New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
City wants to create new role of director of emergency management
NEW HAVEN — With longtime city Deputy Director of Emergency Management Rick Fontana recently retired after 16 years in the job, the city is looking to change the key position — but not its duties — before hiring his replacement.
Mayor Justin Elicker's administration wants to change the position, which throughout Fontana's tenure was called deputy director even though he did what essentially was the director of emergency management's job, and call it what it is.
The salary would remain more or less the same, but the director, who under state statute must be appointed by the mayor and can be removed for cause by either the mayor or the state director of emergency management, would be a nonunion position.
Fontana was a member of a city union under a stipulated agreement reached during a previous administration, Chief Administrative Officer Regina Rush-Kittle — who technically has been the emergency management director even though Fontana ran the office day-today — told the Board of Alders Finance Committee this week.
Creating an emergency management director position within the budget and removing it from the union would bring the city in line with state requirements, said Rush-Kittle, who will serve as emergency management director until a permanent replacement can be hired.
“Having a union member” in the job “is a little bit problematic,” Rush-Kittle told the alders Monday this week. The city needs “someone who can be removed for cause by the mayor and the state emergency management director.”
“That's really not a compatible position to have someone who's within a union,” Rush-Kittle added.
Rush-Kittle pointed out that while in the past, chief administrative officers were emergency management director in name only, “I actually have a background working three years as the state's deputy commissioner for emergency management.”
But she can't do both jobs, she said.
The committee, chaired by Westville Alder Adam Marchand, D-25, unanimously approved the change, which included transferring up to $140,000 to the Mayor's Office salary account. It still must be approved by the full Board of Alders.
That approval came after several committee members, including Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, D-23, Hill Alder Ron Hurt, D-3, East Rock Alder Anna Festa, D-10, and West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith, D-30, said they would like the city to strongly consider people for the job who already live in New Haven or already work for the city.
Fontana, whose last day on the job was Feb. 1, was paid $128,000 a year in the job, which is about what the job will be posted at, said Rush-Kittle. She proposed transferring up to $140,000 to give the city “a little wiggle room” when it comes to hiring, she said.
Fontana, who has remained active politically in West Haven, where he served in the campaign of Mayor Dorinda Borer, was sworn in last week as West Haven's emergency management director following his retirement from New Haven, but according to Rush-Kittle he will assist Rush-Kittle for a period of time during the transition period.
Fontana is a retired West Haven firefighter — he served in that job from 1979 to 2007.
He is a current commissioner of the state's Commission on Fire Prevention and Control and federal Operations Section Chief for the Connecticut Department of Emergency Management & Homeland Security.
After 16 years in New Haven, one of the state's largest cities, he's widely considered to be one of the state's experts in emergency management.