Recently I have had a lot of e-mails about the possibility of certain town employees having conflicts of interests with the town. I really can’t say if it is true so I am asking for your opinion.
Several e-mails have stated that many of the towns police dispatchers are volunteer firemen in Hamburg and several have held or are currently holding a Fire Chiefs position for some of the Volunteer Fire Departments in Hamburg that receive several hundred thousand tax dollars each year.
Fire Chiefs have a lot of say in how town tax dollars, that are given to the departments, get spent. Is it a conflict of interest for an employee of the township to be on the receiving end of all that cash each year? I’m also told that if a fire starts and any of these employees have to leave work to go to it, then they still get paid until the end of their shift. Do you think its right for these town employees, who are volunteer fire fighters, to be paid your tax dollars for not working?
It’s a sticky question but the reality is that they volunteer to be a fire fighter and when the town pays them to the end of their shift regardless, I think it takes the volunteer out of the department. I personally think that the policy of paying these guys to fight a fire should be stopped immediately and that if someone is in a position of power as a fire Chief then the town should consider finding another way to deal financially with that fire department.
To me it should fall under the same rules as a person who can’t work for the town and sit on a board that makes financial decisions about their department or job. I believe the only person who has any kind of position that may fall away from that rule is the Town Supervisor. He sits on the Town Council as part of his job description, but it still is a sticky situation when he is able to decide monetary considerations for his staff and department.
Something just doesn’t smell right here.
I am just wondering why we are paying Big Tree so much money and now they are allowing other fire hall members to answer their calls. Time to consolidate if this is the case.
Are you referring to police dispatchers only, or all Town of Hamburg employees? Highway department employees actually take town vehicles to fires if they are working! My question is that if one person on the crew is a fireman, what do the other town employees on his crew do while hes there? Do they sit and watch the fire trucks?
Why is it that for the Boston Hotel Fire one of the Emergency Management members took his tonw paid for vehicle to a fire in another town when it wasn’t asked for. He was never requested from the chief in charge at the fire. Also why does he get to take this vehicle home? This was never done in the past? Is it because he is a dispatcher for the town? Where does the cost fo this vehicle come out of the budget?
ford as far as i now there is only 1 fire chief that works for the town as a dispatcher and he no longer is the chief of his fire co. there is how ever a 2nd asst. chief that is a dispatcher he just was voted in this year so as a conflict i think it is not because most of the time they can not leave the dispatch center because usally there is only 2 of them on a shift might get lucky and have a 3rd