Bankruptcy Over, Fire Board Back in Control of CCFD

Federal U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Diane Finkle granted the state’s request to withdraw the Central Coventry Fire District from bankruptcy protection on Monday, giving control of the district back to the district’s fire board.

The board now has until Oct. 19 to present a plan to voters about how fire and rescue services will be delivered to residents of the district.

The district went into bankruptcy earlier this year after a prior fire board made a severe accounting error, mailed incorrect tax bills and then hid that fact from voters for more than two years, among other glaring errors, according to the state’s motion to withdraw.

The state-appointed receiver, over the past nine months, developed a plan to save the district through $13 million in union concessions and a $8 per resident tax increase.

Over the same period, the district became poised to be debt free after making deals with creditors and accumulated $1.9 million cash.

But the state chose to abandon its efforts to rescue the district and filed a motion to end the bankruptcy due to a toxic political environment, according to Mark Pfeiffer, the state receiver.

Several board members and elected officials are determined to use the district’s financial problems as the impetus for outsourcing fire and rescue service.

In Pfeiffer’s summary filed in court, he noted how Rep. Patricia Morgan, key player behind a driving force behind a clearly-stated goal to break up unions in Coventry, filed her own plan in bankruptcy court which “is not permitted under the bankruptcy code” that calls for volunteer firefighters and outsourced rescue service.

In addition, the vice-chairwoman of the board posted help wanted ads for $15 per hour EMTs to “test the waters” in case rescue service was outsourced. Pfeiffer noted the job postings led to an injunction against the board.

The toxic climate makes it “difficult to imagine how these constituencies will be able to set aside their differences once the receivership is terminated and control of the district is returned to the board,” Pfeiffer wrote.

Firefighters rallied last week in Coventry on the steps of Town Hall in an effort to warn residents of what they said is a public safety crisis.

Dave Gorman, the President of the International Association of Firefighters Local 3372, the Coventry fire union, said that the “political assault” against firefighters has led to five firefighters to resign in just the past few days and more than 30 over the past two years.

Gorman also said that there are severe financial ramifications at play. Under the bankruptcy plan, the district had resolved its obligations and debts to creditors. Unless the board carries out the plan, those debts will return.

Meanwhile in the neighboring Coventry Fire District, also known as the Anthony Fire District, firefighters have been without paychecks for 38 days as that district reels with its own financial disaster caused by another apparently inept fire board that kept inadquate records and shoddy budgeting practices.

The Central Coventry Fire District board now must decide whether to implement the steps outlined in the bankruptcy plan, which the receiver strongly urged they do, or attempt to negotiate a new contract with the union, or liquidate the district and create a new plan to provide fire and EMS services to taxpayers along with grappling with $4 million in debt the bankruptcy would have wiped out.