By Claire Bessette
The Day
NORWICH, Conn. — The city’s five volunteer fire departments have hired an attorney to air their complaints that the central city paid department is increasingly encroaching into their districts and that the city is using citywide tax revenue to help fund the paid fire service.
The five volunteer departments jointly hired Westport law firm Urban Thier & Federer, P.A ., which sent a letter to City Manager John Salomone outlining their complaints and seeking redress short of filing a lawsuit against the city.
If the issues cannot be resolved amicably, the letter stated, “then The Norwich Volunteer Fire Departments will be left with little choice but to enforce their rights under state law and the Charter in court.” The letter, signed by senior attorney Mark J. Kovack , requested a response within 30 days of the Nov. 21 receipt date by the city.
City Manager John Salomone declined to comment on the substance of the complaints in the letter, which has been referred to city Corporation Counsel Michael Driscoll for review.
Salomone said the letter prompted him to halt monthly meetings with the paid and volunteer chiefs, designed to address longstanding issues and reach agreements on replacing fire apparatus, purchasing fire equipment and addressing potential conflicts. Salomone said the group was getting close to reaching an agreement on downsizing and replacing fire apparatus.
“I’m disappointed in the letter,” Salomone said. “I thought we made great progress in our chiefs’ meetings over the past couple years.”
Taftville volunteer Fire Chief Timothy Jencks also declined to comment on the letter and why the departments decided to send it at this time.
The letter described what he called “the ever-increasing encroachment of firefighting services by the paid fire department within the town consolidation district,” along with alleged use of general tax dollars to fund portions of the paid fire department. The letter also accused the paid fire department of failing to adhere to volunteer district command protocols when responding to incidents in the volunteer districts.
Salomone’s administration had reached an agreement with the paid and volunteer chiefs a year ago to launch automatic aid to structure fires, as recommended in a study of fire services commissioned by the City Council .
The issue turned volatile when the Democrat-controlled council enacted an ordinance codifying the new policy last winter. Volunteer firefighters successfully petitioned the issue to a special election and soundly defeated the ordinance.
But the administrative policy governing auto-aid remains in place. It calls for the paid fire department to respond automatically to structure fires in the volunteer districts and for the closest volunteer district to respond to structure fires in the paid district to supplement its crews.
Although the chiefs initially supported auto-aid, attorney Kovack’s letter complained that the policy remains in place despite voter defeat of the ordinance, “coupled with the patent lack of need for aid on an automatic basis regardless of circumstances.”
The volunteer districts complained that “millions and millions” of volunteer district taxpayer funds are being used to supplement the paid department. One way is through the city’s policy of charging 50% of the paid fire chief’s salary to taxpayers citywide on the basis that the fire chief serves as the city fire marshal on fire safety investigations and inspections citywide.
The volunteers also alleged the city is erroneously redirecting general tax revenue into the central city paid district to lower the taxes for property owners in the paid district.
“Please be forewarned that The Norwich Volunteer Fire Department will no longer tolerate such mistreatment, abuse, and divergence of millions in tax dollars raised for the benefit of the volunteer tax districts,” Kovack wrote.
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