FARMINGTON – Selectmen amended the town’s personnel policy to allow for the hiring of full-time fire fighters at their meeting on Tuesday.
At the last selectmen’s meeting, Fire Chief Terry Bell recommended that Timothy D. Hardy and Scott Baxter be hired for two of the four available full-time positions. Both are longtime members of the department and both are highly qualified in all aspects of the job, Bell said at the time. But, both Hardy and Baxter have close relatives serving on the Farmington Fire Rescue Department, which was found in conflict with the wording in the town’s general personnel policy with regards to the section on nepotism.
As originally written, the policy said that immediate family members are ineligible to apply for a position “in any department of 10 or more employees….” The policy added that anyone already employed before the policy was approved in 2006, would not be affected. Included are some serving on the Fire Rescue Department, since some close family members currently serve.
Hiring two of the four full-time fire fighters was tabled until the policy’s language could be studied and amended at the meeting Tuesday.
The wording was changed to say that “any individual applying for a position with the town in any department of 10 or more employees will be ineligible if the individual is required to supervise or be supervised by an immediate family member.”
Selectmen had questioned the chain of command within the department but were given an outline detailing the organizational structure of the department that differentiates between those serving in the career division and those serving on a paid-per-call basis and where the supervisory positions lie.
Fire Chief Terry Bell said using the organizational structure, there are no conflicts within in the department.
In a subsection of the current policy, the fire department had been able request an exemption to the nepotism policy, The subsection formerly said the department would “be able to hire more than one person from the same immediate family, for paid-per-call firefighter positions only.”
Selectmen also approved striking “for paid-per-call firefighter positions” to allow for the inclusion of four new full-time firefighters.
Last month voters approved funding four new full-time fire fighter/EMT positions due to a chronic shortage of responding firefighters to an increasing number of service calls.
Bell said 11 people had applied for the four positions and he said candidates will be interviewed later this week to fill the remaining two full-time slots.
This is a very touchy subject. The town needs to be very careful with this. It’s amazing how easy the rules change when we need them to .
By hiring Hardy and Baxter into full time status the numbers of available firefighters are not increased because these 2 men could often be found working in the per diem position, and were known entities who would respond in an emergency. New blood could have filled these positions and we still would have had these men making the numbers available 4 rather than 2. As for nepotism it is what keeps fire departments far and near going, and is a double edged sword. Take a roll call at any FD and I am sure there are not that many last names being announced.
Cynic, what a way to reward 20 years of dedicated service. “Thank you for your loyalty. We’ve given the job to someone else. Please consider staying on as an alternate.” I think it’s a wise choice to secure two people who know the job and the area who have earned the respect of their peers. When you work in potentially life threatening situations who better to trust than your family? That’s not nepotism, that’s simple logic.
Amanda, I grant your point, but as a taxpayer in Farmington I also understand that we are now needing to fund a full time fire department to help out other towns because there is an extreme pissing contest between departments who continue to avoid regionalization, and aren’t staffed enough to even support their own needs. As a result Farmington steps up with 2 full time guys to help cover in surrounding towns. That is what frosts my butt, not that these new jobs are filled by Hardy and Baxter. I agree both men have been loyal, have given many hours away from their families, and are well trained. Those facts are not in dispute, but simple logic tells me that the numbers of available men capable of doing the job has not increased by their hiring. There aren’t 2 more men waiting in the wings to do the per diem/ volunteer work, where as they might have taken a full time job increasing the total number of members in the department. What is in dispute is the need for regionalization that is fought against by towns who can’t staff their own departments, and aren’t worried about it because Farmington ALWAYS bails them out free of charge while the Farmington tax payer is bled dry. Also not in doubt is Chief Bell’s decisions, he is offering up a solution to fix the current problem, but the system is still broken, and if none of the other fire chiefs are willing to admit to the same the problem will continue to be a bigger problem, with the solution being more full times for the Farmington taxpayer to fund.
Cynic, you are absolutely right and everything I have had to say on this matter has been withheld by the Bulldog.
As someone said before, they absolutely should have to look at the applications without the names on them and the policy should have never been changed!