Contentious Norwich firefighting ordinance heads to public vote. What do you need to know?

Editor's note: The original version of this story contained some inaccuracies. The Nov. 1 policy remains in place until at least the six-month trial window expires or the new policy is approved at the Feb. 1 election. A "no" vote in February reverts the city to the Nov. 1 policy. Additionally, the withdrawal of volunteer fire departments from automatic aid has been disputed. Mayor Peter Nystrom says they did not withdraw, while City Council President Pro-Tempore Joseph DeLucia said they did.

NORWICH — Some municipalities may have one or even no fire departments.

Norwich has six, one paid and five volunteer. A Feb. 1 special election will decide whether Norwich switches to a new version of city ordinance 8-17, concerning an automatic aid policy for firefighting. In this case, the automatic aid means the paid fire department joins volunteer departments in responding to some fires, and vice versa.

While the paid department and the Democratic members of City Council support the ordinance, the volunteer departments and the Republican members of the council are against how the ordinance approaches automatic aid, preferring a policy developed just before the ordinance was introduced.

What are the differences between the two, and how does the vote impact Norwich residents?

What is the Feb. 1 election in Norwich about?

An automatic aid policy was created at the suggestion of the McGrath fire study, published in 2021, and was agreed upon by all volunteer and paid fire departments in October. That took effect Nov. 1.

Around the same time, President Pro-Tempore Joe DeLucia (D), consulted with Norwich Fire Department Chief Tracy Montoya and wrote a new ordinance, 8-17, which was voted in by City Council in December, along party lines, said Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom (R). The original policy is still in place for its six-month trial window.

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The decision to hold a special election on the new ordinance was decided at the Jan. 3 council meeting, because of a petition asking for a public vote. That election is scheduled for Feb. 1, when voters will decide whether to switch over to the new ordinance. If the vote fails, the city will revert to the November automatic aid policy.

Norwich Fire Department Chief Tracy Montoya said he can’t remember anything like this happening with the city in his 30 years with the department.

Why are volunteer firefighters against the new ordinance?

The volunteer fire departments threatened to withdraw from the new ordinance in protest.

Volunteer firefighters have said the new ordinance lets the paid fire department overstep its bounds, largely by having the paid department automatically respond to fires outside its current jurisdiction, as long as the fire is deemed a threat to a city asset.

In a Nov. 2 letter to the city manager signed by all five volunteer fire chiefs, threatening withdrawal from the automatic aid policy due to their opposition to the proposed ordinance, they mention that an increase in call volume would result in additional wear and tear to equipment. The city manager spoke to the chiefs Nov. 3 and convinced them not to withdraw.

The intent of the new ordinance was good, said Montoya, and there is value in protecting critical city infrastructure, like schools, but the policy could have been worded differently.

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“I don’t know if we should do a different response based on the name on the lease or the deed,” Montoya said.

The original policy has a six-month window for changes.

“It was a rush to judgment," Nystrom said, of the new ordinance.

Why was a new ordinance introduced after the original automatic aid policy?

DeLucia stated in an email that he introduced the ordinance because he felt the chiefs taking a year to develop an automatic aid policy was too long. The volunteer chiefs wrote their letter threatening to withdraw their support for automatic aid shortly after he introduced his ordinance.

“Public safety cannot fall to the whims of a handful of city and fire department leaders, but must be policy set as matters of law,” he stated. “How can the volunteer chiefs say that they support automatic-aid when their first move was to abandon it and the protection it provides to citizens because they disagree with it being in the form of an ordinance?”

What's the difference between the Nov. 1 policy and new ordinance?

Both policies establish automatic aid and agree that re-tones will result in an automatic aid call. A re-tone is if there isn’t a response from a department, or when there isn’t a response within five minutes of the original dispatch.

The October agreement lists what kinds of fires solicit an automatic aid response. These include smoke or fire in a structure, multiple calls, secondary confirmation of fire, a vehicle fire exposed to a structure, and matters within the dispatcher’s discretion.

The calls that won’t necessarily have automatic aid include fire alarms, reported food on the stove and vehicle and outdoor fires that aren’t exposed to structures, the October agreement lists.

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In 8-17, the Norwich Fire Department will be on automatic aid for all fire calls and “situations or conditions posing a risk of causing serious damage to or the disabling of city assets, including, but not limited to, all structures and properties which are owned by the city, leased by the city, or operated by the city or any of its departments.”

The October agreement also lists standardized automatic aid responses and staffing for each fire department, which isn’t specified in the ordinance. An automatic aid response under the ordinance may result in a delayed response, and too little or too much apparatus being deployed, Occum Volunteer Fire Department Chief Scott Eggert said.

“In the (policy) we’d get what’s there automatically. If there’s a fire, I get the (Norwich Fire Department), plus a second alarm assignment,” he said. “Now, with how the ordinance is written, they have to wait for me to sign on the air to say ‘start my second alarm assignment.’”

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How does the new ordinance - and automatic aid - impact Norwich residents?

Eggert himself doesn’t believe the ordinance would lead to higher taxes, or eliminating volunteer departments, though he’s heard that concern from others.

“We don’t have the equipment, or the staffing, or the desire to take over their duties,” Montoya said, adding that he is unsure on what basis that claim is made.

The fire district overseeing the area where a fire is reported still calls the shots, Montoya said.

The ordinance itself makes no mention of taxes.

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The ordinance’s public impact should be about safety and complementary responses in and out of the city consolidated district, Montoya said.

A recent example of the policy working was a November fire on Bolduc Lane that displaced three families. Engine 2 arrived and had water on the fire and stretched in a supply line. The crew worked with the Taftville and Yantic Volunteer Fire Departments on scene.

“If it weren’t for automatic aid, Engine 2 wouldn’t have been called in on the first alarm, the second alarm, third alarm or fourth alarm,” he said. “There’s a problem with that.”

In the original October policy, all the volunteer departments request either Engine 2 or Engine 3.

How does automatic aid and the new ordinance impact the fire departments?

The volunteer fire chiefs are for an automatic aid policy, but they want firefighting decisions left to all the chiefs, in terms of what's best for the community, Eggert said.

“Automatic aid will happen no matter what, we just want how it happens to fall back into the hands of the fire chiefs to decide what happens,” he said.

Montoya maintains the ordinance doesn’t have an operational impact, and there’ll be a continuing process of looking at how automatic aid is approached, and the departments are still going to do what they’re supposed to on automatic and mutual aid calls.

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Nystrom said there was a breakdown in trust between the paid and volunteer departments, as the volunteers weren’t involved in creating the ordinance, though they were involved with the policy from October.

“That’s why you vote no, and the ordinance will be written by all six chiefs after they’ve done their tests,” he said.

Why are firefighting matters partisan in Norwich?

Looking at the voting record, firefighting is one of the topics that most often gets voted on a party line in Norwich. To Eggert, it doesn’t appear strictly ideological, but one side seems to take one opinion and the other side takes the other.

The parties could just be “using the issue of public safety for whatever reason they want,” Montoya said.

“I have never sat in a fire chief meeting and considered, asked, or been asked what my political affiliation is,” he said. “We talk about responses, equipment, safety and operations.”

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Councilmember Tracey Burto (D), who sponsored the ordinance alongside DeLucia, said the partisan character around firefighting predates her time in city council, but said “it’s too bad” that it’s the way it is.

“When it comes to the safety of the city, we should be working together, not divided,” she said.

Nystrom characterized the public vote as “an opportunity to remove politics from the issues,” by letting all the chiefs determine best practice, as they’re the ones with the experience.

When and where can you vote?

The voting hours on Feb. 1 are from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Precinct One votes at the Norwich Worship Center at 165 Lawler Lane. Precinct Two votes at the Rose City Senior Center at 8 Mahan Drive. Precinct Three votes at the Norwichtown Congregational Church at 81 East Town St. Precinct Four votes at the Beth Jacob Synagogue at 400 New London Turnpike. Precinct Five votes at the St. Mark Lutheran Church Hall at 248 Broadway. Precinct Six votes at the AHEPA-110 Community Room at 370 Hamilton Ave. according to the Norwich Registrar of Voters webpage.

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Norwich Feb. 1 election decides volunteer, paid firefighter response