Manassas OKs fire and rescue merger

The City of Manassas on Monday moved toward combining its fire and rescue departments.

The city council voted to approve the creation of a fire and rescue department, with the caveat that both the city attorney and the legal representation of the Manassas Volunteer Fire Company agree on the language of the new ordinance.

Fire Company attorney Richard Tarby wasn't at Monday's vote, but said Tuesday that the language changes made by the city attorney's office was sufficient. Tarby said he would attend next Monday's meeting for the second reading of the ordinance, which makes it official.

In a letter written by Fire Company President Peter Pandolfi dated June 11, there was concern on behalf of the volunteers that the language in the ordinance would interfere with the company's ability to recruit, raise funds and conduct its business affairs.

The ordinance addressed this issue, said Tarby, by stating: Nothing in this section will be interpreted as over-riding the authority of the Manassas Volunteer Fire Company or the Greater Manassas Rescue Squad to govern their individual organizations and exercise administrative authority over their respective members.

The new ordinance also listed the organization chart and the functions of both the new paid fire and rescue chief position, as well as the role of the future Public Safety Policy Committee which will be made up of the new chief, the volunteer chiefs, city manager Lawrence Hughes and police chief John J. Skinner.

Hughes expects to begin the interview process for the chief's position by July and hopes to have someone in place by the end of the summer.

The impetus for the creation of the combined department is in part due to the shortage of volunteers and the imme-diate need to hire more paid fire and rescue employees.

The council approved the hiring of five new firefighters before the end of fiscal 2008 and passed a 10-cent fire levy with the intention of hiring 11 new cross-trained fire and rescue personnel in fiscal 2009, which starts July 1.

Local union president and Rescue Squad paramedic Andrew Carver said the city is finally moving in the right direc-tion with the combining of the departments and the creation of the new fire and rescue chief position.

However, he wishes the new hires would start sooner rather than later and said he's still concerned with the future look of the department, specifically with the organizational chart. The ordinance states that the chief is in charge of the combined department, yet the org charts connects the chief's position to the volunteer chief positions with a dotted line.

Hughes said the dotted line represents coordination between the three individuals, not supervision and that the "volunteer chiefs have as much responsibility as the city's fire and rescue chief will have."

"We are headed in the right direction as far as finally being a [combined] department but if we get the wrong person in the [chief] position, it could break us just as easy," Carver said.

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-369-5738.