The state of the Norwich volunteer fire departments continues to draw strong emotions and opinions from all sides in the city.
That emotion was evident at a recent Norwich City Council meeting when the council passed a resolution to transfer more than $535,000 of city funds to cover additional fire department expenditures following the shutdown of Yantic Volunteer Fire Department and the paid firefighter takeover of Taftville Fire Company earlier this year.
The measure passed 5-1 after the crowd at council chambers on Aug. 3 were cleared out of the room by police at the request of the Norwich Mayor Swarnjit Singh. Following the public comment part of the meeting, several residents were speaking and some residents were yelling while city councilors were speaking in the meeting.
Prior to the council chambers being cleared, more than a dozen residents spoke during the allotted time for public comment. The Norwich residents in attendance were overwhelming opposed the resolution. Some residents called the action “unlawful,” and the money should be used elsewhere “on paving roads, education or lowering the mill rate.”
Several people were escorted from the premises while Councilman Joe DeLucia was speaking.
“We’re allocating this money because Yantic Fire Department refuses to return to service, and we have a responsibility to cover Norwich Town District with paid (firefighters) if necessary,” DeLucia said. “We cannot cover Norwichtown and Taftville with Occum and Engine 2 alone. That’s a fact.
“We needed to do something to keep the people, their property and their businesses safe,” he added, moments before several people were removed. “This is the result of having to do that. You want to be angry with someone, be angry with the people who refuse to return to service.”
Singh cited Connecticut General Statute 1-232 in order to clear the chamber. The meeting continued a few minutes later.
In February, Yantic Volunteer Fire Department was suspended after 178 years. In June, Taftville Fire Company claimed that it was evicted from its station house.
Earlier this year, the city of Norwich implement a standardized “unified command” structure under the Norwich City Charter. That issue is currently being contested in court by the fire chiefs from the Yantic, Taftville, Occum and Laurel Hill Volunteer Fire Departments.
In June, Taftville Chief Tim Jencks claimed that all property owned by the Taftville Fire Company was removed from the station house at 134 Providence St. as the Norwich Engine 3, a paid department, took over the building.
The city later disputed the claim and said the city told Taftville leadership in an email that volunteers and their equipment were free to remain at the station house and operate cooperatively alongside career personnel ahead of being served the court order. The city said in order to stay, the paid department and volunteers would have to work collaboratively, and the volunteer fire company must be willing to meet baseline safety benchmarks.
As for the Aug. 3 resolution, the city of Norwich said this money is “routine accounting for emergency staffing” and was planned in February.
“The $535,000 line-item transfer approved last week was not an unexpected budget overrun. It reflects routine accounting for an emergency staffing contingency that the city planned for back in February when Yantic went offline. The overall citywide budget remains completely balanced, with zero added cost to Norwich taxpayers,” a city spokesperson said on Monday.
A statement released from the Yantic, Taftville, Occum, and Laurel Hill Volunteer Fire Department chiefs on Friday said the Norwich residents’ concerns should continue to be heard.
“Norwich residents deserve an open and honest discussion about the future of their fire service. Instead, they are increasingly being presented with conclusions before the most important legal questions have even been answered,” the four volunteer fire chiefs said in the joint statement.
“Taxpayers have every right to ask why those costs were incurred, whether they could have been avoided and what the long-term financial impact will be,” they added.
The Yantic, Taftville, Occum, and Laurel Hill Volunteer Fire Department chiefs added that, even though decorum was broken down, that “the frustration expressed by residents should not be dismissed. It reflects just how significant these issues have become.”
“One fact is not in dispute. The events that led to Yantic’s shutdown and the city’s hostile takeover of the Taftville firehouse resulted from executive actions taken by city officials. The city removed Yantic from service, repossessed its city-owned apparatus, terminated its funding and assumed responsibility for protecting its district,” the fire chiefs’ statement said.
“Yantic initiated no legal action until after the department was removed from service and the city repossessed all apparatus. The city initiated Yantic’s closure; it was a premeditated and well-choreographed legal action in conjunction with the Norwich Police Department,” the statement continued.
The fire chiefs also claimed that the city of Norwich “took the Norwich Fire Department’s Squad A engine out of service several weeks ago and it replaced it with a Yantic engine, while continuing to negotiate in bad faith with Yantic, Taftville, Laurel Hill and Occum.”
A city spokesperson said it is not negotiating in bad faith.
“The claim that the city is negotiating in bad faith is factually inaccurate. The city’s recent interim settlement proposal, which was declined, acceded to more than 75% of the items requested by volunteer leadership, including returning apparatus, releasing funds and granting significant administrative autonomy. The city only rejected terms that directly compromised public safety, such as a proposed mandatory eight-minute delay before professional city resources could be dispatched to a 911 call,” the city spokesperson said.
The volunteer fire chiefs claimed that the city, via court order, “forced Taftville to ‘vacate the firehouse immediately,’ a stronger action with less legal rights than an eviction notice. The city changed the locks on the Taftville firehouse and assumed its operations and responsibility for protecting its district. Those actions did not result from a city ordinance, a charter revision, or a vote of Norwich’s citizens.”
“It should also be made known that the agreements presented to Yantic and Taftville by the City Manager (John Salomone) and (Norwich Fire) Chief (Samuel) Wilson are different; the Taftville contract forces the department to become a combination department with the city department, essentially throwing away 109 years of history and dedicated community involvement,” the volunteer fire chiefs alleged.
The volunteer fire chiefs also claimed that “East Great Plain has signed nothing — no agreement, no contract — and yet they can still operate without city oversight on every single call, which is currently happening for Laurel Hill and Occum department responses.”
The volunteer fire chiefs also questioned whether city officials “possessed the authority under the Norwich Charter to implement their so-called “unified command” through executive action.”
The city spokesperson said it is supported by the Norwich City Charter and established Connecticut case law.
“The requirement for a single fire chief on scene is explicitly supported by the Norwich City Charter and established Connecticut case law (Turn of River Fire Dept. v. City of Stamford). Unified command is operating successfully today in Norwich with the East Great Plain Volunteer Fire Department,” the city spokesperson said.
In a statement to the Courant on Monday, Norwich City Manager John Salomone said the city of Norwich intervened because of “immediate public safety risks in certain volunteer districts.”
“The city of Norwich has consistently maintained one fundamental priority throughout this process: ensuring that when a resident calls 911, a quali