Town Prevented from Aquiring Fire Departmet

[CollegeBuff]

The Associated Press


PROVIDENCE -- Following a federal court order, the town of North Smithfield today postponed acquisition of a privately-run fire and rescue service, officials said.


A U.S. District Court judge ordered a temporary restraining order that prevents the town from taking over the service and converting into a town-run fire department.


The move comes one day after the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the town.


The lawsuit, on behalf of Christine Melendez, an emergency medical technician from Cranston, alleges the town and state denied Melendez the opportunity to compete for a job in the new town fire department.


The town wanted to acquire the private service, hiring its all-white, all-male staff as a group. But town lawyers warned that the town could be sued for discrimination because people could claim it was creating a new department and new jobs that would have to be posted for outside applicants.


Special legislation enacted last month by the General Assembly gave the town an exemption from state employment discrimination laws, allowing the acquisition to proceed.

But the new law did not exempt the town from federal anti-discrimination laws.

The temporary restraining order prevents the hiring of the private service firefighters while the case proceeds.

The judge has set another hearing on the matter for Sept. 9.

Town Administrator Linda Thibault said in the meantime the private company will continue to provide fire rescue services to North Smithfield residents.

[johnmrobinson]

I followed this case in the news and being from the RI area .. was wondering if only this girl was getting a chance or would testing be eventually opened to anyone in the community. If I, as a white male, was complainging about this aquisition of a private rescure company, would the ACLU come to my side to stand by me, and cry for a fair shot. Open the testing to the community ... let's see who turns out and who passes all the exams.

[CFD Hazards]

If she forces the town to have a test then the applications should be open to everyone. Judging on how incredibly thick this woman is, I can't imagine she would ever be able to pass a physical ability test. I don't know what their test is like but we had at least 10 women take our last test and only one passed. She is a brick layer and in pretty good shape and she really struggled.

[SWFD94]

Where does it say, in this post/article, that she is "incredibly thick"? If you are reffering to hard-headed, restate that and explain yourself regardless.

[CFD Hazards]

She was on the news all day yesterday and if you would like me to spell it out, she is fat and I would say unable to pass the test.

[SWFD94]

I was just curious, that is all. The article made no mention of her size, and you made no mention of seeing her on the news, in person, or whatever in any of your posts, so I though clarification was in order.

[LadyCapn]

Are EMT/FF positions combined or are they separate? Can she be an EMT on the Dept and not be a FF?
As for her size, I haven't seen her so I don't know just how "thick" she is, but size does not always equate out of shape.
I would think there are a quite a few people who would like to see the positions open, not just her.

[hwoods]

What???

First, what is "Private"? Use of the term here makes me think it is a business venture, "Joe's Firefighting Service" or something like that. can someone elaborate? My next one is, Why would the town want to take it over? Everyone else seems to be in an "Outsourcing" mood, what's different here? But then, I guess I've led a sheltered life, we don't allow towns to have anything to do with Fire/Rescue/EMS here. Stay Safe....

[CFD Hazards]

To answer LadyCapn's question, you cannot be an EMT and not a firefighter. I believe there are two people on duty in the stations in this town and if the call comes in for a fire they take the engine and if the call is medical then they take the rescue/medic.
To answer HWoods question, I am really not sure. There were two independant districts, North Smithfield and Primrose. Both were funded by the town but I think that was the only input the town had. I have heard that administrators didn't agree with some of the decisions that were made by the chiefs and they wanted more control over the departments, thus the reason for them taking over. They got permission from the state to just make the current firefighters employees of the town. This woman claims she was discriminated against because she is a hispanic woman and wasn't offered a job. She was not a member of either department. The town never had any type of application for the "new" positions so I can't figure out how she was discriminated against. The only reason people sue FD's claiming discrimination is because they feel part of their settlement should be a position on that department. It's worked for some people in this state and more recently in Boston. I can't imagine those four were the only ones to be discriminated against, they were just the only ones that sued. I don't care much for people taking the "back door" in.

[Cellblock776]

It sounds like the same situation I'm in here in my department. The City incorporated and makes up 75% of the District covered by my Parish (county) run Volunteer Fire Department. The City wanted some control so they appointed our Fire Chief as the Official Town Chief. Later he was budgeted to hire a couple parttimers so he had a couple of us vollies work nights at the station. We were listed as 'contract' employees of the Town. Then the city decided it could aford full-time firefighters so they drew up a City FD on paper and had our Chief ask if any of us wanted to be full time City employees. I quit my prison job to take a full time FD job so now I am a City employee. Due to the budget the City only has the Chief and 2 full time and one Parttime Firefighters. We man the volunteer station on 12 hour shifts and the only thing the City pays is our salaries. Everything else, training, equiptment, PPE, belongs to the VFD so we are dual paid/vollie firefighters. When the pagers tone out the one paid guy working his shift at the station jumps in the appropriate truck, pumper for fire and rescue truck if its medical or wreck. The volunteers, we have about 10 active vollies including the paid guys who are off duty, will respond from home and pick up the other trucks as they pass the station if necessary.
A typical call happened yesterday. 2pm, Lady haveing lunch at the local truckstop starts having chest pains. 911 tones out the department. The paid guy is out in the pumper weedeating around hydrants and responds directly to the truckstop in the pumper. I'm home, I work the night shift at the FD, so I drive to the station and pick up the Rescue truck and roll to the truck stop. The Fire Chief is enroute in the City issue pickup truck from his home on his day off. I arrive just ahead of the ground ambulance from our private service which is contracted with the Parish for ALS service. Also the AirMed helicopter from Baton Rouge is landing in the back of the Truckstop. Since it is a weekday afternoon, no volunteers are around to respond except for the chief and me on our time off from our paid shift. The patient is transported and I return the rescue truck to the station then drive home and get dinner and shower and dressed so that I can be at the station for my shift at 6pm.

[hwoods]

Thanks Guys.........

The mud has thinned, but not cleared up. Can anyone define "Private" as it is used in this case? CB, got any more on this? Thanks, Stay Safe....

[Dalmatian90]

From familiarity with the area, if not specific department...

Two models followed in that area of Rhode Island -- incorporated, non-profit departments funded by a district or town...or a district run department. This largely is a legacy of fire departments springing up to protect mill villages & hill towns. The mill villages would start in the 1800s with hand-drawn apparatus, and later the rural colonial-era town centers would form a rural fire department in the early 1900s with motorized apparatus. As the distinctions between communities go away with time and development in between them, going to a single, municipal service is common in the area, and North Smithfield is the next town in the "circle" centered around Providence of towns going this route.

In any case, I'm certain this doesn't involve "for-profit" fire service, but is simply the transfer of the assests/administration of a public agency from one body to another.