By Daniel Drainville
The Day
NORWICH, Conn. — The Yantic Volunteer Fire Co. released a statement Friday expressing disappointment with the city’s release of details of an interim offer to reopen the department.
“The city has once again chosen to conduct negotiations through the media, rather than complete the private discussions already underway,” the release stated.
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The city news release on Thursday detailed a verbal offer made to Chief Bobby Allen and Deputy Chief Frank Blanchard during a breakfast meeting last week that would allow the Yantic department to reopen temporarily after the city shut it down in February for failing to agree to the August 2025 unified command policy.
The offer would allow the department to reopen until its lawsuit against the city is settled. That lawsuit, filed in February by the Yantic, Taftville, Occum and Laurel Hill volunteer departments, charges that City Manager John Salomone and the city’s fire chief, Sam Wilson, did not have the power under the city charter to establish the controversial unified command policy. That policy established a new command structure with Wilson at the top and standardized training, communications and emergency response protocols for paid and volunteer fire services in the city.
The department, in its own release Friday, said it never was presented with a written interim agreement, asked to sign an agreement, or given a deadline to accept or reject an offer.
“On the contrary, the parties had engaged in hours of discussion, agreed that additional meetings were necessary to clarify unresolved issues, and Yantic leadership subsequently met with its membership to gather input,” the department said. “As recently as the morning of July 9, Chief Bobby Allen contacted the City Manager seeking another meeting to continue those discussions. By the afternoon of July 9, instead of receiving a response from the city manager, he was approached by various outlets (which included The Day) seeking comment on the city’s press release.”
The department, in the release, charged that instead of responding to Allen’s request for a meeting and allowing the process to continue, the city publicly released “its own characterization of unfinished negotiations,” announcing that Yantic had “not formally responded” to an offer it had never been formally asked to accept or reject.
The department said the city’s “pattern” of releasing news releases amid negotiations has “repeatedly undermined efforts to build trust and reach a resolution.”
“Private discussions appear productive until details are selectively released to the media and used to portray Yantic as unwilling to cooperate,” the release stated. “Meaningful negotiations require candor, confidentiality and good-faith communication, not public deadlines and press releases created after the fact.”
The department said it is prepared to continue meaningful discussions aimed at restoring the company to service while protecting public safety, respecting the city charter and resolving “the legitimate concerns of its members.”
“If the City shares that objective, it should return to the negotiating table and allow that process to work rather than attempting to negotiate through the press,” the release stated.
Salomone on Thursday acknowledged that the offer had been made only verbally, but said he had walked away from a meeting with Allen and Blanchard with the expectation that they would take it back to their membership for support.
Emails show that Allen and Blanchard did present the offer, but Allen told Salomone in a subsequent email that they should try to plan another meeting to find common ground.
Subsequent emails between the two show Salomone’s frustration that Allen had not acknowledged the central issue in the negotiations: agreeing to abide by the unified command policy.
“Every time that we seem to have something towards an agreement you withdraw from meaningful dialogue,” Salomone wrote to Allen.”It was clear to everybody when we adjourned the three hour-meeting that the key to this was unified command and executive orders (which were used to establish the policy). You have not answered us on that so how can we negotiate further?”
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