20 people attended the unexpectedly brief fire commission meeting Monday evening. (Photo by Peter Currier)
WESTFIELD- In a standing room only crowd at their regular monthly meeting, the Westfield Fire Commission began the new year with confusion over the decision to vote for a new full-time Fire Chief Monday evening at the Little River Road fire station.
The confusion revolved around two major agenda items that were removed just hours before the meeting began. In the original agenda there was a section for an executive session and another for a possible vote for a new full-time fire chief. The executive session agenda item said, “Intent to enter executive session to discuss the character, reputation, as opposed to professional competence, and/or complaints or charges brought against Deputy Fire Chief Patrick Egloff for the purpose of determining viability for either temporary or permanent promotion to chief of the fire department.”
The return to an open session would have been to call a vote for Egloff to fill the Fire Chief position left vacant by Mary Regan when she retired last summer. Egloff was the only person listed on the Westfield 2018 Fire Chief’s Series Exam, and therefore the only person eligible for a vote.
Due to a clerical error originally listing the start time of the meeting as 6pm, the meeting began at 7pm in order to refrain from violating open meeting law.
After calling the meeting to order, Fire Commission Chairman Albert Masciadrelli opened with public participation in which City Councilor Matt Emmershy asked the commission if they would address the changes to the agenda.
“The only items that were taken off were items five and six,” said Masciadrelli. He added that there would be no conversation whatsoever regarding the removed items.
Absent from Monday’s meeting were Temporary Fire Chief Andy Hart and Commissioner Carlo Bonavita. Deputy Fire Chief Eric Bishop was present at the meeting in place of Hart.
Reports have incorrectly been circulated that Temporary Fire Chief Andy Hart had resigned when in fact he remains a Deputy Fire Chief and Temporary Fire Chief of the Westfield Fire Department. However, Commissioner Bonavita did tender his resignation earlier in the day Monday citing ‘personal reasons.’
Hart has indicated, but not formally requested, rescinding his role as Temporary Fire Chief to allow him to focus on projects within the department that he has been involved in for some time and has been unable to complete due to the responsibilities of the Chief position. If Deputy Fire Chief Hart does step out of the Temporary Fire Chief role, protocol within the department is that the next highest ranking officer would assume the Temporary Fire Chief position which would be Deputy Chief Patrick Egloff.
Deputy Fire Chief Hart accepted the role of Temporary Fire Chief last summer after the retirement of Chief Regan, only as a short term position and it appears he would now like to relinquish that position to return to his Deputy Chief responsibilities.
Fire Commission Chairman Albert Masciadrelli said that the commission is supposed to receive notice from the resigning party and they have received no such notice as of yet from Temporary Fire Chief Andy Hart.
After the meeting, Masciadrelli said that the agenda items were removed at the direction of the Mayor’s office. It is unknown if there are plans to hold the vote during a future meeting.
