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The Village Council is considering replacing Career Firefighters who are assigned to the Fire Prevention Bureau with Civilian Fire Inspectors.
This idea has been discussed by the Village Council on three occasions:
Village Council first discussed this idea on August 16, 2006 at a Village Council Long Range Planning Meeting. Click on the link to read the minutes of the meeting Meeting Minutes.
Excerpts of the minutes, “Councilman Harlow again spoke about the elimination of the Fire Prevention Bureau. Councilman Mancuso said that the support of the Fire Chief is crucial for this to be accepted because the community will not be happy if they think safety is being compromised.”
The topic was again discussed in the Five Year Financial Forecast Update on July 6, 2007. On page two of this document there is a bullet point which says:
Fire Prevention-analyze civilian provision of services.
More recently at the February 13, 2008 Council meeting, Village Manager James Ten Hoeve stated that since there are four Firefighters retiring this year, and one of them is assigned to the Fire Prevention Bureau, it would be a good time to conduct a study of the Fire Department.
Every time this issue has come up, Fire Chief James Bombace has advised Village Manager James Ten Hoeve that he could not support the idea of replacing Career Firefighters who are assigned to the Fire Prevention Bureau with Civilian Fire Inspectors. In the Chief’s opinion, any reduction in the current Firefighting staff would comprise the safety of the members of the Fire Department and the citizens of Ridgewood.
Mr. Ten Hoeve has failed to convince the Fire Chief to agree to replace Fire Inspectors (Career Firefighters) with Civilian Fire Inspectors. We question the timing, need, and rationale of conducting an audit. Is this an attempt to circumvent the Chief’s recommendation? Councilman Mancuso said that the community would not be happy if their safety is compromised and that the Chief’s recommendation was “crucial”. We agree with that statement. We are concerned that the safety of our community will be compromised, as well as our own safety, if any cuts are made to the current staffing levels of the Fire Department.