Niantic Fire Chief Resigns Under Cloud Of Investigation

EAST LYME, CT — Niantic Fire Chief Steve Wargo abruptly resigned from his post last week, for what he called "personal reasons," as the East Lyme Police Department begins an investigation into possible payroll discrepancies under his watch.

Wargo personally informed East Lyme First Selectman Mark Nickerson of his resignation on Wednesday, Dec. 19.

"Through the course of the day on Thursday, I was informed that discrepancies of timecards and submitted payroll requests had been discovered by volunteer members of the NFD, Inc.," stated Nickerson in an email to Patch. "An investigation had been conducted internally by members of NFD. It was discovered that in the case of Mr. Wargo, various part-time shifts were allegedly paid that had not been worked. Members of the fire department had a conversation with me on Thursday afternoon and brought the paperwork of the initial discovery to my office on Friday morning. Immediately, we removed Mr. Wargo from our part-time schedule pending the results of the investigation."

The amount of the alleged discrepancies has not been disclosed. "As there is an ongoing investigation, it would be inappropriate to further discuss details of this situation."

According to Nickerson, the Fire Chief position is a volunteer position in both the Niantic and Flanders fire departments in East Lyme, and that individual is elected by members of their respective volunteer fire companies. Besides being the commander during an emergency, the Chief "is ultimately responsible for scheduling, training, recruiting, payroll, budgeting and capital planning."

"I have instructed the East Lyme Police Department to begin an investigation into the claim. A forensic audit will be conducted," said Nickerson. "On Friday afternoon I asked the town's Finance Director to begin reviewing policies and procedures on payroll submission from all our departments. Whenever possible, best business practices should be implemented that would include multiple signature approvals and back-up documents. NFD began utilizing a more stringent time-card and payroll verification system that is used in the other emergency response departments. That was effective immediately."

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