By Danielle Ray
Sentinel & Enterprise
FITCHBURG, Mass. — City Fire Chief Dante Suarez is suing the city and mayor.
According to court documents, he alleges he was placed on administrative leave in March pending an external investigation because he spoke out against Mayor Sam Squailia, with a press release issued by Regan Communications Group reporting that he is claiming she left the city without a functioning emergency notification system.
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The civil complaint filed Aug. 21 in Worcester Superior Court also alleges that Squailia “acted in a discriminatory [manner] to city employees who are persons of color and undermined the advancement of non-white employees.”
“Squailia suspended Fire Chief Dante Suarez — stripping him of his position, livelihood, and reputation — because he consistently opposed her decision to jeopardize the safety of residents by eliminating the city’s emergency alert system, according to a court filing,” the press release states.
Squailia confirmed in March that Suarez was being put “on leave pending review.” She recently called his allegations “very disappointing” and said they “are completely false.”
“As this is a personnel matter under active investigation, I cannot comment further,” she said Friday morning.
Suarez’s complaint charges Squailia with “retaliating against him because he refused to stay silent while the mayor left the city of more than 42,000 people without an appropriate emergency notification system.” According to the press release and complaint, which also names the City of Fitchburg as a defendant, Squailia “eliminated funding for the CodeRED automated alert system in the city budget and along with members of her administration repeatedly denied Suarez’s requests to re-instate it.”
The CodeRED system — which notifies residents of public safety emergencies such as active shooters, missing children, severe storm forecasts, and other critical incidents via telephone, text, email and social media — had cost $10,000 out of the FFD’s $8 million to 9 million annual budget. Suarez claims he repeatedly made it clear to the mayor that the elimination of CodeRED “would jeopardize the safety of Fitchburg residents” and the complaint he filed alleges that his “repeated and vocal attempts to restore the emergency notification system in order to better protect city residents angered the mayor.”
“Squailia’s interference was motivated by actual malice,” the complaint submitted by attorney Samuel J. Miller of Rodman Employment Law alleges. “Her controlling purpose was spite, personal hostility, retaliation, and discriminatory animus toward Suarez, unrelated to any legitimate municipal interest.
“Rather than accept the elimination of CodeRED without a capable replacement, Suarez persistently and in good faith documented his concerns and pressed Defendants for answers,” it continues. “The filing notes that a substitute to CodeRED presented by Squailia was found to be inadequate and lacking the vital capabilities of the previous notification system.”
According to the press release, beginning in March 2025 Suarez made multiple attempts to purchase CodeRED “directly through a city account earmarked for communications expenditures, but the city’s purchasing department repeatedly denied those attempts.”
“The Mayor had placed a standing order to block her own Fire Chief from restoring the City’s emergency notification system,” the complaint states.
Suarez’s complaint further notes that on Oct. 3, 2025, a shooting in the city caused three schools to be locked down. “Without a functioning emergency alert system in place, the city had no fast and reliable way to notify students’ families about the situation,” the complaint states.
“The city ultimately reinstated CodeRED after a lengthy period of leaving residents vulnerable because of the lack of an emergency alert system,” the press release states. “When CodeRED was finally reinstated, City Hall removed it from the fire department’s oversight and placed it under control of the city information technology department.”
Suarez’s complaint also alleges that Squailia “obstructed his plans to give merit-based promotions to two lieutenants to the rank of captain, repeatedly ignoring his requests for the promotions, and then demanding that she interview the candidates for promotion herself, a requirement that had no precedent in the city’s standard practice.”
It is noted in the press release that one of the lieutenants, Rob DaCosta is, “like Suarez, a person of color.” The complaint also cites Squailia’s alleged “rejection of a hiring committee’s recommendation that Christopher Garcia, who is Hispanic, be hired as police chief [and] in addition to earning the committee’s recommendation, Garcia also achieved the highest score on an assessment center evaluation of the candidates” and that Squailia appointed “a white candidate.”
Suarez’s filing also alleges that Squailia “required a former mayoral chief of staff who is Hispanic to perform such tasks as emptying trash cans, shoveling snow, and hanging holiday lights from trees. During the latter task, he fell from the tree and suffered an injury. When the assistant chief of staff, who is white, assumed the injured man’s duties, he was not required to perform the same tasks.”
“Squailia’s actions toward Suarez were part of this broader pattern of race-based differential treatment and retaliation against those challenged it,” the complaint alleges.
Suarez also alleges that Squailia did not support his requirement that firefighters who complete mandated training while on duty do so for normal pay. Rather, the complaint states, Squailia “sided with the firefighters’ union’s demand that members be paid overtime, even if they were completing the training during their normal shifts.”
The complaint further alleges that the city’s human resources director “kept Suarez in the dark regarding his employees’ leave requests and statuses, forcing Suarez to ask his employees directly about their leave” and “instituted unwritten, confusing rules governing use of earned time off.”
“This combination of keeping Suarez in the dark and requiring vacation time to be used in certain circumstances led to Suarez mistakenly but in good faith requesting that employees on leave use vacation time,” the filing states.
Squailia placed Suarez on administrative leave in March and initiated a personnel investigation into his actions. The press release states “the personnel investigation is based on false allegations of employee mistreatment orchestrated by Squailia [as] retaliation for his opposition to elimination of CodeRED” and the other issues cited in the complaint.
“As a result of Squailia’s interference, Suarez has been unable to perform under the employment relationship, has suffered economic, emotional, and reputational harm, has incurred attorney’s fees and litigation costs, and any other damages allowable by the law,” the complaint states.
Suarez is seeking a jury trial.
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