Among the challenges facing volunteerism in the fire service is the growing tension between career and volunteer fire departments which serve the same communities.
Today’s example is the City of Peekskill. The Peekskill Volunteer Fire Department, for which I am legal counsel, has approximately 50 volunteer members in 5 companies. The City also employs approximately 25 paid firefighters who are represented by their union, the Paid Firemen’s Association of Peekskill. The volunteer and paid firefighters are funded separately, and the volunteers convincingly complain that the funding they need to meet the needs of the fire service in Peekskill are going disproportionately to the career side.
The Peekskill City Code provides only for a volunteer fire department – the paid positions were established later and the Code has not been updated. The chain of command is clear, and from Chief through Lieutenant it is comprised of only the volunteers. However, the City has attempted to change the chain of command, and circumvent the volunteers, by placing the 4 paid Fire Lieutenants above all of the volunteer Captains and Lieutenants (nobody questions the character and dedication of these firefighters – the volunteers’ issues are with the City government).
Volunteers plan their strategy prior to meeting with the Peekskill Fire Department
The City Code, at Sec. 601-11(A), provides that the Chief, then the Assistant Chiefs, then the Deputy Chief, then the Captain – each one a volunteer – is in charge of the fire scene. And then, pursuant to Sec. 601-13(A)(2), “in the absence of any Chief, Deputy Chiefs or Captains, the first responding First Lieutenant shall assume command of the fire scene until any of the aforementioned officers shall arrive and assume command according to his rank.”
The City, without a hearing and without changing the Code, established a new paid position of “Fire Lieutenant,” filing with the County Civil Service Commission a document called a New Position Duties Statement – New Chain of Command, which ostensibly changed the Chain of Command by inserting this position above the Deputy Chiefs, Captains and Lieutenants. The City’s position, to which the volunteers object, is that the creation of the civil service career Fire Lieutenant positions does not change the chain of command of the volunteer department, only incorporates the career staff within it. Frankly, I don’t see the logic.
Assistant Chief John Kelly told News12 Westchester that the volunteers are concerned that the Council is not listening to them, that it is circumventing the charter and its policies to undermine volunteers in the City of Peekskill.
The volunteers are also upset at an apparent effort by the City to impose an age limitation for Deputy Chiefs only. The City does not want a Deputy Chief to be older than 66, or 68 if he or she has met all training requirements. However, there is no law permitting a City, Town or Fire District to set age restrictions on volunteers. If a volunteer firefighter can climb up a flight of stairs, with an apartment pack, on air, he or she can serve even at 107.
I appeared on behalf of the volunteers at a City Council meeting Tuesday evening to tell the Council members and the staff that changing the chain of command by resolution of the Council was unlawful, and also that there can be no age restriction for a volunteer firefighter. Any change in the chain of command, putting paid over volunteer fire departments, must be made by amendment to the City Code, with a public hearing in an open meeting, and by a vote of the Common Council, not an agreement with the union and notice to the County’s Civil Service Department.
News12 Westchester’s camera was at a meeting of the Peekskill Volunteer Fire Department on Tuesday, before the Common Council meeting, at which the members discussed their concerns and their strategy to ensure that volunteers are treated fairly by the City. It is worth watching that clip to understand the plight of the volunteer firefighter in a community where the work is shared with paid firefighters. The video News12 report can be viewed on its website.
Following this meeting about 50 members of the Peekskill Volunteer Fire Department attended the Common Council meeting at which Assistant Chief John Henry, Captain John Pappas and I explained the department’s concerns for the Council.
Given the declining membership of volunteer fire departments throughout the State, the ability of the leadership of a department such as Peekskill’s to mobilize its member to attend a government meeting and clearly set forth their concerns is as crucial a tool as an ax or a halligan.
