http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-longridge5dec31,0,1985815.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines
By Donna Porstner
Staff Writer
December 31, 2004
STAMFORD -- The city and the Long Ridge Volunteer Fire Company have settled a 7-year-old lawsuit over who controls fire protection in North Stamford.
An agreement reached earlier this month puts an end to years of costly litigation, and continues the arrangement the department has been working under since 1998 when a state superior court judge ordered the city to remove 16 paid Stamford Fire & Rescue firefighters and an engine Mayor Dannel Malloy assigned to Long Ridge Station No. 2 in 1996.
At that time, Long Ridge Station No. 2 was not manned by paid staff on weekends, nor from 1 to 8 a.m. weekdays, and the company wanted the city to fund two more paid drivers so they would have around-the-clock coverage.
Under the city Charter, the city's Big Five volunteer fire companies -- Long Ridge, Turn of River, Springdale, Glenbrook and Belltown -- are autonomous, though they are supported by the city.
Malloy argued city support did not necessarily mean the city had to give the department a budget. He claimed giving the fire company manpower constituted support. But in 1998, a judge disagreed and forced the city to fund two more paid drivers at Long Ridge.
According to the settlement agreement reached earlier this month, the city must continue funding the department at the current rate, plus an annual cost-of-living increase, through the 2006-07 fiscal year.
Long Ridge, which provides fire protection for 3,500 homes in North Stamford and mutual aid to four neighboring departments, receives an annual operating budget of about $1.1 million a year from the city.
Under the terms of the settlement, the city also has agreed to make a one-time payment to the department of $34,000.
"It's a comprised amount. They wanted a lot more than that and we agreed to give them that," City Director of Legal Affairs Tom Cassone said. "It clearly goes to fire protection so it doesn't hurt the city in any way to pay it."
Long Ridge officials said the $34,000 is needed to cover an anticipated budget shortfall in the fiscal year ending June 30.
Under the terms of the settlement, the fire company and its employees withdrew its complaint and the city has withdrawn its countersuit.
Malloy said Long Ridge officials were eager to settle because seven years of litigation was costly.
"It's just a total defeat," Malloy said. "It just cost them all kinds of money."
Long Ridge Assistant Fire Chief Ralph Nau said he does not know the total cost of the lawsuit. A large portion of the legal fees were paid by the employees and the fire company paid the rest with proceeds from its annual fund drive, he said.
Cassone said pursuing litigation became pointless after a judge threw out the bulk of the fire company's complaint this summer. The only issue left outstanding was whether the city funds Long Ridge adequately.
"I think the parties saw the writing on the wall for the future of the lawsuit," Cassone said.
The attorney representing the fire department throughout the seven-year saga, Leon Rosenblatt of West Hartford, said they agreed to settle because they had already won the most important issues -- the company maintained control of fire service in North Stamford and attains around-the-clock coverage at Station No. 2.
He said it was a victory when the court said the city does not have the authority to dissolve a volunteer fire department. The settlement, he said, makes the conditions of the 1998 court injunction permanent.
"The litigation achieved all that could be achieved . . ." Rosenblatt said. "We won what we needed to win -- we didn't win everything we wanted."
Cassone said the fire company lost a major component of its case because it did not win the right to set its level of city funding.
"They claimed in their lawsuit that the city has an obligation to fund them at a level they determine, and that is clearly not the case," Cassone said. "They are subject to the same budgetary procedures as other city departments. They can ask for a budget just like everybody else, but it goes through the boards that answer to the taxpayers."
During the annual budget process, city departments send their requests to the mayor, who decides whether to give them what they want in his proposed budget. The Board of Finance and the Board of Representatives have the authority to cut the mayor's budget, but may not add to it.
Nau said the department will continue to lobby for additional city funding.
"We cannot continue to operate at the funding level we are," Nau said.
Rosenblatt said the only unresolved issue at this point is a 1997 lawsuit the Long Ridge Fire company brought against the downtown firefighters' union, Local 786 of the International Association of Firefighter. A settlement is in the works, he said.
Copyright © 2004, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.