Norwalk fire chief gets a new one-year contract

NORWALK, Conn. – Norwalk Fire Chief Denis McCarthy was given a new one-year contract Thursday afternoon by the city’s Fire Commission.

Issues have been acknowledged and progress has been made, Mayor Harry Rilling said, calling the 4-month long process of Fire Commission executive sessions probably the most complete performance evaluation McCarthy has ever had. McCarthy said the “very frank” discussions had been fair and said he appreciated the Commission’s discretion in keeping the conversations private.

“I’m very pleased. I am very proud of the Norwalk Fire Department first and my contributions to the fire department, and the deliberations that the commission has undergone to reach this decision,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy had come under fire from minority firefighters present and past for what they said was disparate treatment of minorities, along with complaints of favoritism and cronyism. Several demanded the chief, whose contract expired May 1, be let go. McCarthy’s fate has hung in the balance since January after the three member Commission, which includes Rilling, announced that the chief’s contract would not be renewed. Rilling left the door open at the time for a new deal to be given pending discussions and further performance scrutiny.

The one year contract is just like McCarthy’s previous contract, except for the change in length, Rilling said. It could be revisited at any time during the year if a change were warranted.

McCarthy has also been criticized for failing to hire more members of the minority community as firefighters. Rilling acknowledged that’s been a major concern.

“That was not the only issue that we discussed. We have discussed several things,” Rilling said. “But as the chief said, we had some very open and frank discussions. The commission brought some concerns to the chief’s attention. We’ve put into place some thoughts and ideas that, going forward, can only make things better, and I think we are very pleased with what we have been able to do and able to accomplish.”

He sought to emphasize that point.

“I want to make people very comfortable that there were no significant burning issues that drove the commission into any significant level of concern,” Rilling said. “We felt that the fire department is highly professional. We felt that the chief is an excellent chief. We felt that there were things that we needed to see happen that will make things better. The chief mentioned that there were some things that we discussed that he could have done better. Well, there’s always things that people do that they can do better. So having these dialogues now helps us come to some sort of concession or a concurrence to what those things are and how we can move forward and make the department even better than it already is.”

Thursday’s meeting marked the fifth executive session held to discuss McCarthy’s performance evaluation since the January meeting in which a two-hour long discussion was held behind closed doors. There are no minutes for the two executive sessions after that; the March 23 session was an hour long, according to the minutes, and the April 28 session was 45 minutes long, the minutes say.

“It has been a fair process, although public on the one side in that we were conducting this review, but very private,” McCarthy said. “….Maybe it would have been easier at some points to be more public in the process, but it wouldn’t have been proper. So I appreciate how I have been treated by the commission. Certainly in the private deliberations we all have been very honest in this room and at the fire department, and very frank with each other, and that I think that leads to a good result.”

McCarthy said he only wanted continued employment and had not sought the advice of legal counsel during the process.

Rilling said it’s the chief’s job to run the fire department, in concert with his administration and union leaders, but “It’s our jobs as commissioners to just keep in the loop and make sure we are aware of what’s going on and how things are moving forward.”

“I think the chief just received a performance evaluation more so than anybody else has ever done,” Rilling said. “But the police chief and the fire chief don’t have evaluations, that’s one thing we are committed to making sure happens, to make sure people are held accountable. It’s very easy as you are working through a very, very busy time… to kind of just allow things to move forward without sitting down to have the difficult discussions you need to have or the dialogue you need to have to make sure you’re all on the same page and that things are moving in the direction that you want it to.”

Rilling said Planning and Zoning Director Mike Greene’s union contract prevents him from receiving a performance evaluation, but said Department of Public Works Director Hal Alvord would be getting one.

“I don’t think it’s been done with any degree of regularity,” Rilling said, of department head performance evaluations.

Original story: 

NORWALK, Conn. – Norwalk Fire Chief Denis McCarthy was given a new one-year contract Thursday afternoon by the city’s Fire Commission.

McCarthy had come under fire from minority firefighters present and past for what they said was disparate treatment of minorities, along with complaints of favoritism and cronyism. Several demanded the chief, whose contract expires tomorrow, May 1, be let go. McCarthy’s fate has hung in the balance for the past three months after Mayor Harry Rilling, who also is one of the three fire commissioners, announced the chief’s contract would not be renewed. Rilling left the door open at the time for a new deal to be given pending discussions and further performance scrutiny.

In May 2014, then-NAACP Norwalk Branch First Vice President Andre Williams said Rilling promised before his 2013 election to fire McCarthy. Rilling denied it.

“There was never any promises or comments made like that,” Rilling said in May. “If I ever talked about any department heads before the primary and before the election and even after, I just said there are people who need to be held accountable and they’re going to be on my radar and I’m going to make sure they’re accountable or else they need to start looking elsewhere. That’s all I’ve ever said. I never mentioned any names.”

This story will be updated.