An end of an era

Dan Crowley’s article on the Florence Road fire and the Fire Chief’s trip to the hospital kinda put the period to the end of the Brian Duggan era at the Northampton FD.  He came to Northampton in what I think was the second term of Mary Ford ,on the heels, ironically enough, of a 1997 study by Municipal Resources Inc. that recommended a new chief.  When he arrived the department was still quartered in the old firehouse. The prior chief was Larry Jones, who tried but couldn’t cut it.  The department was riven with factional politics, the rank and file and the deputies vied for political support from the council, and it was not a pleasant place to work. Duggan came in as an enforcement officer to get the men out of politics and into the twentieth century.  He did that job well. He got new equipment for the department, got us into the EMT business, and put a lot of needed attention on training.  And in a way, the Crowley story shows how well he did his job.  Today’s Northampton’s Fire Department, a disciplined effective department putting out a small fire with dispatch, hampered only by this guy Duggan blundering around the fire scene, and getting himself hurt for no apparent reason.  

This is will be my last posting for some time on Fire Department affairs. I am turning over my files to the Mayor with the hope that it will aid the kind of thorough impartial investigation that the union called for.  In a plot laden with irony it turns out this is the kind of investigation that Brian Duggan makes a good living from.  All across New England during the last six years or so, he’s been the main fire project manager for Municipal Resources Inc (MRI).  If a community like Northampton is having trouble with their department, they will hire MRI to study the department and make recommendations for training, equipment, promotion needs, discipline, etc.

He and his team come in, talk to the selectmen and city council, the firepeople, your business leaders, etc.  Hold a public meeting.  Gather tons of information, compare your department with other similar communities (so-called bench-marking), and hold meetings to discuss his findings.  Some of the qualifications that MRI lists on the website resulted from courses that we funded, and the positions that he keeps in statewide organizations were made possible through our taxpayers paying his airline tickets, car mileage and salary.  

On September 22, 2010, Chatham MA. signed a contract with MRI  to conduct a four month $19,775 study of its department and its capital needs, develop a master plan,and draft “plans for a strong partnership between the community and the emergency services organizations.”   The completion date for the final report was to be February 28. 2011.  They didn’t made the deadline, due to weather problems, delays in furnishing materials, and Brian having to finish up ongoing work he had with other communities. The final report is dated July 8th, 2011.   I think that the community was very happy with his work: when I contacted the local fire chief and the head selectperson, Florence Seldin, I got a pretty frosty reception. I had to resort to freedom of information requests, which produced a forty-odd pages of emails that document the heavy air traffic between Northampton and Chatham.  On December 10 Brian got the four notebooks of data he needed from the Chief, he forecasts that MRI will make their first field visit in January.  On January 4th, Duggan emails Chief Ambruscoe that “as long as we don’t have a snow or ice event, we are on for January 12th. Keith Hoyle, Pete Finely, and I will be  there at 10:30 and we will  plan to spend the rest of the day with you.  Pete Finely will need a room for both the night of the 1th and the 12th, could you make the reservation...?”  


The schedule sent involved a kick-off meeting with the selectmen, lunch with the Chief, tour of the community, and a wrap up meeting at 5pm.  Pete Finley was to spend the second day on site.  Chatham made reservations in the Hampton Inn in Yarmouth.   The plans went by the tubes when a winter northeaster loomed.  A conference call between the team members and Chatham was arranged and went off at 11:00AM Wednesday, January 12.  Duggan emails Ambruscoe on Thursday, January 13 at 1:33 pm:

“We got 16” of snow. I declared a state of emergency an hour after we ended our conference call. If you can develop the list of communities we will format the spreadsheet and then ask you to make calls to get the data. I am leaving on vacation and will touch base when I return on January 25th. “

The meeting was then rescheduled. 

From Florence Seldin to Michael Ambruscoe, dated Feb 7,2011.

“Brian Duggan of MRI is requesting March 8th and 9th for the study as indicated below. The way in which he is planning the visit looks like March 8th for interviewing the board and other you previously arranged as well as a public meeting in afternoon or evening or whenever you see best. The second day would be site work with the department. They will be reviewing the entire operations of the department and one of them will ride along on incidents  to review emergency operations....”

B. Duggan Sunday February 6th 2011

 to Michael Ambruscoe

I have checked with my team  and we need to move our proposed dates slightly.  Pete will arrive at the hotel on March 8th.  He will spend all day on March 9th AM and PM in Chatham doing a community meeting and interviewing.  The remainder of the team will meet Pete at the hotel for a briefing on the evening of March 9th and spend all day March 10th doing site work.  Does that revised schedule work for you? 

Florence Seldin to B. Duggan

March 9 at 7:56pm

Brian

I wonder if there is a convenient time next week when you and I could talk about (the) fire department study.  Thanks.

B. Duggan to Florence Seldin, March 9 at 9:14 pm

Florence:

I will be in Chatham all day on Thursday.  If we can’t meet in person feel free to call my cell phone on Monday. 

Saturday April 23rd, 3:12pm 

From: B. Duggan

To:    Michael Ambruscoe

I have the benchmarking, thank you for your diligence in rapidly gathering this data. The next step will be our final single day field visit. Would May 13th work for you? 

Unknown date

From B. Duggan to Seldin

The draft of the study is almost complete.  The tornado response set us back a few days. I should be able to convert it to a PDF and e-mail it to both you and Chief Ambriscoe on Monday evening as I originally promised.  

Brian Duggan. 

From:  B. Duggan, Friday at 3:00pm, 3:04pm

To: Florence Seldin cc: Peter Finely

Florence

Pete Finely has checked his calendar and he is all set to deliver the final presentation on July 12th

Brian Duggan

****

 I have a total 51 e-mails between Duggan and the town.  He seems to have done most of his communicating at night and weekends. The report itself, including appendices, was 187 pages. It recommended a south substation, manned 24 hours a day, a brush truck, replacing the current fire station, and acquiring additional equipment.  How many total full days Brian Duggan spent in Chatham, and what vehicle he used to get there and back is unclear.  Ditto for how many hours it took him to compile the report, and whether the work was done on his “off” time or his salaried 40 hour time.  The emails suggests , however, that he spent Tuesday night March 9, Wednesday, March 10, and Thursday, March 11  in Chatham.   He filed no notice with the Mayor’s office that he was going to be out of the area, and according to the auditor, the city paid him for a full 40 hours.  

Manchester-By-Sea and Tilton New Hampshire   


A  check with the auditor indicates that Brian Duggan was paid  for 68 regular hours  and 12 hours of  comp time for the week of August 11 to  August 16, 2008, a total of 80 hours. Brian Duggan had two MRI jobs that we know about for that week, Manchester-By-The-Sea and Tilton N.H. We don't know exactly how many hours he billed MRI for his time that week, but on Monday afternoon he and  Keith Hoyle probably would have had to leave Northampton about four to make the seven o'clock presentation to the board on the work that MRI was going to do for the board.  Then on Friday night he  made a presentation to the Board of Selectmen up in Tilton New Hampshire, about three hours away.  Tilton is near Lake Winnipesaukee.  Duggan and Kevin Hoyle  presented their findings on the study and took questions from selectpeople and townspeople.  The meeting adjourned at 9:50 pm.  One assumes that they stayed at a motel that night, and drove back to Northampton the next day.

If we assume that the work was done on his own time, this would make Chief Duggan logging fourteen hour days for the city and MRI, every day of that week.   Further investigation needs to be done, but my feeling is that the City of Northampton has been subsidizing a private for-profit organization, and unwittingly, perhaps, enabling them to be more competitive with their pricing. We are subsidizing MRI through paying Chief Duggan when he is working for MRI   There needs to be full disclosure by MRI of all the work done by Chief Duggan over the last six years, and this needs to be cross-checked with pay records and mileage on his vehicle. 

MRI knows that the Chief has full time job working for the City of Northampton. On their website they list him as a resource and senior partner. 

Brian P. Duggan - Advisor: Emergency Communications, Fire Safety and Emergency Medical Services, Organizational and Management Studies

Brian P. Duggan now commands the Fire Department in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he has instituted substantial changes to modernize the entire department including equipment, facilities, personnel, and training.... Chief Duggan has served as a subject advisor to MRI since 2002 and will occasionally work on a project team.

 Municipal Resources Incorporated, however, has used Brian Duggan as a workhorse of their program, ignoring his duty to give a good 40 hour a week obligation to Northampton.  He has been Project Manager on many projects.  So far I have verified fifteen of them.  Some of them, like Norwood, Chatham, Manchester-By-Sea, Tilton New Hampshire, North Reading, and Kennebunk Me. involved compiling extensive research and preparing 100 plus page reports.   

This merger seems to indicate that Brian Duggan is not only an employee of MRI, he might  hold some shares in the corporation. 

 “MRI (merged with Brian P. Duggan LLC) has completed for Massachusetts communities ( our emphasis) in the past three years: thirty-five in the past three years. 

(Manchester-By the Sea proposal for services, March 2009)

The spirit of Massachusetts Conflict of Interest laws is stated here. 

“The conflict of interest law, Chapter 268A of the General Laws, requires that state employees give undivided loyalty to the state and act in the public interest rather than for private gain.  This law sets a minimum standard of ethical conduct for all state employees and officials.  The law and the Ethics Commission, which enforces the law, were established to foster integrity in government and promote public trust. The purpose of the law is to ensure that public employees’ private financial interests and personal relationships do not conflict with their public obligations. The law governs what you may do on the job, what you may do after hours or “on the side,” and what you may do after you leave public service.”

MRI has built its reputation by providing quality consulting service to cities and towns. However, by using Brian Duggan so extensively, they have damaged the effectiveness of our department.  The Conflict of Interest inherent in the Fire Chief wearing two hats and working under two contracts is seen most clearly when he is scheduling and carrying out field visits for MRI.  His prime allegiance is to the MRI client.  The Chief has had a policy of  concealing the extent of his  outside work. He did  not make public his committment to the federal government that carries him out of the city two weeks out of every six for two years.  He does not seem, in the case of the Chatham, to consult with the chief executive or his fire station chain or command before he makes committments.  His outside work as a consultant seems to come first.  He  is essentially playing Russian Roulette with our public safety by being a part time police chief who is being paid for full time work responding to calls and being on the scene to evaluate our emergency operations.  If the Chief had put his full energies into the Northampton Fire Department, we would not be here today, where the work force that he commands has no confidence in his leadership.  

Mike Kirby

Historic Designation of Round Hill neighborhood in doubt.

A well-attended public hearing at the council chambers last night (May 21) established that the residents of Round Hill strongly support the expansion of the Elm Street Historic District to include 22 buildings and 22.8 acres along Round Hill Road.  Speaker after speaker spoke out in favor of protecting the historic character of the area by expanding the Elm Street district.  

“This approach would preserve buildings, add value to residential structures and provide a seat at the table for residents.” said the proposal.  Most people there opposed the alternative compromise measure proposed by Wayne Feiden, Director of Planning and Development to protect the area through enacting  a 90-day clause that would give the city council time to enact protective legislation, and deed restrictions on as few as two, and as many as five so-called character-defining buildings on the hill: Coolidge, Gawith, Rogers,  Skinner, and the Engineering Cottage. One planner I talked to said the deed restrictions were usually ineffective at preserving the integrity of an area.  

 City support evaporated with the last-minute opposition of Clarke School.   Bill Corwin, speaking for the school, said until the deal with Opal Development is finalized, they will oppose its designation as a historic district.  Opal, who might be the developer, but has maintained a low profile since their designation in November, has no problems with historic designation.  Corwin feels an agreement with Opal is going to come, but as of now, there is no signed agreement in place.  If the deal falls through,  he see historic designation as narrowing the pool of potential purchasers, and running the danger of leaving them with an unmarketable campus.  “It is inevitable,” he said, “As we transition out of the campus, we will not be able to maintain these buildings are they are now. It becomes more likely that the open space will be built on, something none of us want.” The implied threat to  let the campus deteriorate rankled some neighbors.  

The city councilor from Ward Two, Paul Spector, warned he didn’t know how he could get six votes for the measure, given Clarke’s opposition and the city's financial situation.  Ruth Constantine of Smith College and Suzanne Beck of the Chamber of Commerce both urged that the measure be tabled until the situation with Opal is clarified.  Opal Development did not send a representative to the hearing.  Evidently Clarke does not rule out disposing of the property on a piecemeal basis, parcel by parcel, but would rather not. One resident wondered if it was a good idea being so dependent on Opal, who he said lacks any kind of  track record in doing big residential projects. See our December article about Opal.  It makes me wonder, once again,  why Clarke torpedoed a rival proposal by a local builder  to go with Opal Development. Almost seven months  later, it seems they have yet to get their finances ironed out and their due diligence accomplished.  And now it seems that all the neighborhood can do, is to wait.   

Old Kollmorgen property sold for $1.8 million

Soon the Kollmorgen buildings on King Street, including the navy grey tower that once housed the calibration equipment for periscopes, may fall to the wrecker's ball.  Today Kollmorgen Optical sold its 5.1 acre parcel on King Street for $1.8 million to Tommy Car Management Corp dba Cozenzi Automotive, owner of Country Nissan in Hadley, and Northampton VW on Damon Road. The price is substantially less than the $3.07 million value placed on the parcel by the city, and may reflect the cost of cleaning and demolishing the buildings.  Patrick Goggins, who represented the seller said both the deep discount and the delays in closing on the sale reflected the time the new owners had to devote to so-called "due diligence." It was a factory and machine shop since before World War II, and disposal of solvents and industrial waste was haphazard in those days.   The new owners, Carla and Tommy Cozensi, the partners in Cozensi Automotive, have not returned our calls at this point. A realtor we talked to said  that Northampton VW on Damon Road is doing well, but needs more room to display cars. He had heard  that  the Cozensis  plan to demolish the buildings on the site, As of this afternoon, no permits had been applied for at the Planning and Development office.

                                  

An Update on the Fire Chief's travels

An alert Googler found more outside work done in more communities. Acton, where he was hired by the town and paid by funds from a developer to look at the emergency access planned for a private development (Quail Ridge), Boylston, where he is listed in the minutes as "retired", and helped the town hire a new town administrator, Pelham, where he and another MRI person did a study of their fire department and Wellesley, a well-to-do town near Boston where he and Chief Hoyle from Amherst worked to help them hire a new fire chief Read it here

The Water Department's Hidden Empire

Shades of Chinatown. Did you know that the Northampton Water Department, which is going to hit us with a healthy 9% rate increase next year owns more than 1,000 acres of Williamsburg near the Conway town line?  And they are doing nothing with it. There is something about the mechanics of government that make acquiring land and goodies easy, but getting rid of them hard. We own most of  this great bowl-shaped valley rimmed by High Ridge and Dry Hill to the east, and the Conway town line to the north.  It's the watershed of the  branch of the Mill River that in 1874, destroyed a great earthen dam built by Joseph Hayden and spread death and destruction through the towns along the Mill River. Northampton first purchased a parcel of 150 acres in 1944, and in 1990, our water department bought the biggest chunk of land from Allyn W.  Combs, Inc. for $350,000.  I found this out quite by accident, when I wrote an article last year on the upper Roberts Meadow Dam controversy. Because the pro-demolition people kept using the 1874 dam break as a bogeyman,  I did another article on the Williamsburg dam failure.  The Williamsburg dam was mostly dirt, not designed by an engineer, the Roberts Meadow dam was granite and engineered, and built after the disaster, when everyone knew how not to design dams.  A local historian took me up to see the ruins of the dam, and I learned that the access road to the ruins and much of the watershed was owned by Northampton Water Department. I sat down with our genial Ned Huntley and quizzed him about why we needed all this land.  The way he tells it, they were thinking of putting in wells in the valley bottom to give us a backup water supply. Are we planning on pumping Williamsburg dry to feed greedy Northampton?   No.

The Water Dept. access gate off Judd Road

Barring an extended dry spell, Northampton has got plenty of water. We've got a big watershed, the Mountain Street reservoirs and our wells.  And we  probably can't afford all the new infrastructure to put in new wells and feedlines up in Burgie.  When the new water rates kick in next year, moreover, we are probably going to see some  drop in water usage.

The land has frontage on Nash Hill Road, and a 65 foot wide easement and access road at the end of Judd Road, which might be private.  There is quite a bit of interest in lots now for sale on Ashfield Road. And maybe people interested in history could access the monument erected by the Williamsburg Historical Commission, and see the ruins.  Ned Huntley admitted that if sold to a developer, the land could be a subdivision.  I don't know how much money the city could get for this land if it was declared surplus, but this is a huge hunk of real estate.  And the deed has no restrictions on it that mandate its use for a water protection district.

And where this is all leading to?  A diffident suggestion that the city needs to urgently name some kind of blue ribbon committee to look at the city's assets, and start surplussing  what we don't need.  And none of these devious land swaps, make the sales cash on the barrelhead.  The big lot that the water department owns on Prospect Street that backs up on the bike trail  is another candidate for disposition. We'd be doing our poor employees stranded in that wreck of a structure a favor getting them out of there.  I hear the third floor at Memorial Hall has been vacant since the civil war. And maybe there'll be room in that magnificent new police station building?   Just thinking out loud.

The Water Department building

Walking around

I gotta admit it, it's nice to be back. Walking down Market Street, it's a lovely medley of the old and the new. The ROOST really jumping with lots of serious people working. John Smith's Birdstone antique store,as dark and elegant and mysterious as it always has been. What happened to the long list of Northamptonites who were on his marijuana customer list? Evidently antiques do not a lifestyle support, at least his. Maybe it wasn't an antique store after all but a cunningly disguised medical marijuana dispensary hidden in our antique belt. Joe's Pizza and the laundromat, the linchpins that hold our world together. Nothing in those two places changes. This morning the delivery guy from the paper company had to prop up the delivery door at Joe's when he left; it looked like someone had torn it off its hinges. Then there's Gabriel's books, with a diverse dollar table outside where you can always see something irresistible. Then there's the Whoo space at 11 Market Street, a cool place for artists to show their stuff. But they come and go so fast you really need to make snap decisions. IKEA knock-down tables a plus for exhibitors. Wait a couple days to decide you want that sculpture and someone new might be in there. Rent it for a week for $150.00 or rent it by the hour. Carolyn Clayton closed her art installation tonight,WITHIN RANGE. It was there from at the WHOO from the 2nd to the 13th. Lu and I participated, paying $30.00 for two hand-made walkie-talkie sculptures, and getting a blind platonic date at the Whoo storefront. Both of us got former Hampshire students to talk with and drink coffee with. What gives? Do Hampshire alums have an affinity for social experimentation {SE}? Should coffee shops everywhere have tables reserved for SE and hire Carolyn Clayton to fix up people who want to try out talking with strangers for a change instead of staring at their computers?

Carolyn Clayton        
Just three months away and the Main/Pleasant Street quadrant has been almost totally remodeled, and is mobbed nightly with people we don't know who seem to have money and love to be seen having dinner at the outside tables. Great art in the galleries, but expensive art. A mysterious storefront on Pleasant Street that seems to be selling tea-based compounds. Up on Center Street the huge Police station is coming along. A gigantic police station,a huge fire station, a huge elder services building, and less money every year to keep them inhabited. Clare, wherever you are,hang your head. People who see me coming give me some kidding. "You're still alive? They must be losing their touch, Kirby." said one wit, another one commented that the Greek Mafia must be a more forgiving bunch that the Genoveses. For next time : When a so-called "made man" and a Capo in the Genovese crime family ran one of our restaurants downtown and the Gazette never noticed anything he was up to except to give him a rave notice on the Italian cookbook he wrote. And then Felix had a great idea to get the boys together and kill Al Bruno, who evidently was getting soft and non-threatening in his old age.