(MENAFNEditorial)
Stamford Professional Fire Fighters Association
For Immediate Release:
Media Contact: Tom Butler/Gio Simione
Butler Associates
646-213-1802
tbutler@butlerassociates.com
Fire Fighters Concerned About Lack of Transparency
The Stamford Professional Fire Fighters Association (SPFFA) has expressed serious concerns in a letter to the City of Stamford Personnel Commission about a disturbing pattern of behind-the-scenes actions a lack of transparency and government actions contrary to the requirements of the City Charter.
Recently the politically appointed City of Stamford Personnel Commission decided on June 25th to change the Classified Service Rules for the City of Stamford. This critically important meeting was held without any public notice and without a public hearing even though Stamford’s Classified Service Rules and the Stamford City Charter mandate both actions. Notification occurred only after the meeting was held and after the Personnel Commission already changed the rules.
“The Classified Service Rules clearly state in Section 1.1 that ‘…the amendments that follow shall be approved by the Personnel Commission after public notice and hearing.’ Section C6-140-6 (5) of the Stamford Charter defines the appropriate duty of the Commission to amend the Civil Service Rules: ‘To adopt or amend rules and to approve disapprove or modify the rules or amendments thereto recommended or submitted by the Director for the administration of the Civil Service all only after public notice and hearing.’”
Mayor Martin who served on the Stamford Board of Representatives for 26 years passing numerous laws and ordinances for Stamford has recently been accused of not following ordinances related to the city’s master list of vehicles and its rainy day fund. He recently told the Stamford Advocate “Some of that is protection but some of that is just nonsense rules that are erected and you know we struggle and do the best we can. We try to correct the ones we can correct and we try to follow all the others but we can’t follow them all the time and we constantly try to do better” he said.
In June 2014 the City rushed to hire eight fire fighters as full-time municipal workers in advance of issuing a December 2014 civil service exam for the rank of firefighter as mandated by the terms of a FEMA Grant to hire 24 new fire fighters without even administering a baseline written test.
After the City determined that the December 2014 fire fighter civil service exam - taken by 753 job candidates - was considered discriminatory to minority fire fighter candidates it rushed to issue a new exam at a cost of $151000. The City’s second fire fighter exam was conducted in May 2015 and attracted only 436 candidates as the city spent zero dollars on recruiting. The City’s Human Resources Department even failed to notify some of the May 2015 candidates of the new test date contributing to 42% fewer candidates taking the new exam. The changes enacted by the Personnel Commission at the near secret meeting on June 25 2015 effectively eliminated 100 more candidates from the fire fighter selection process.
“The Human Resources Department at the mayor’s direction has made one bad or illegal decision after the next. It is working in the shadows and violating the doctrines of the city” said Brendan Keatley President of the Stamford Professional Fire Fighters Association. “Just because Mayor Martin doesn’t like certain ordinances it doesn’t allow him to refuse to follow them or make changes as he sees fit” he said.
The union’s letter asks the Chairman of the City of Stamford Personnel Commission to immediately rescind the decision made on June 25 2015. Keatley says “Stamford government should operate in an open and transparent fashion and in compliance with the City Charter not behind closed doors with no public input or discussion.”
The Stamford Fire Commission will be holding a scheduled meeting on July 14 2015 at noon to hire 16 new fire fighter candidates despite the flawed testing process that the City of Stamford has employed.
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