The proposed insignia that will appear on the hats of new firefighters in their probation period, if voted on by the commission. (Photo courtesy of The Westfield Fire Commission)
WESTFIELD- The Fire Commission will convene Monday at 6 p.m.for their first meeting since the permanent appointment of Fire Chief Patrick Egloff.
The includes items that are mostly considered old business, but the first item under “Special Business” indicates an update to the firefighter’s uniform policy. Commission Chair Albert Masciadrelli said that the commission plans to vote on an update to the uniform of probationary officers. He said that the change would alter the insignia on their hats to have an orange background and a large capital “P” to indicate that they are in their probationary period.
“We wanted to get in line with other departments throughout the Commonwealth and their rules and regulations for uniform design,” said Masciadrelli.
He added that the new hats will allow the commander at the scene of a fire or incident to quickly look around and see which firefighters are probationary. This would allow the commander to quickly direct the firefighters based on who has experience and keep those with less experience from inadvertently getting in over their heads.
Masciadrelli said the design for the new hats was made by Egloff and his core management team. The typical probationary period for a new firefighter is one year.
Under “Old Business,” Masciadrelli will be giving an update on the paperwork for Eggloff’s appointment as fire chief and Benjamin Warren’s appointment as deputy fire chief. Because of the Open Meeting Law, Masciadrelli is unable to update Commissioners C. Lee Bennett and Jeffrey Siegel on the process outside of a commission meeting.
“I want to make sure everyone knows that since those two appointments have been working with the personnel department making sure all documentation for each position is filled out and signed, scanned in, attached to records, and sent back to the Human Resources Department (HRD) in Boston,” said Masciadrelli.
From left: Commissioner C. Lee Bennett, Commissioner Jeffrey Siegel, Commission Chair Albert Masciadrelli, and newly chosen Fire Chief Patrick Egloff prior to a Fire Commission meeting earlier this month. (Photo by Peter Currier)
The commission will then discuss the HRD Certification civil service list for both the positions of firefighter and fire captain. Warren’s appointment to deputy fire chief created a vacancy in the captain’s position, and another captain is expected to retire at the end of June. In order to fill the two vacancies for captain, two firefighters will need to be promoted, creating a need for two new firefighters.
Masciadrelli said there are six candidates on the civil service list for the two captain positions. Those names are Joseph Szenda, Michael Hawthorne, Jonathan Starr, Micheline Turgeon, Benjamin Hogan and Christopher Brown. The two new firefighters that would take the place of whomever is promoted would have to be paramedics, a shift in policy that would require further medical training for prospective firefighters.
The final items on the agenda relate to four grievances that were brought before the commission by the local Fire Department Union 1111 last summer. The Fire Commission has not acted on any of the four grievances due to their relation to active court cases, said Masciadrelli. The new Union President Kieth Supinski requested that the grievances be voted on to be moved out of the commission and brought back to the union’s table. Whether the grievances can be acted on in the future if they are voted out of the commission is not clear.
