Selectmen approve NPD and NFD override

The Board of Selectmen met with the Norwood Fire Department (NPD) and Norwood Police Department (NPD) chiefs and staff on Tuesday and voted to put the public safety override on the May Town Meeting docket.

The Board voted to support the measure as well. Both votes were unanimous. If approved by Town Meeting members, the measure would go out for a ballot sometime in the early summer, though no date for the ballot has yet been set.

“We’re not 100 percent certain, and (Town Clerk) Mary Lou Folan would probably murder me if I set the date without telling her ahead of time,” said Town Manager Tony Mazzucco, to laughter from the Board.

Selectmen Vice Chair Bill Plasko, while voting in support of both motions, said he felt the process could have been done sooner to give more lead time and preparation. He said the Town has known for a while that this could be coming – Mazzucco cited the increase in call volumes over the last five or six years as the main driver of the measure – though he allowed that the Town did have to wait for the consultant’s study to nail down the details of what was needed.

“We kind of waited for the study, but we knew this was going to happen and we probably should have set it up accordingly,” he said.

Though Plasko said the ultimate vote by Town Meeting members, and then the entire community, is what should Norwood’s public safety departments look like.

“The ultimate decision we have to make as a community is what level of service is, not desirable, but acceptable, and what’s fiscally palatable for the community and how much we’re willing to pay for it,” he said. “In my opinion, the testimony we received, from the chiefs and others who studied the issue, this is something that we should be putting before the voters and try to get support for. Ultimately, we may have to revert back to where we are if they say no, if it’s too much for them and they choose what’s palatable to them. But I think it’s up to all of us – in between Town Meeting and election – to convince them of this need.”

Mazzucco said the final number has been shifted down to $1.54 million from about $1.8 million, and that this impact to the average Norwood homeowner with a home valued at $720,000 would be reduced from $142 to $93.

The main reductions resulted, according to NFD Chief Timothy Bailey and NPD Chief Christopher Padden, from the elimination of requested positions. For the NFD, that means they reduced the requested staff headcount down from 14 to 13 by eliminating a “float” position that would have been helpful when staff was away for training, leave, or other time. It should be noted that a lot of the fire department’s portion of the night focused on having dedicated time for training – more on that in a minute – which presumably would alleviate the need for such a floating position.

“Obviously we feel it’s an important position, but in terms of cutting back and looking at ‘nothing more, nothing less (than needed)’ we eliminated that position,” he said.

Mazzucco said on the police side, they have reduced one position, to bring the total ask from six to five, with the possibility of four more officers in the future if needed/feasible. The position is a reduction in a supervisor.

“We believe that could be covered within the budget, assuming a reduction/substitution and assuming we are staffed at the level we believe we need to be,” he said.

The main asks for the NFD was for dedicated training. The big issue, according to Bailey and Mazzucco, is that training is tough on the job. If you’re suiting up and preparing equipment to simulate a fire or a jaws-of-life extraction, all that equipment needs to be taken out of use rotation, which takes time. Then, if a call comes in, firefighters have to then stop the training – and Mazzucco said earlier they can’t just pick back up, they basically have to start again – and go to the call, which also impacts response times. Supposedly-retired NFD Firefighter Paul Ronco emphasized this need, saying that many firefighters travel on their own personal time and dime to get such training.

“Members are going out all the time to Connecticut, New York, even Florida to get training on their own dime and they’re using vacation time to do it,” he said. “A lot of these are younger guys, they’re only getting two weeks of vacation, and I’m sure their spouses aren’t happy that they’re wasting a week to train when they only have the two.”

The plan is to mandate 32 hours of training per year and to try to keep most of that in house by maintaining at least one position as a staff trainer. That means one firefighter gets certified and takes most of the travel training to be able to teach the rest of the staff.

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Mazzucco showed a slide showing surrounding towns’ training hours per year, with Canton coming in at 24 hours, Westwood at 25, and Walpole at 24. Norwood has no mandatory training.

On the police side, Padden said the main goal is to keep the department staffed at night, as well as maintaining a Task Force Officer (TFO), who works primarily with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) during large-scale operations. He said that position is currently funded, but it has left the regional position vacant. Padden said that’s important because the DEA only really deals with large-scale operations and will shift the smaller ones to the regional group. He said the DEA reimburses up to $22,000 a year in overtime to the department per TFO.

The Town would also receive portions of any assets involved in the criminal activity through civil asset forfeiture, though Mazzucco said that’s been drying up lately.

Padden said the main driver of the increase in staff for the NPD at least was for more supervisors and more overnight staff. In previous meetings, Mazzucco and Padden stipulated that overnight, the department usually has only five officers on duty, which can run the department thin if a major incident takes place. The approved override plan now allows for seven “midnight” positions during that time.

Padden said the reduction from six to five came because of discussion with officers.

“The supervision thing is a liability issue, and I hate to talk about liability but it is,” he said. “Our officers need guidance. We’ve had a lot of critical incidents. If one sergeant is tied up – I’ll use the bus accident earlier today – I had a supervisor tied up there for a decent amount of time. It was a critical accident, and so that supervisor has to call the district attorney, reach out to the MBTA, has to coordinate the investigation, and then what happens when something else kicks off? During the day, it’s a little better because we have the deputy chief or myself available, but on the night shift? That supervisor can’t be in multiple places.”