North Amityville Fire Co. volunteers say department beset by money battles, delays in recruitment, mismanagement

The North Amityville Fire Co. Inc. is trying to address internal failures of the company and return to serving the community after the Town of Babylon last month canceled its nearly $3.2 million contract with the company and ordered emergency calls redirected to neighboring fire departments.

North Amityville Fire for years has struggled with mismanagement, battles over expenditures and recruitment, and a culture where those who disagreed with the board of governors faced retaliation or dismissal, members of the volunteer service told Newsday.

The company lost its contract because of a lack of timely response, allegations of "mismanagement of funds, sexual harassment, violence" and North Amityville’s "failure to act upon these allegations," according to a letter dated Jan. 7 from Babylon Town to the fire company. Because of financial impropriety allegations, the company is being audited by the state.

North Amityville Fire’s board members either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

The town is now having emergency calls meant for North Amityville Fire redirected to the Copiague, North Lindenhurst and Amityville fire departments, along with the East Farmingdale Fire Co. The town will reimburse them for responses to calls.

In interviews, more than a half-dozen North Amityville Fire members described their frustrations with a five-member board elected by the membership. They said the board disregarded members’ votes; failed to implement or adhere to bylaws; delayed spending on equipment maintenance and supply purchases, and ignored recommendations from a consultant who said the fire company’s culture impedes recruitment and retention.

Former paramedic and EMT supervisor Emerson Sanchez blamed the issues on board inaction. He said equipment wasn’t being maintained, medicine orders were not getting approved and that state regulations were not being followed. He said he tried to get more EMTs hired, but that his attempts were rebuffed by the board.

Sanchez, then a paid employee of the company, said he quit in November.

"I said: ‘I can’t do this anymore,’ " he said. "If I go to a patient’s house and I don’t have enough equipment and medications are expired, that’s a liability."

Supervisor: Problems there since 2016

Problems within North Amityville Fire had been brewing since 2016, Babylon Supervisor Rich Schaffer said, but came to a head on Jan. 5 after the company’s board suspended Chief Thomas Nelson and, in a letter dated Jan. 4, dropped 11 of the roughly 55 volunteer members from the rolls for "failure to meet the required percentages" of response to calls.

Other members left out of frustration, and with only a handful of volunteers left to answer calls, response times grew, Schaffer said.

The shortage culminated with an incident on Jan. 5 when a call came in for a woman having difficulty breathing, and more than an hour later North Amityville Fire was still trying to put together a crew, according to records supplied by the town. The company also could not form a crew for more than an hour for two other EMS calls that week, records show.

Babylon Central Fire and Rescue Alarm has a mutual aid system whereby if a fire department does not get a crew together within 3 minutes, nearby departments are alerted. According to Babylon’s records, for Dec. 20-31, North Amityville Fire responded to 51 of the 73 calls that came in, requiring mutual aid for about 31% of the calls. From Jan. 1-6, the company responded to just 19 of the 54 calls that came in, requiring mutual aid for 65% of their calls.

"Our community is suffering, and they have no idea what’s happening," said Clinton Morris, a former board member and chief in the company. The board "was sweeping everything under the rug, and now it’s a mountain."

Unlike for villages and cities, New York State law does not provide for town-run fire departments, so towns contract with volunteer fire departments and companies for fire protection areas, said Robert Leonard, spokesman for the Firefighters Association of the State of New York. There are about 85,000 volunteer firefighters in the state, of which Long Island is home to about 20,000 in about 250 departments, he said.

Babylon contracts with nine largely volunteer companies and departments for fire services, which in 2022 is projected to cost more than $17.5 million — including what was to be almost $3.2 million for North Amityville Fire. The town receives limited financial information from the companies, which submit budget requests that are then subject to a public hearing.

North Amityville Fire board members Jimmie McGruder, Jeff Dixon and Thomas Hampton have hired Hauppauge attorney John Farrell to represent them in an attempt to restore the company’s contract with the town, Schaffer said. Farrell did not respond to requests for comment.

Syracuse-based attorney Brad Pinsky, whose firm works with about 500 fire companies in the state, said he is representing about 30 fire company members, "a supermajority," with the same goal of restoring the contract.

Both lawyers have said they represent the fire company, Schaffer said, so the town does not know whom to recognize as the rightful attorney.

"Even in selecting an attorney, the board has brought dysfunction to a new level," Schaffer said.

Schaffer wants a receiver installed to oversee the company’s finances and operations and is calling on the board, including members Aquinas Nelson and Benjamin Lamberson, to resign as a requirement for a new contract between the company and the town. Lamberson’s three-year term ended in December, but he was still voting on company matters in January, records show. McGruder should have been suspended for misconduct per a board-hired hearing officer’s ruling in December, but was also voting in January, Schaffer and Pinsky said.

On Jan. 31, during a company meeting, the 11 members and Nelson were reinstated and the membership voted to oust McGruder, Dixon and Hampton, Pinsky said.

Rolls shrinking for years

Fire company members said the roster has been shrinking for years. Many have left over turmoil in the firehouse between members and the board, who are elected to three-year terms by the membership.

One complaint is that applications from prospective members given to the board languish for months and sometimes are declared "lost," said Richard Gray, a first lieutenant who was one of the 11 dropped from the roster last month.

"It’s not supposed to take six, nine months to become a member," said Gray, adding that the average time should be 60 days. "Some waited so long, they finally gave up and went to other departments."

Fire company memberships vary, depending on the community and size of coverage, but the majority of members are unpaid volunteers, with some paid EMTs on staff. Most volunteers earn credits for a service award program similar to a pension, based mainly on how many calls they answer, and they receive workers’ compensation should they get injured on the job.

Thomas Nelson said North Amityville had about 15 paid EMTs and a paramedic in 2020, but was down to five paid EMTs and no paramedics late last year. Over the past 10 years, he said the number of core volunteer firefighters dropped from about 30 to approximately 12.

Nelson said he was suspended in part for not agreeing to drop 11 members over what the board claimed were low call-response percentages. Pinsky said Nelson’s suspension and the dismissal of the members were in violation of the fire company’s bylaws.

The volunteers said their voices often were ignored by the board on decisions impacting the company, such as last year when the board approved spending $100,000 on a second indoor/outdoor firehouse camera security system, despite membership voting against it.

"The board is supposed to answer to the membership," Gray said. "But if they don’t want to do something, they just don’t do it."

A culture that ‘impedes’ recruiting

Schaffer said that because North Amityville Fire is incorporated as a not-for-profit, the town has limited oversight. Babylon did turn over information on potential crimes and financial misappropriation in 2016 and 2021 to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, which is investigating along with the state comptroller, Schaffer said. The town was subpoenaed by the DA’s office last spring.

A spokeswoman for the DA’s office said the office cannot "confirm or deny an investigation is taking place." A spokesman for the state comptroller’s office confirmed "an ongoing audit" is being done.

Last year, the town asked that the fire company have the town’s human resources consultant, John Coverdale, investigate allegations of violence, bullying, retaliation and sexual harassment within the company. Coverdale said he concluded that most of the allegations were true.

"In my nearly 35 years of dealing with workplace issues, this has got to rank in the top five to date of absurdities," Coverdale said in an interview with Newsday.

He said there is "a culture there that is impeding the fire company’s ability to recruit new members, that has impeded the retention and performance of the current members."

In a redacted version of the report provided to Newsday, Coverdale wrote that a male volunteer caused a female member "to experience discomfort, subjected her to workplace violence, and made comments that constitute sexual harassment."

In another instance, a volunteer told Coverdale he did not feel safe around a company employee, saying "I know she has a gun and she has a temper." The report mentions several members and employees carrying guns in the firehouse.

Coverdale’s report found "clear patterns of prior and ongoing retaliation" in the fire company, and he concluded that one board member and two officers should be suspended or removed and that one employee be terminated, but those actions were not taken, Coverdale and the members said.

Over two months, Coverdale spoke to members of the fire company as well as to the five-member board, and interviewed those making accusations and those who were accused. McGruder, who was among both the accused and accusers, did not agree to Coverdale’s one-on-one interview requirement, but Coverdale did informally speak to him and described him to Newsday as having "great presence and great influence" on the board.

"He’s the longest-serving member, he’s the person that’s probably most directly responsible for establishing the culture there, both formal and informal culture," Coverdale said. "He’s done a lot of good there, too. I don’t think we can discount that."

In recent years, as members began challenging board decisions, McGruder grew upset, they said, adding that it led to him physically charging at Gray during a company election in December 2020 that resulted in police being called.

Although no criminal charges were filed, internal charges led to hearing officer Robert McLaughlin — who was hired by the fire company board — finding McGruder guilty of misconduct on Dec. 1 and issuing a 90-day suspension. The penalty was never enacted, members said.

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.