By Donna Porstner
Staff Writer
June 6, 2006
STAMFORD -- The city's Fire Commission voted to appoint a dozen firefighters last night after allegations of nepotism earlier this year prompted them to reinterview nearly 120 job candidates.
Late last year, the commission had hired four firefighters and named eight alternates. But it halted the hiring process in January after The Advocate reported top scorers on the exam had questioned whether commissioners were picking friends and relatives over more qualified applicants.
The fire chief's son, the mayor's nephew and the son of Commissioner E. Gaynor Brennan were among the eight alternates.
Three applicants who scored high on the written exam but were not offered jobs told The Advocate they believed the process was fixed after their interviews lasted only a few minutes and they were not asked personal questions. The five-member commission did not keep records indicating how entry-level firefighters were selected for job openings or showing how members voted, which is required by state law.
Only the list of alternates was tossed out; the four firefighters hired from the first round of interviews retained their jobs.
Four of the 12 hires selected last night were alternates the first time around -- Kevin Connell, Joseph Terenzio, Peter Lyden and Brien Malloy, nephew of Mayor Dannel Malloy.
Connell and Malloy were among the top 20 scorers on the written exam.
The eight others offered jobs are Shawn Sasser, Daniel DeMasi, Jonathan Brenes, Ryan Szirmay, Marc Breault, Donald Huot, Nicola Tamburro and Robert Procaccini.
All 12 appointed last night are expected to enter the state fire academy in Windsor Locks next month.
All but two -- Huot and Szirmay -- are Stamford residents who received five residency bonus points on the written exam.
Three of the 12 -- Sasser, Connell and Huot -- were among the 15 highest scorers on the written exam given in August. Sasser had the only perfect score. Seven were in the second tier, or rank, based on their written exam score, and two were in the third tier.
Though Fire Commission Chairman Dick Lyons said the oral interview with commissioners would be the most important factor in hiring, it was not clear last night precisely how the candidates were chosen.
The commission debated the appointments for two hours during a closed-door executive session at fire headquarters. The public was barred from attending the meeting.
At the start of the meeting, Lyons told the Advocate reporter present -- the only member of the public there -- that the executive session would last several hours and offered to call if the commission returned to the public portion of the meeting and voted. With 120 interviews to discuss, it was not clear whether the three commissioners present would be prepared to vote last night.
The law requires hiring decisions to be made in public and that the votes be recorded.
When Lyons telephoned about two hours later, the reporter asked whether they were resuming the public portion of the meeting, Lyons said he first needed to know whether The Advocate would wait until Thursday to print the names of the new hires so the applicants could be notified by the city's human resources office.
The reporter did not agree to hold the story. Lyons said they were still in executive session and would call back if they resumed the meeting and voted.
Lyons called 10 minutes later to say the meeting was over and the hiring decisions had been made, but he would not say who was hired.
He said the newspaper would have to call city Director of Human Resources Dennis Murphy today to find out.
Murphy, who was not at the Fire Commission meeting last night but was reached on his cell phone, confirmed Lyons called him from the meeting to ask whether he could withhold the names from The Advocate. Murphy said he initially told Lyons it was reasonable to wait until job offer letters were mailed.
"You can't have candidates reading in the paper they have a job offer they haven't seen," Murphy said.
But he later changed his position and provided the names.
The Fire Commission recently entered into a legal settlement with The Advocate, agreeing to follow the state's Freedom of Information laws governing public boards such as the Fire Commission.
Mayor Malloy, who appointed the fire commissioners, was campaigning for governor in Stratford last night and could not be reached for comment.
Under hiring procedures adopted in March, the fire commission is required to score applicants on a scale of 1 to 10 during interviews, weighing each candidate's ability to express himself, courage, confidence, preparation for the position, ability to take orders, desire for the position, education, work history and availability to start working.
At the time, Lyons said applicants could request to see their score sheets from the oral interview.
Firefighting jobs are highly sought after. The city received 728 applications last year; 233 candidates passed both a physical agility test and the written exam.
The starting salary for a Stamford Fire & Rescue firefighter is $39,356 and rises to $60,342 after five years.
Copyright © 2006, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.