By Jeff Morganteen, Staff Writer
Published: 09:51 p.m., Friday, February 12, 2010
STAMFORD -- The former Turn of River Fire Department chief presented -- before a crowd of about 60 volunteer and career firefighters Friday night -- a plan for fire service in the volunteer districts that would consolidate the Big Five departments under a greater "umbrella organization."
Ray Whitbread spoke at his former department on Turn of River Road during the second meeting of the task force Mayor Michael Pavia formed to tackle long-standing issues in the city's fire service. Whitbread presented a counter proposal to the plan illustrated by Stamford Fire & Rescue officials last week.
His plan would create a committee of elected officials from within the Big Five departments that would report directly to the city's director of public safety. Under the existing arrangement, the director of public safety, a vacant position, has limited control over the departments.
The committee "would function as the managers for the five volunteer departments," Whitbread said. "We would report directly to the director of public safety."
Stamford Fire & Rescue Assistant Chief Peter Brown asked Whitbread how he intended to bring career firefighters into the system he proposed, saying the contract with professional firefighters prohibits some ideas in the plan.
Whitbread said volunteer chiefs would make that happen through an agreement, not by revising the city Charter, a lengthy process that requires a referendum. Under this plan, the volunteer-run departments would respond as a single department, he said.
"The departments could keep their own cultures and history and traditions and ties to the neighborhoods, but we would blur those district boundaries," Whitbread said.
Last week, officials with the city fire department presented a plan that would bring the city's six fire departments under a single chief. That plan makes the chief of the Stamford Fire & Rescue, the career department that covers downtown Stamford, in charge of fire service in the city.
Whitbread said he was concerned that this plan would relegate volunteers to a secondary role at working fires because career firefighters could get to emergencies more quickly, an assumption that Stamford Fire & Rescue officials brushed aside.
Near the end of Friday's meeting, which lasted from 6:45 p.m. to just after 9 p.m., former professional baseball manager Bobby Valentine, the group's chairman, asked Whitbread and Stamford Fire & Rescue officials to name the most contentious points of their plan.
Brown said bringing fire service under the downtown department's chief would the hardest point for volunteer officials to digest.
Whitbread said questions about the intrusion of Stamford Fire & Rescue engine companies into volunteer districts since 2007 have gone unanswered.
In 2007, the city introduced a consolidation plan that involved staffing three of the Big Five departments with Stamford Fire & Rescue firefighters. Only one department agreed to the plan, and the other two fought it in court. Whitbread said reasons behind the "radical" change was never explained.
"Is there some overriding need to make this type of drastic change?" Whitbread asked. "I haven't got an answer to that."
Dudley Williams, a former Board of Education member named to the task force, said it should come to its next meeting on Tuesday with accurate numbers of current staffing levels across the city.
"We need to get our arms numbers," Williams said. "We're just speculating."
Brown said the city provides about 62 firefighters per 24 hour shift in the city. He contended the city department could cover all of Stamford -- including the five volunteer districts -- with the current number of Stamford Fire & Rescue firefighters per shift.
Whitbread questioned his assertion and asked whether that meant the Stamford Fire & Rescue Department was overstaffed.
Brown, saying that the Stamford Fire & Rescue Department already acts as if it covers the whole city under the current arrangements, made a point to say that despite the issues plaguing the fire service in Stamford, the public should be assured that public safety was not being affected.
Staff Writer Jeff Morganteen can be reached at jeff.morganteen@scni.com or 203-964-2215.
JCoctostone
Yes, why would anyone want the on-duty career firefighters to get to a scene quickly?
What is an overstaffed Fire Department?
Mr. Whitbread was a Fire Chief? on what planet?
Not too many Fire Chiefs in this country, career or volunteer, will ever advocate slowing down responses of their on duty personnel to respond to an emergency or using less firefighters to operate at a fire.
Perhaps people should be getting their autographs from and picture taken with Mr. Whitbread, rather than Bobby Valentine.
With a mindset such as his, Mr. Whitbread is truly the novelty. Is this really the best representative that the volunteers could find???
By the way, did anyone ask Mr. Whitbread how quickly he can respond from his residence in Milford, CT?
Saturday, February 13, 2010
RDC
This is a quote from above....
"Whitbread said he was concerned that this plan would relegate volunteers to a secondary role at working fires because career firefighters could get to emergencies more quickly,"
Isn't this what the whole thing is about? Getting to the emergency (all emergency calls) quickly (with fully staffed crews)? Isn't public safety the main goal here? Apparently what's in the best interest for the residents of North Stamford is not the main concern of the X-Chief of TOR. How can you really say that you don't like a plan that will get emergency crews to a fire quicker then what your current volunteer crews can do just because they are career firefighters?! I hope the public can see where their safety ranks on the priority list of this so called umbrella organization plan.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
JCoctostone
Could you define where the overstaffing is occurring? Redundant Stations? Your dribble would seam as if Ray Whitbread was doing the typing for you? Perhaps he is?
Taxpayers happy with the old system? Really? The only people happy with the old system are the ill-fated leaders of some of those organizations that have led you to exactly where you are today.
Unfortunately, there are few people who will ever agree that the old system was practical, efficient, or provided adequate public safety.
Unless, of course, you are one of those that propped it up for all those years in attempt to protect the club and not the public that you should be serving.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Veritas
Overstaffed?
SFRD has enough firefighters on duty to cover the entire city?
These questions dovetail nicely. Of course SFRD is overstaffed. It was bloated by the Malloy administration as it invaded volunteer districts, and set up two redundant fire stations, in an ill-advised attempt to financially strangle them. And all that on the backs of taxpayers who had been happy with the hybrid vol/paid staffing they had before.
Now one big problem is what to do with all those paid guys. The other is district management. Set standards. If they're met, that issue is moot.
Friday, February 12, 2010
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