Chief’s Wife Fights Back!

Our previous post discussed the most recently convened Fairview Fire Commissioner’s meeting. That meeting found a Board of Fire Commissioners armed and ready with facts and figures to counter a plethora of false information that originated from Town Hall and being propagandized at meetings and in the media by hand-picked operatives. At this same meeting, the Chief’s wife had signed up to speak. Since the attacks had been made against her husband, Chief Anthony LoGiudice, she had remained on the sidelines. But after a letter was sent by resident Milt Hoffman to the Civic Associations, she told ABG she felt compelled to act. She also stated that she was not a public speaker and asked another resident to read her letter, which he did. 

Immediately below is the letter Mr Hoffman sent out to Civic Associations and community groups. What we have intentionally omitted for privacy concerns is Mr Hoffman’s contact information. Following his letter is a letter from Kathy LoGiudice, wife of Fairview Fire Department Chief Anthony LoGiudice.

Mr Hoffman’s letter:
“Dear Neighborhood Assn. Leader: ).
I am one of the coordinators of the newly formed Fairview Monitors who are feed up with increasingly higher property taxes in the Fairview Fire District and want to take back control from the Fiefdom called the Fairview Fire Commission. To accomplish that, we need the help of all the neighborhood associations.

You may have heard about the latest attempt to create an unnecessary and costly position of executive deputy fire chief just as we were receiving our tax bills calling for a 5.7 % hike, atop the 6% last year, and 4.3% the year before. During the two-year period, our district taxes increased from $10,924,627 to $12,424,074, a gain of$1,499,447. During the same period, pension climbed $777,000. And we don't have enough firefighters. Costs soar because men are-brought back on overtime. We have the costliest independent fire district in the state due in part to past decisions to grant huge pensions and health care benefits, each now costing about $2 million a year and accounting for a total of 32 percent of all spending. (One commissioner, Michael Cotter, was on our side.)

What riled people just as much as the proposed new job: the son of a commissioner was among those in line for the position that would have cost us $200,000 a year. The threat of more spending and revelations of nepotism prompted about 70 of our residents to show up at a commission meeting and protest. Some of us created an alliance and quickly circulated a petition signed by 319 residents demanding that the commissioners scrap the proposal and take steps to reduce spending--for example by Fairview and Hartsdale fire departments share one chief for departments now with 45 and 39 men respectively. The chiefs now make over $200,000 a year, more than the chief of the New York City Fire Department with thousands of firefighters, and more than the governor. The three independent fire districts in Greenburgh spend almost as much as Greenburgh spends for police, public works, sanitation, library, parks and other services. 

The commissioners did shelve the executive deputy chief position. However, given the opportunity to join with Hartsdale with one chief for both departments because the Fairview chief was retiring after being criticized for profane and racist remarks and sued for discrimination in hiring, the Fairview commission quickly appointed a deputy as new chief and moved the son of the commissioner into the deputy's vacated slot.

For decades, the Fairview Fire Commission of five has kept our people in the dark, failing to let us know when elections for commissioner are held and raising and spending taxpayer money with impunity. One of our main goals is to elect a taxpayer-friendly commissioner or commissioners in December and keep the pressure on the commissioners by attending Commission meetings. We hope you and others from your association will join us this coming Thursday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. at fire headquarters, 19 Rosemont Blvd.

In the meantime, please contact me by email or phone WE MUST BECOME UNITED OR OUR TAXES WILL CONTINUE TO SOAR.”

End of letter.

Ms LoGiudice’s letter:

I sat through last month’s meeting of the Board of Fire Commissioners in Fairview waiting for the Board of Fire Commissioners to correct a lot of misinformation that was being given out by audience members.  It never happened.

Milt Hoffman recently sent a letter to the Civic Associations.  Much of it was the same misinformation spouted at the last meeting.  Perhaps I can address some of the incorrect information in his letter.

First, there was no attempt to create an unnecessary and costly position of Executive Deputy.  That position already exists, it was just not currently filled.  Furthermore, when Tony held the position of Executive Deputy, he was the lowest paid officer in the dept., including Captains. There was one regular Deputy Chief one year that made almost double the Executive Deputy and even more than the Chief.  The Executive Deputy, like the Chief cannot make overtime unlike all the other officers.

As far as calling back guys on overtime when an emergency necessitates it…Greenburgh is a large town made up of mostly volunteer depts.  When one of them has a fire and calls Fairivew, Hartsdale, or Greenville, they show up.  And, yes, they do call people back on overtime if the emergency requires it for both themselves and other depts..

Michael Cotter may be on the taxpayers side but so are all the other commissioners, they all live here.  Michael Cotter is a retired firefighter and may hold some grudges against people still employed in the dept.  One must always be careful about other people’s agendas.  Where else can you retire from your job and get elected to be a boss?  Perhaps a better idea may be to see if there is a way to stop retirees from coming back to be commissioners in a dept. they were employed by.  Mike Cotter was never an officer in this dept. and had no idea what it entailed.

Next point was Eryk Simmons being promoted to Deputy.  When someone retires, they need to be replaced.  Eryk was number 1 on the list and had an impressive resume and had proven himself more than ready for the job in his performance as a Captain.

Milt also mentioned nepotism.  Let’s go there.  You are now concerned with a Commissioner’s son being promoted to deputy, even though that commissioner recused herself from voting.  For years, there was a Malone on the Board of Fire Commissioners.  First there was Gene Malone Jr., followed by his wife Marie.  I’m guessing they also recused themselves from voting when it came to their sons, son-in-law, daughter-in-law’s brothers, grandchildren, etc. being hired or promoted.  No one screamed nepotism then, so why now?  It was no secret.  For years Fairview was known as the Malone Fire Dept. because there were so many of them.  And now it’s a problem?  Generally speaking, the firefighting profession often attracts members of the same family.  Every candidate must take the Civil Service Exam and prove themselves.  Nepotism is not really an issue.

As to Milt’s remarks about Tony retiring after being criticized for profane and racist remarks and sued for discrimination in hiring, the timeline is correct.  Tony is retiring but it is not because of the above.  First let’s address the hiring.  The Chief does not hire.  The Board of Fire Commissioners hire.  So it doesn’t even make sense that the Chief is even named in the suit.  It’s actually unfathomable.  But, this is today’s America, anyone can sue anyone for pretty much anything.

There is no one that wants Tony to retire, especially right now, except perhaps Paul Feiner, Milt Hoffman, and Mike Cotter.  And, we did consider staying, however, if you read the other information I have provided*, you will see that firefighters don’t generally live very long after retiring.  Tony already has one of the cancers caused by 9/11.  It is generally a very slow-moving cancer except for in cases like the first responders down at the Twin Towers.  It moves very quickly so we saw no reason to stay longer than we had originally intended so we moved forward with our retirement plan.  Tony had informed the Board he would retire sometime this year but definitely by the end of the year because we were waiting to see what his health options were.

As to the Fire Dept. budget.  It is unfair of anyone to say anything at all about it with no information other than their own tax bill.  Also, it cannot be compared to the Police budget which is broken up and shared amongst other town expenses.

As to the Commissioner elections, it is always printed in the paper.  Not sure why Milt is trying to pretend now that it isn’t.  He’s brought lots of people to vote in the past.  Last year, someone at Town Hall had misinformed residents and told them it was a budget vote.  People were quite annoyed that they bothered to come out to vote for an unopposed commissioner. 

So the commissioners have not kept anyone in the dark.  They have been busy keeping the fire dept. out of Paul Feiner’s hands.  He wants to use the fire dept. budget for other town expenses.  He will cut our services.  Fairview does EMS.  Nine times out of ten they will respond much quicker than the police are able to.  Fairview’s response time is approx. 5 to 8 minutes from the time they are notified.  The police response is approx. 12 – 15 minutes.  If you have ever needed to call 911 in Fairview, you will generally have the fire dept. pull up first.  If you want to save money, they can discontinue being EMTs and leave that to the police but do you really want to take that risk?  The Fairview Fire Dept. has a long-standing history of supporting the town in EMS, Tech Rescue, and Code Enforcement.  The Town receives all the fine money from Code Enforcement, not the Fire Dept. The Fire Dept. is also not reimbursed for any training for these things and not reimbursed for supplies either.

Milt also mentioned dispatching by 60 Control.  This was already implemented.  As a matter of fact, Fairview was one of the first to be dispatched by 60 Control.  It was a disaster.  Only by the Grace of God, no one was killed or injured.  Also, Milt stated that the dept. dispatchers are paid overtime to handle the dispatching.  Not true.  This is handled by the duty crew for the most part.  Very often by someone who is on light duty.  The firefighters are put on light duty if they are injured.  They are going to be paid anyway, so instead of having them sit around the firehouse and do nothing, they cover the desk (dispatch). 

Someone also mentioned that the guys that went down to the World Trade Center for the 9/11 Tragedy were paid triple time.  That is ludicrous.  Many career firefighters volunteered to go down on their time off.  This was totally unpaid, hence the word volunteer.  I do not know about the NYC firefighters, I’m guessing they probably did get paid, as well they should have.

Milt also keeps mentioning the Chief of NYC and his pay.  I have printed out the organizational chart of the NYC Fire Dept.*  Please take a look at it.  Your Chief is in charge of almost every box on that chart and goes to every major call in Fairview 24 hours, 365 days a year.  He doesn’t  have a “staff”.  Take a look at the chart.  My goodness, your Chief is underpaid by Milt’s standards.

I ask you to support Chief Reiss and the Fairview Fire Dept.

End of letter

Providing bits and pieces of information or saying what people want to hear under the guise of informing the public or rallying the troops does not do anyone a service. It is nothing but propaganda for their own “end game”. ABG has continued to detail the specifics of the Fairview Fire District and the Fairview Fire Department directly, the fire service in general and numerous NY State laws that affect both the fire service and the taxpayer. No other media outlets are providing this information.

Many people have accused ABG of being against fire service consolidation, lower taxes, curbing of high salaries, high pension payouts and more. The reality is quite the contrary – we actually support real consolidation. But real consolidation can only work and work well if it will be implemented throughout a Town-wide level, inclusive of "cherry picked" departments and agencies in the Town. Real consolidation must not applied to just a few departments here and there. It can only succeed if the effort is applied equally, with an even implementation unencumbered or politicized by elected officials.

The taxpayers of Greenburgh deserve more honesty and real open government from our officials. We should seek term limits for all elected officials, and a process that invites and welcomes all legal residents to participate in the process. Greenburgh has yet to see any of this with the majority of our elected officials. Once we do, we’ll finally get A Better Greenburgh.

* Editor’s Note: ABG will be highlighting this information which was not included and will appear in an article currently in progress.