Torrington Fire Chief Gary Brunoli. Republican-American Archive
TORRINGTON — The search for a new deputy chief in the Torrington Fire Department will not change despite criticism from some Board of Public Safey members about the parameters established for the number two role in the department.
The Torrington Fire Department is searching for new deputy chief following the death of Christopher Pepler on Nov. 1 following a long battle with cancer.
Applications from internal candidates are due Friday and Fire Chief Gary Brunoli said he will not open the job to more officers in the department or remove a residency requirement.
The job is now only open to battalion chiefs and assistant chiefs and there is a requirement that the new deputy chief will have to be a resident of Torrington within a year. There are six officers in the department who are eligible to apply but four currently live outside of Torrington.
Applications are due Friday to the city’s personnel director.
“I’m trying to get the position filled by February because I need a deputy,” Brunoli said.
On Wednesday, Board of Public Safety commissioners questioned the “narrow” parameters put forward in the position and complained about the lack of communication by the fire chief.
All the chiefs in the city fire department’s history have lived in Torrington, said Brunoli, adding that when he was first hired by Torrington as a firefighter, he moved from his hometown of Burlington and bought a home here in 1992.
“To me, it’s important to have a vested interest in the city and I don’t see how you can make decisions on taxpayers’ money by living in another town,” Brunoli said.
Brunoli said he would like all firefighters be required to live in Torrington but that would have to be negotiated in the contract. The current requirement is a 20-minute radius, Brunoli said.
Firefighter Jeremy Minard, the firefighters’ union president, said “the union has no comment about the testing process for the Deputy Chief position.”
Public Safety commissioner Glenn McLeod said once a city firefighter goes into a burning building that he has a “vested interest” in the city.
“We never had that requirement before. We have three battalion chiefs that don’t live in Torrington and I’m guessing (they) have given you 50 years service combined and you’re telling them at this point of their career they have to move to be a deputy chief,” McLeod said. “I think that’s a slap in the face to your battalion chiefs.”
The importance of the deputy chief position is that they will have a likely chance in becoming fire chief once Brunoli retires. While Brunoli is eligible to retire, he said he has no immediate plans to do so.
Public Safety commissioner Angelo Lamonica said he has no problems hiring someone who is a city resident for the deputy chief position.
“It’s a slap in my face when I hear, ‘Oh, Harwinton has a better school system, or Litchfield, or whatever’ but meanwhile you are sitting here saying we have to do everything and then moving to a volunteer fire department town,” Lamonica said.
Lamonica added that it’s not unheard of that other municipalities would make the same request to top job candidates.
“If you want to work in this town, what’s wrong with living in this city,” Lamonica asked.
McLeod also questioned why lieutenants aren’t eligible for the job, noting that in the past 20 years there was only one deputy chief that was previously a captain, which is equivalent to today’s battalion chief. All other deputy chiefs, including Pepler and Brunoli, went from lieutenant to deputy chief.
Brunoli said since he has been chief, he has promoted 19 out of 21 officers.
Sign into rep-am.com and the E-Edition with one click access“Our department is very young. I felt we had qualified candidates of assistant chiefs and battalion chiefs to apply for the position,” Brunoli said.
“At least give those guys a chance to test and see what we got,” Public Safety Commissioner Doug Benedetto said. “In the future, we want them to step up as deputy chief and chief.”
Mayor Elinor Carbone said the board should respect the role of the fire chief and allow him to lead the department, including setting the standard for the deputy chief position.
McLeod didn’t disagree with the mayor but said he wished the board could have had the discussion before the search process began and not two days before applications are due.
“I understand that part but there have been no conversations whatsoever,” McLeod said.
“We just want communication between the fire department and this board,” added Benedetto.
Carbone said once all the applications have been received, Personnel Director Tom Gritt will vet them to make sure all the candidates are qualified. Those candidates will then be interviewed by a subcommittee that includes the Board of Public Safety’s fire service subcommittee, Carbone, Brunoli, Gritt and an outside fire official.
Two or three finalists would then be brought back for a second interview and then a formal recommendation would then be brought to the public safety commissioners.
