Coventry Fire District Crisis Returns to Court after Weekend of Labor Struggle

A private ambulance company that has been negotiating with local officials to provide “temporary/emergency” coverage in the Coventry Fire District during a financial crisis has backed out after several of its employees threatened to resign.

Coastline Emergency Medical Services employs several people who are also firefighters, including “members of the same district that asked for our help,” said Carol Mansfield, president and CEO of Coastline.

Mansfield said that the union is “forcing those firefighters in MA and RI to resign,” and the decision to back out of offering coverage in the Coventry Fire District seems to be a defensive move to protect the company.

“As an employer of over 200 employees, I cannot let my firefighter employees be forced to lose their jobs with us, which would directly impact them financially,” Mansfield said in a Sunday press release.

Mansfield accuses the union of making physical threats against Coastline’s employees and equipment “by the union and its members,” though it is unclear what the threats were and Mansfield did not offer any specifics.

The Coventry Firefighters union has denied making overt threats against Coastline, but there’s no disputing that firefighters are staunchly opposed to private EMS entering the district.

Meanwhile, firefighters and the district’s fire board were due to appear in Kent County Superior Court on Monday. Judge Brian P. Stern ordered the hearing as the district remains essentially paralyzed with a frozen bank account and firefighters that have not been paid for about 45 days.

Fire Board Chairman Frank Palin contacted Coastline in the event the court ordered the board to hire a private ambulance company.

Union president David Gorman said that the threats are bogus. The real story, he said, is that firefighters have agreed to walk if Coastline gets hired. A tweet by the International Association of Firefighters Local 3372, the Coventry Fire Union, said it all on Oct. 3 “The local is prepared to lower the cannons and let the battle begin.”

All this comes after yet another unproductive fire board meeting convened Sunday night that ended with shouts and no quorum.

Judge Stern last week issued a stern warning that the Coventry Fire District is approaching a public safety crisis and residents could be without fire protection in the imminent future.

The judge issued an order that state emergency and revenue officials be notified that fire and rescue protection might end soon.

The district has been in crisis mode for several months following the revelation that the district’s books were a mess and a prior fire board that oversaw the district failed to address serious budget problems in a timely fashion.

Coventry Credit Union is owed about $465,000 . And that’s just one slice of the overall pie -- the district began the year with a deficit of more than $600,000, according to Palin.

Compounding the problem is a general lack of communication between the board and taxpayers for years. And meetings are usually poorly attended.

Firefighters in Coventry have been calling for a town-wide fire department and the elimination of fire districts, but political forces in this town present a major obstacle for such a consolidation.

The Coventry Town Council has so far demonstrated an unwillingness to get involved in the fire district’s woes, despite ultimate responsibility for public safety falling on the town.

Earlier this year, voters in the district indicated they’d prefer to liquidate the district in a nonbinding referendum.

The lack of effort on the part of elected officials to take an active role in the fire district’s problems prompted the head of the state Department of Revenue to fire off a letter warning that their hands-off approach could backfire in disastrous fashion.

Many firefighters have chosen to quit, retire and find jobs outside of the district in an effort feed their families.