Fire official accused of racism resigns

Rebecca Baker, Register Staff April 19, 2003

WEST HAVEN — John Samperi, the Allingtown fire commissioner whose alleged racist remarks set off a firestorm in 2001, has resigned from the board and moved out of the city.

His resignation took effect at noon April 4. In a letter dated April 10 to Louis P. Esposito, chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners, Samperi said his recent move out of West Haven forced him to resign. "I want to thank the people of the district for giving me the opportunity to serve them," Samperi said in the letter. The letter, faxed by Samperi to the New Haven Register late Thursday, does not give his current address but was sent from Vermont. Samperi was called a bigot when he opposed the hiring of Elmer Henderson Jr., West Haven’s first black fire chief, to lead the Allingtown Fire Department. Samperi, who is white, was accused of saying, "There goes the neighborhood," after Henderson, a lieutenant in the New Haven Fire Department, was appointed over a white West Haven fire official. Samperi vehemently denied that his opposition had anything to do with race. But he was impeached by the other two fire commissioners in June 2001. A Superior Court judge in Milford gave Samperi back his seat on the Allingtown Board of Fire Commissioners four weeks later. Samperi won a second term last May by nearly a 2-1 margin in an election that many residents said divided Allingtown along racial lines. Supporters of Samperi said the accusations of bigotry were political fabrications from his opponents. Carroll Brown, president of the West Haven Black Association, which led the charge to remove Samperi from office, said his resignation is "a good thing." "It’s in the best interest of the community," she said Friday.

©New Haven Register 2003