administration-leadership

A Facebook post about an area Mosque has led to the suspension of a firefighter who is also an elected fire commissioner. Last week, a Facebook user named Jerry Omara responded to Newsday coverage about plans to add a second story to a mosque in East Meadow with an inflammatory post.

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The fire chief of the New Britain Fire Department has been placed on leave following an investigation report that concluded the department’s sagging morale was in part attributable to his racial insensitivity. Mayor Erin Stewart placed Fire Chief Thomas Ronalter on leave effective tomorrow.

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Four Pompano Beach fire recruits are off the job following an investigation into a noose found draped over the seat of the academy’s only black recruit. The incident occurred at the Pompano Beach Fire Training Center on the recruits' last day of training, June 7, 2017, but was not immediately reported.

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A Facebook posting about a fatal dirt bike accident in June is continuing to raise troubling questions for a Long Island firefighter and his fire department. Jon-Paul Brechter was suspended from the Holbrook Fire Department, one day after he posted insensitive remarks on Facebook about an accident that killed two young men on a stolen dirt bike.

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What is the biggest liability facing the fire service? Yesterday’s post was about a subrogation lawsuit filed by an insurance carrier against a fire department over a rekindle that destroyed a home. The insurer is seeking $640,000 in damages. Are cases like this our biggest liability?

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A “culture of hostility”. That is a claim that more than a few fire chiefs can relate to. In the case of Brooklyn Park Fire Chief Kenneth Prillaman, that hostility came at the hands of a councilman who is also a firefighter

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It is my pleasure to welcome my good friend and colleague Bill Maccarone to cyberspace with the creation of a new blog called FirefighterOvertime.org. Bill and I have been teaching the FLSA for Fire Departments program for the past two years, and Bill's plan is to pass along his accumulated knowledge – together with the latest in FLSA headlines – to firefighters everywhere.

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Houston Fire Chief Sam Pena went on Newsmakers to discuss the challenges the department faces including a suit by the firefighter’s union and a recent audit of the department’s inspection program. The suit filed last week by the union accuses the city administration of refusing to bargain in good faith.

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An Ontario fire chief who was suspended last December when accusations of sexual misconduct with an under age boy first surfaced, is now facing 17 counts as additional victims started coming forward. Kingsville Fire Chief Robert Kissner, 60, is facing 11 counts of sexual assault, 5 of sexual exploitation and 1 of sexual interference

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A Colorado fire protection district has filed suit claiming a county is illegally diverting tax revenue from the district to an economic development agency. South Metro Fire Rescue Fire Protection District filed suit today in Douglas County District Court claiming that Douglas County has been misallocating tax revenue to benefit the Parker Authority for Reinvestment.

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A New Jersey fire chief who was arrested in 2015 for sharing child pornography over fire department computers, has pled guilty. Former Audubon Park fire chief John Terruso pled guilty yesterday to second-degree distribution of child pornography and third-degree possession child pornography.

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The Salt Lake City Civil Service Commission has overturned the demotion of Fire Marshal Martha Ellis, finding that the city wrongly demoted her in last year. Chief Ellis was demoted from battalion chief to captain for an "apparent lack of engagement with [her] current assignment, a lack of ownership of [her] job responsibilities, an inability or unwillingness to follow instructions ..."

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A deputy chief in Plainfield, New Jersey is suing the city and his fire chief for reverse discrimination. Deputy Chief Jeffrey Courtney alleges that Fire Chief Frank Tidwell discriminated against him on account of his race.

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A former arson investigator for the Charlotte Fire Department was awarded $1.4 million today in a whistleblower lawsuit against the City of Charlotte. Crystal Eschert, a former arson investigator for the city was fired after she voiced safety concerns over a new fire department building.

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