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