Regarding CVH Firefighting, An Opinion

Daniel J. Penney sent this in as an opinion piece:
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March 8, 2012

Regarding the most recent excellent Hartford Courant article “Middletown Takes Over CVH Firefighting/Emergency Duties”,this is a clear example of CT State Government recklessly passing its tax burden down to the local level.

In responding to a very embarrassing campus wide overtime management issue, CVH administration overacted in shifting firefighting duties and expenses on to the backs of the South Fire District (SFD) taxpayers of the City of Middletown. With the disappointing support of the SFD Board of Fire Commissioners (BOFC), long established firefighter union labor locals have been unprecedentedly pitted against each other while SFD staff and vehicle resources have been directed to OCCUPY the CVH campus. Such actions have also shifted expenses once shared by millions of State taxpayers to a limited number of local residents and small business of the SFD of the City of Middletown.

It’s unfortunate that the CVH administration did not long ago initiate operational protocol to better manage overtime by working with labor to better utilize its very cost effective and efficient supplemental fire services volunteer staffing. Certainly CVH clients, employees, labor and neighboring tax payers of the south fire district deserve such management performance.

In fact, there are significant cost savings synergies that the SFD BOFC and CVH administration could develop working with the City of Middletown and labor for the benefit of all taxpayers.


Daniel J. Penney
MIddletown