City wins most counts in Long Ridge Fire Co. lawsuit
By Louis Porter
Staff Writer
July 10, 2004
A Superior Court judge in Waterbury dismissed the bulk of a long-running lawsuit against the city by members of the Long Ridge Fire Company.
Judge Carl Schuman ruled against the firefighters in all but one of the counts in the complex lawsuit, which dates to 1997.
"The court threw out 95 percent of the claims of the Long Ridge Fire Company and the individual paid drivers as a matter of law," said City Attorney Tom Cassone.
Schuman left the door open for the members of the Long Ridge company to continue their lawsuit over whether the city funds Long Ridge adequately.
However, Schuman said the sum provided to Long Ridge by the city "seems substantial and greatly exceeds that appropriated for the other four volunteer fire departments in the town."
The city did not prove that the Long Ridge company can survive at its current funding and is not planning on reducing funding until it cannot continue, the judge wrote. That means the firefighters could pursue their case.
The attorney representing the firefighters, Leon Rosenblatt of West Hartford, vowed the lawsuit would continue. In addition to continuing with the one remaining count, the members of Long Ridge will appeal Schuman's decision to a higher court if necessary, he said.
Schuman went beyond what the city asked for by denying standing to the firefighters in some aspects of the case, Rosenblatt said.
"Not even the city contested that the company had standing to pursue the case," Rosenblatt said.
The judge held that only taxpayers could bring such a lawsuit, the attorney said. "It is frankly a pretty bizarre decision from my point of view," he said. "That is not the law, and nothing I have read suggests that is the law."
Assistant fire chief Ralph Nau said Long Ridge would "absolutely" continue its lawsuit.
An appeal of Schuman's decision will not succeed, Cassone said.
"I don't see an appeal being even remotely successful," he said.
Rosenblatt said the city is trying to take control of Long Ridge Fire Company while still getting the benefit of having volunteers work there.
"The city really wants to have its cake and eat it, too. The city knows that the cost of running a volunteer fire company is far less than running a fully staffed fire department in downtown Stamford," he said.
Cassone disagreed.
"The city has never tried to take over their company," Cassone said. "The volunteer system, if properly executed, is a very good system for the city to provide fire service."
But the Long Ridge company does not have the right to dictate how much funding they should get, Cassone said.
"The city funded them adequately and continues to fund them very adequately," he said.
Rosenblatt disagreed with Schuman's assessment that Long Ridge gets more money than the other volunteer companies.
The city will give Long Ridge Fire Company about $1.1 million this year. It will give Turn of River Fire Company, another volunteer department with two station houses, $310,000.
But the city also pays the salaries of the nonvolunteer firefighters at the four other departments, Rosenblatt said. The city will spend $809,004 on salaries for firefighters at Belltown, $840,617 in Glenbrook and $1.5 million at Turn of River.
City Director of Administration Ben Barnes said the city multiplies the average wage of firefighters of captain rank and below at Stamford Fire and Rescue by the number of paid firefighters at Long Ridge and gives that amount to the company as part of the $1.1 million.
The problem is that Long Ridge needs more than the number of paid firefighters it has now, Rosenblatt said.
"They don't give enough positions," he said. That leads to inefficiencies in the company because it must pay overtime to cover for not having enough firefighters, Rosenblatt said.
A 1998 injunction prevents the city from placing Stamford Fire and Rescue paid firefighters at Long Ridge, as it does at the Springdale Volunteer Fire Department.
"It's gratifying that a judge has looked at everything . . . and basically threw out their lawsuit," Mayor Dannel Malloy said. "Despite all the rhetoric that was laid out on the other side, this was the result we expected."
Malloy said the city would consider putting Stamford Fire and Rescue units at Long Ridge, if an agreement like the ones with the other volunteer companies in Stamford could be reached.
"What is always best is to reach agreements that protect citizens and protect their pocketbooks," he said. "We will take stock of where we are and what is the full implication of this lawsuit. We are always looking for partners, not enemies."
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