Central Coventry Fire Fighters Local 3372 responded today to State Rep. Patricia Morgan and State Sen. Nicholas Kettle’s flyer attacking the district’s budget and proposed tax increase, saying they issued it without regard to facts or fairness.
“Rep. Morgan is doing a disservice to the voters of Coventry, a town she doesn’t even reside in,” said Dave Gorman, president of Coventry Professional Fire Fighters Local 3372. “Apparently, because she doesn’t have to worry about fire protection herself, she thinks it’s appropriate to throw political bombs and misinformation at voters who haven’t yet had an opportunity to hear all the information for themselves.
“Rep. Morgan’s flyer against the district is a long list of lies: from her claim that there is a realistic alternative contingency plan in place, to her statements about the district being sued for illegally taxing businesses at double the residential rate, to employees being fully reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses,” he said. “Her flyer shows she is operating without facts; context; respect for the truth; or respect for the voters.
“Characterizing the CCFD’s proposed budget as the highest in the state, when Coventry pays for street lights and fire hydrants, while other districts do not, is totally misleading. So is blaming firefighter expenses as the reason for the CCFD budget deficit,” Gorman said. “Since the district went into receivership in October, the Special Master has made it clear in court that a ‘clerical error’ in the town tax office was part of the reason for the department’s budget difficulties and the root causes of the deficit are still being sorted out in court.
“The flyer’s statement that union employees did not make ‘structural’ changes to benefits is also totally false,” Gorman added. “Our members have made significant sacrifices, including an increase to employee out-of-pocket expenses by 87 percent; an elimination of prescription costs to the district; and a reduction in the overall healthcare premium to the district, in addition to filling overtime shifts with employees who were previously ineligible to serve and deferring clothing allowances and holidays. We eliminated a senior management position. We’ve changed how much and at what rate vacation and sick time are accrued upon retirement. We’ve reduced personnel leave from 11 to five days per year. We’ve foregone pay raises for the last few years and worked with no guarantee of income for weeks. To say that sacrifices weren’t made is patently false.
“Also, to refer to an ad-hoc contingency plan as viable when it has not been reviewed by the Court’s Public Safety Committee, the Court’s Finance Committee, the Special Master, the CCFD Fire Chief, the CCFD firefighters and the general public, is incredibly misleading,” he added.
Morgan and Kettle’s flyer ignore the fact that a closed fire station would inevitably mean reduced staffing and services in the district. “There is no way around this reality and that is the reality voters will face at Tuesday night’s budget meeting,” he said.
“Rather than tossing out political bombs, Rep. Morgan could direct her energy to working with other elected officials to solve problems,” he said. “When she had the opportunity to sign on to fire district tax reform legislation [House Bill 5176] which permits districts to adopt tax classification rates and subject districts to annual audits, she didn’t think it was worth her time.”