By Paul J. Condra
The idea was not for them to represent firemen, but to represent uniformity in the village, Smith said.
What he didn't know was how this particular act of uniformity would cause rifts in the department so large that 10 months later they still haven't been mended.
What has firefighters divided is whether Smith's move to give uniforms to village trustees Edward Seaben and Richard Meagher, who have never been firefighters, was prudent. Further, when a firefighter spoke publicly in September against it, charges were brought against him by the fire department now under the command of James Carrigan who said he violated a departmental order forbidding volunteers to speak to the press about department matters.
We've never had a situation like this, said Smith, who also served as the chief in 1989 and now works as the department secretary. It's very detrimental to the fire department.
Smith, Carrigan, the trustees and firefighter Pete Dixon who was charged with violating the order have all said they wish to see a quick and quiet resolution to the problem. This was evident when the charges against Dixon were dropped in a private meeting Nov. 20. Still, there is widespread acknowledgment the issue won't disappear as nicely as some might want until many points of the current debacle are addressed.
Among them are whether Dixon really was in violation of the chief's order when he went to the press; the propriety of giving fire uniforms to non-firefighters; and how the ERFD will mend the rifts that fissured last February when Smith offered the uniforms to the two village trustees.
We've never come across something like this before, Carrigan said. Now I'm taking the heat for it.
It's an issue that won't go away, and one for which nobody is willing to admit fault.
There really isn't any resolution to it, said trustee Meagher, who expressed regret over having upset firefighters. The inquiry from the chief is that you'd be receiving this honor, you think they make a decision on behalf of the whole fire department.
Trustee Seaben declined comment.
Past chief Smith offered the uniforms to the two trustees in February with the support of the fire council. Later, in April, the new chief carried out the order. Carrigan said that to his knowledge, there was no disagreement among firefighters over whether the trustees should have the uniforms.
But apparently there was. In September, during a Labor Day parade in Hicksville, a member of Dixon's company opted not to march when he saw the two trustees riding in the chief's car wearing fire uniforms only distinguishable by their badges.
Days later, Dixon, a 33-year New York City firefighter and 40-year volunteer with the village, wrote a letter which was published in the Village Herald. Though Dixon did not attend the Labor Day parade, he called the wearing of uniforms by the trustees morally wrong and personally unacceptable.
Dixon was expressing a common concern that only legitimate firefighters should be allowed to represent themselves as such in the public eye.
That was when Carrigan responded with a Letter to the Editor of his own, defending his actions, and what he called the traditional practice of giving uniforms to public officials.
The letter writing grew into a virtual maelstrom of opinions volleyed by everyone from trustee Meagher to Dixon's wife, who wrote a letter after Dixon himself was silenced by possible legal action.
Then, on Nov. 20, Carrigan, of Ladder Company 403, met privately with Dixon, of Vigilant Company 404, just prior to a regular meeting of the fire council. Dixon had brought a friend and attorney to the informal meeting to help argue his case. Behind closed doors, the decision was made to drop the charges.
Though he still believes Dixon went around in the wrong channels, and that he should have come to the chief's office rather than the newspaper, Carrigan said he dropped the charges for the betterment of the department, wishing to resolve the issue before it got away from him. He also issued a department-wide memo exonerating Dixon of the charges against him and, according to sources in the department, agreed to arrange for an open-forum for firefighters to discuss the uniform issue. No date for such a forum has been set.
For Dixon, who said people weren't made to feel comfortable approaching Carrigan, an opportunity for firefighters to voice their concerns about giving the uniforms to the trustees has always been his main concern.
And though he questions whether the chief's order he allegedly violated would apply under these circumstances, he said that will not be an issue unless the decision to give uniforms to trustees is not reconsidered by the department.
