Shelton taps Waterbury fire chief

By KATE RAMUNNI
Staff writer Article Last Updated: 10/01/2008 12:12:42 AM EDT

SHELTON -- A city resident with a long resume of firefighting experience, but no connection to the city's department, has been named chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners.

Mayor Mark A. Lauretti appointed Michael Maglione to the position on Monday. Maglione is the chief of the Waterbury Fire Department and also served for years in that position in Bridgeport.

"I tried to pick someone who is independent of the system," Lauretti said Tuesday, "but someone who is knowledgeable of fire service and someone who will be actively involved."

Maglione served as Bridgeport's fire chief from 1998 to 2006, when he took the Waterbury job, and spent a total of almost 34 years with the Bridgeport Fire Department.

"I think he will work well with the department," said Justin Sabatino, who in March resigned from the commission to take the position of captain of the Pine Rock Park Fire Co. "At least he will work well with the department, and hopefully he will work well with everybody.

"We wish him luck," Sabatino said.

Maglione couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.

The Board of Fire Commissioners is made up of representatives from each of the city's four fire companies, led by a chairman appointed by the mayor. Lauretti said he questions whether that is the ideal setup for the board.

"Part of the problem is that we have each commissioner belonging to a certain fire company," he said. By not belonging to a fire company, Maglione will avoid the pressure that comes with that affiliation, he said.

"He's not going to catch hell from his company if he doesn't vote a certain way," Lauretti said. "I think there's a certain amount of pressure on the commissioners because of that."

And now that so much of the department's regulations are based on outside regulations, that kind of affiliation may not be needed anymore, Lauretti said.

"Things have become so etched in state and federal law that maybe the need for commissioners to represent the firehouses is gone," he said.

For the past six or seven months, the commission has operated in a state of disarray, Sabatino said. "For a long time the board has been dysfunctional," he said. "They're working on a lot of projects, but nothing is coming through."

That's affected the volunteers because they're not getting the things they need to do the job, he said. "We haven't gotten any equipment. Every time we request something, it goes to the Officers' Council."

The appointment of a new commission chairman is a step forward, Sabatino said, but members have adopted a wait-and-see attitude.

"A lot of people just want to see what's going to happen," he said. "The biggest thing will be when the new chief and deputy chief are appointed."