Paid firefighters to staff Glenbrook volunteer station

From the Stamford Advocate:

By Natasha Lee
Staff Writer

October 10, 2007

STAMFORD - Glenbrook Fire Department has agreed to allow paid firefighters to staff its struggling volunteer station after a six-month feud with the city over staffing and spending at volunteer firehouses.

Under a city plan, eight Stamford Fire & Rescue firefighters will relocate to the Glenbrook firehouse, doubling the number of paid firefighters serving the understaffed district.

Facing budget cuts, the city presented a plan to Glenbrook, Belltown and Turn of River volunteer departments in May to merge their departments with Stamford Fire & Rescue.

Officials said the reorganization would improve fire protection and save taxpayers more than a half-million dollars in salaries and hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime.

The Glenbrook Fire Department announced its decision yesterday after volunteer members voted unanimously Monday to approve the merger. Officials said the agreement is pending final approval from the fire union and city's Board of Representatives.

Stamford's five volunteer fire departments operate independently and autonomously under the city Charter but are funded by the city. They rely on paid firefighters to run their stations because of poor response by volunteers to emergency calls and a decline in membership.

Springdale and Long Ridge volunteer fire departments were not included in the merger because they have different agreements with the city.

Belltown Fire Department has not agreed to the merger but has said it is working with the city. Negotiations with Turn of River have stalled because of ongoing litigation.

Glenbrook Fire President Edward Rondano said though he questioned the savings predicted in the city's plan, the agreement will increase staffing and training for volunteers.

"It's a better agreement than to keep fighting," Rondano said. "If both sides have a mindset to make this work, it can work and it can make the volunteer system better."

Under the agreement, the fire department will have four paid firefighters on duty around the clock - up from one paid firefighter working a 24-hour shift plus two paid firefighters during the day. The city laid off a firefighter in July after the fire department initially rejected its proposal.

Rondano said the city has not determined whether it will rehire Herman Naring, a five-year veteran.

Volunteer firefighters will train with Stamford Fire & Rescue firefighters and ride with them to calls, Rondano said. District coverage is expected to improve particularly on the East Side, where response times are weak.

"We're getting better training, much more thorough. The type of training we'll receive, you can't compare it to the volunteer system," Rondano said.

Volunteer Chief Frank Passero will retain oversight of the volunteers, and paid staff will report to Stamford Fire & Rescue Chief Robert McGrath.

Department Fire Marshal Ted Panagiotopoulos will manage the Glenbrook district but will work out of the Stamford Government Center and report to Chief Fire Marshal Barry Callahan. The Glenbrook department will still receive city funding.

The volunteer department has 180 days to cancel the agreement, but that is unlikely, Rondano said.

City Public Safety Director William Callion did not return two calls for comment yesterday.

Now, the Glenbrook firehouse must make room for its additional paid staff by renovating parts of the firehouse to accommodate bunk beds, equipment and offices - which will cost money, instead of savings as the city has touted, Rondano said.

"They're going to have to spend money, there's not a lot of available space," he said.

A move-in date has not been set.

Stamford Fire Fighters Association President Brendan Keatley said the agreement does not mirror the plan discussed in May, and neither the city nor Rondano consulted him about the changes in the agreement.

Keatley said contractual issues such as vacation days, staffing of engines and how firefighters will be ranked need to be ironed out with the city. He also wants to know whether the laid-off firefighters will get their jobs back. Keatley said for the merger to work, all three volunteer departments need to sign on, a "piecemeal" approach doesn't support the union's career staff.

"I have to serve all the members of the union in a fair and consistent manner. We're only addressing one-third of the problem," he said. "They've addressed the volunteer concerns and gotten volunteers to agree, now they have to sit down and address our concerns and have to get us to agree."

He said at least seven major changes were made to the agreement first discussed in May.

The initial city plan was to move 21 Stamford Fire & Rescue firefighters into the three volunteer districts, increasing manpower to three or four paid firefighters per shift, up from one or two.

The plan would relinquish control of the paid firefighters to a single paid chief. Savings would come from $545,876 in salaries and benefits from the elimination of eight Stamford Fire & Rescue jobs left vacant because of budget cuts.

Callion has said the merger would save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime because paid firefighters would rotate among the three volunteer firehouses and five Stamford Fire & Rescue firehouses depending on where they were needed most.

Glenbrook, Belltown and Turn of River together spent $700,000 on overtime last fiscal year.

Glenbrook and Belltown initially signed on to the city's merger in June to avoid layoffs Mayor Dannel Malloy threatened to make to save money. The two departments later pulled out when volunteer firefighters and executive board members from their departments voted against it. The city then laid off five paid firefighters between Belltown and Glenbrook.

A Glenbrook firefighter was later rehired after a firefighter there retired.

In August, Glenbrook and Belltown sued the city over the layoffs and lost. Turn of River took the city to court over a similar issue and won; the city appealed and is awaiting judgment.

Since last month, Glenbrook and the city have been hammering out details of staffing, equipment and firefighter responsibilities.

Rondano told volunteers Monday he was stepping down after six years as president and 36 years as a volunteer firefighter. Rondano said he had planned to resign before next year's election, but wanted to ensure the department received a fair deal with the city.

"I didn't want to leave in the middle of it when the fight was still going on," he said.

Dennis Murphy, head of the city's Human Resources Department, said the city will continue to negotiate with the union to reach an agreement.

Callion has said the public safety department may face a deficit next fiscal year if Belltown and Turn of River do not merge with Stamford Fire & Rescue, and more layoffs will follow.

The city will terminate management agreements with each department as of Dec. 4, which will release paid firefighters from their working arrangements at their respective volunteer departments and assign them to Stamford Fire & Rescue.