Response to the article written by Stephen P. Clark, published on 3/26/08 in the Stamford Advocate. The text of the article is followed by commentary by Alan Shaw of the Belltown Volunteer Fire Department

Belltown Fire Department officials said Mayor Dannel Malloy's proposed budget allocation of $20,000 for the next fiscal year would not be enough to stay afloat.

The Federal Poverty level for a family of four is $21,600. We have been asked to protect your family and your neighbors family for less than that.

"The bottom line - it is not enough money to run the department," Belltown Fire Chief John Didelot said. "As far as the reasoning behind Malloy's actions, I don't know nor do I understand."

I wonder if any one, including the Mayor, could run a business, a government or even a household on 10% of the requested budget.

For this fiscal year, the department received about $160,000.

This money went entirely to operations, not to salary, overtime or capital projects. Operations includes Firefighter training, building utilities, and vehicle maintenance and fuel.

Malloy said Belltown is responsible for the reduced allocation. He asked Belltown fire officials to accept the city's consolidation plan, which would have merged Belltown, Glenbrook and Turn of River volunteer departments with the paid departments, to increase staffing flexibility and reduce overtime costs.

Belltown is not responsible for the nearly 90% cut made to our requested budget. We requested an operating budget that reflected what we felt we needed to operate our department, the Mayor made the cut prior to any board even seeing this proposed budget. Belltown in returning to an all volunteer fire department has reduced our overtime costs to $0. As we no longer have paid staff, we no longer require any funding from the city to be spent on Salaries or overtime. There is no staff as flexible as a completely volunteer staff.

In Stamford, the volunteer fire companies are funded by taxpayers and staffed mostly with paid firefighters who work for the city. But volunteer chiefs are in charge of the volunteer departments.

This is the way the City Charter requires the volunteer fire departments to be funded. The fire districts have operated this way long before our formal management agreements in 1998.

Rather than consolidate, Belltown two months ago opted to go all-volunteer.

The consolidation plan was more like a hostile take over. There was no negotiation or discussion. It was take it or leave it, and the terms were not terms that we felt we could live with and still remain a viable fire department.

"In fairness to us, we didn't create the situation," Malloy said. "If they said no and thought everything would remain the same, they made a terrible miscalculation." Malloy reduced the funding after the management agreement with Belltown, which required the city to fund Belltown operations, expired in December. Malloy said $20,000 should be enough for Belltown to buy fuel.

The management agreement did not expire. Mayor Malloy notified the Belltown Fire Department that the City was exercising their right to pull out of the agreement. Belltown neither sought nor desired an end to this agreement. The management agreement only addressed the Career Firefighters formerly employed by the Belltown Fire Department and later employed by the City of Stamford and assigned to the Belltown Fire Department. As the method of funding our operating budget did not change when the agreement started in 1998 we had no reason to expect it would change when the city ended the agreement in 2008.

At a Board of Finance budget hearing last week, Public Safety Director William Callion said Belltown spends about $500 a month for fuel, or $6,000 a year.

So despite previously saying that this money was for fuel, even Director Callion acknowledges that the operating costs cover more than fuel. They can still not explain why the Glenbrook Fire Department which took the deal, received $150,000 for the same expenses.

"They've got the bucks to roll the rigs," Callion told finance board member Bob Kolenberg, who was concerned about the allocation. "They feel slighted," Kolenberg said, referring to calls he received from firefighters.

While there is no doubt that the intention was to slight the Belltown Fire Department and its volunteer members, the effect was to slight every person who lives in or commutes through the Belltown Fire District by reducing the protection they receive.

"They've got $20,000 to spend," Callion replied. "It's their job to manage the money." Didelot said managing money wasn't the problem. "Of course you can manage $20,000," he said. "Can you run a company that you're used to having a $150,000 budget on $20,000? It makes no sense."

Belltown has always strived to be fiscally responsible. We have the oldest front line fleet of apparatus because we take pride in maintaining our equipment and not buying new apparatus until there is a true need for it. We have not taken on costly renovation to our firehouse, the only capital projects we have done recently was a new roof.

The battle for control of the volunteer firehouses began last spring, when elected officials cut $2.4 million from the Office of Public Safety, Health and Welfare for this year's budget. In response, Malloy drew up a consolidation plan aimed at saving the city more than $500,000 and improving fire coverage.

The Mayor drew up this plan without any input from the Fire Departments that actually protect the districts in question. He could not guarantee that it would save the money, as overtime is contractual. This plan involved taking fire units from neighborhoods like the south end and putting them into the volunteer districts. This was never about increasing service.

City officials were concerned about the lack of information about how many volunteers show up for calls and whether their training is up to date.

Belltown provided this information to the City soon after it was requested. Despite never being told what the information was needed for, because we did not believe at the time that the city wanted us to close our doors.

Belltown and Glenbrook initially agreed to join the city plan last summer but then pulled out and, along with Turn of River, sued the city to block it from taking control. Belltown and Glenbrook lost their court battles and five paid firefighters to layoffs. Long Ridge and Springdale volunteer fire departments were not included in the plan and have separate agreements with the city.

Belltown never agreed to join the plan, our elected leadership agreed to present the plan to our membership who have the final say about all such decisions. This is the way our department was formed and this is the way we entered into the management agreement in 1998. The Mayor was fully aware of how this system works, as it is very similar to the way the city government works. The Long Ridge Fire Company has a separate plan only because a district resident sued the city and won the last time the Mayor tried to shut down a volunteer fire department. The Springdale Fire Company has a separate agreement but all one has to do it read the Advocate to know how well that is working out. The management of the Stamford Fire Rescue Department has said that no future deal will be as good for the volunteers as the one Springdale received.

Turn of River got an injunction to block layoffs. A hearing on the injunction is tentatively scheduled for April 7.

This is because the city illegally backed out of their management agreement with Turn of River. The judge saw this and told the city to stop. He also told them to enter into mediation which they refused to do for a long time and when they finally did it was obviously not done in good faith.

Glenbrook eventually agreed to the city's plan, but Belltown became an all-volunteer department in January, when eight of its nine paid firefighters joined Stamford Fire & Rescue. The ninth one retired. The eight were among 34 firefighters assigned to volunteer firehouses who voted for a new labor contract that made them employees of Stamford Fire & Rescue.

Glenbrook was rewarded with a fully funded budget for playing ball. The Mayor does want everyone to know that he is not strong arming anyone though, but he will restore the money if they give up and take his deal as is.

Belltown has 20 active volunteers remaining who have filled the void left by the paid firefighters, Didelot said.

Belltown has had an influx of new members recently. There are currently 18 students in a Firefighter 1 class being held at Belltown, the majority of whom are new volunteer firefighters at Belltown & Turn of River.

Earlier this month, Malloy requested $164,000 for Glenbrook in his budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1 and $40,000 for Turn of River - $20,000 for each station.

There has still been no explanation as to why it costs more to run the smallest volunteer district (Glenbrook) than it does to run the largest one (Turn of River). There has also been no explanation why these budgets are so small after an extra tax was added to these districts supposedly to increase fire protection.

For Turn of River, which is in mediation with the city, Malloy set aside $288,000 in case an agreement was reached. The requested allocation for Belltown the smallest of all the volunteer fire departments.

So if you do as I say the money will magically appear, despite not being included in the budget as sent to the boards or finance and representatives. If you do not do as I say, you will not be funded appropriately. How is this not a strong arm tactic?

"Mayor Malloy, by cutting our budget, he's basically telling us he doesn't want us there anymore," Didelot said.

The mayor obviously for whatever reason does not like volunteer firefighters. He must not like the fact that we give our time for free to help the citizens of Stamford. He must not like the fact that we actually save the city money.

Malloy said Belltown fire officials took themselves out of the full-time firefighting business.

How have we taken ourselves out of anything? We have in fact undertaken a greater portion of the responsibility we once shared with our career staff. The volunteer firefighters of Belltown are still here protecting our neighbors 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. How is this less than anything but full-time?

"That's the reality. They made a choice," Malloy said. "If they made a different choice, there would be a different result."

We made a choice to remain in service to our district, protecting life and property. The Mayor made a choice to slash our budget nearly 90%.

Didelot said he was exploring options, including fundraising and requesting additional appropriations from the Board of Finance. But he said he still would reject the city's consolidation plan. "I have no regrets about it," he said. "We've been keeping up our side of the bargain."

This year we have increased our volunteer responses, we have increased our volunteer membership, we have responded to every call for service we received. The Mayor has not lived up to his responsibilities to our citizens like we have.