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By Neil Vigdor
Staff Writer
January 9, 2005
On the heels of Police Chief James Walters' public rebuke for coddling Diana Ross during her stay in a Greenwich lockup and Fire Chief Daniel Warzoha's decision to retire after a tumultuous year, First Selectman Jim Lash's role as police and fire commissioner has made him an intermediary between department brass and union membership.
Lash ordered internal investigations of both chiefs last year at the urging of their respective department's unions, groups some say are trying to become more influential in town affairs.
The first selectman started 2004 by sending Warzoha on a mandatory leave of absence while an outside investigator determined whether the chief was impaired by alcohol at a Dec. 5, 2003, fire on Davis Avenue that injured three firefighters. An exonerated Warzoha returned to the job a few weeks later.
Lash ended the year by verbally reprimanding Walters at a Dec. 27 press conference for allowing Ross to keep her cell phone, have food delivered to jail and go home when a female officer wasn't available to watch her during a two-day jail stint for drunken driving.
Some members of the town's political establishment now fear both episodes will have long-lasting repercussions on the morale and operations of both departments and on how municipal employees are disciplined.
"What did public censure gain us?" said Joan Caldwell, moderator pro tempore of the nonpartisan Representative Town Meeting. "I don't know. Was it to make the rest of the world who looks at Greenwich with a jaundiced eye feel more comfortable? Was it to make
the men in the department (more comfortable) that business in the town was being conducted in a more proper and orderly fashion?"
Caldwell was not alone in her sentiments.
"I feel the whole thing was blown out of proportion," said Edward Krumeich Jr., a Democratic member of the town's finance board.
Lash defended his handling of both incidents and said the departments would endure despite recent friction between brass and rank-and-file.
"My view is that the fire union continues to be, as the police union is at the moment, not satisfied with the leadership that it is getting," Lash said early last week. "Having said that, in both cases the leadership is working to improve those perceptions."
Warzoha added a new wrinkle to the already complex situation on Wednesday by announcing that he will retire on June 30 but still work for the town on a contractual basis implementing a recently drafted emergency management plan.
The chief repeatedly dismissed speculation last week that his relationship with the Greenwich Firefighters Asso-ciation Local No. 1042 motivated him to retire and described his rapport with the group's leaders as amicable. The union has been without a contract since June 30, 2004, but Warzoha said he was confident that ongoing negotiations would soon reach a resolution.
"I've got a very decent dialogue with the union president and the head of the negotiating team," Warzoha said. "We're trying to get a contract hammered out and are working on the operational issues in the department. There's forward movement going on. There's no question about that."
John Novak, the fire union's president, echoed the chief's comments.
"When we deal with each other, we deal with each other like men," Novak said.
Both men would not go into great detail about the drinking allegations and the union's attempted ouster of Warzoha, nor would they draw comparisons between their situation and the cloud of controversy hanging over the police department.
But the first episode may have set a precedent for how the first selectman handled the police union's complaints and no-confidence vote against Walters.
The town, which has historically handled personnel matters, including the fire chief's, in private, was compelled by the state Freedom of Information Commission in September to release an independent attorney's report on the Davis Avenue blaze to the fire union.
In the police chief's case later in the year, Lash called a press conference where he appeared with an apologetic Walters to address a litany of complaints that the union made against the chief.
"It seemed to me that this was an issue of public interest," said Lash, who limited the censure to the one complaint involving Ross' detention.
Walters declined to comment further on the situation, saying that everything that needed to be said came out at the press conference. Meanwhile, Sgt. James Bonney, the newly elected president of the Silver Shield Association, acknowledged that there were still some outstanding issues to be ironed out.
"If you're asking if a verbal reprimand would fix the problems we've had with the chief, I would say definitely not," Bonney said. "But we have always been and are still willing to improve our relationship with the chief."
The police union saddled the chief with a no-confidence vote late last year, criticizing his handling of a gamut of issues from combat pay and planning of patrols to, most notably, preferential treatment given to Ross.
"I think we were forced to take action that we weren't forced to do in the recent past," Bonney said, adding the union tried to avoid making a "spectacle" of its differences with the chief. "Our position is to protect the rights of the officers."
Both sides plan to meet sometime soon to further smooth things over. Still, some questioned the union's tactics.
"It seems that the union was using that as a negotiating tactic, which is unfortunate," Krumeich said of the incident involving Ross. "It concerns me that the unions have taken a more aggressive and confrontational approach to their chiefs."
Caldwell also took exception to the police union's methods, as well as those of the fire union.
"I would agree that the unions want to show their power," Caldwell said. "Did they show their power? I'm not convinced."
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