More problematic politics in Long Island

[Monty 35]

Sounds like a real mess to me.

ewsday.com/news/local/suffolk/ny-lifire0830,0,409381.story

Newsday.com

Coram suspends three ex-fire chiefs over race dispute

BY ERIK GERMAN

erik.german@newsday.com

3:21 PM EDT, August 29, 2007

Coram's board of fire commissioners has suspended three former fire chiefs, barring them from fighting fires and charging them with endangering their community when they resigned during a recent dispute with the board.

First Assistant Chief Robert Kulak, Second Assistant Chief Robert Kinahan and Third Assistant Chief Christopher Cacace quit their officer posts last month to protest a fellow chief's suspension, which they said was punishment for his defense of a black firefighter who had been the target of a racist remark.

Since August 14, the commissioners forbade the chiefs from fighting fires even as non-officer volunteers. At a commissioners meeting Tuesday night, the chiefs found out that the ban will hold at least until a hearing next month, when they will defend themselves against the formal charges they've just received.

The charges state that the men "had no good reason to resign" and claim that each violated their oath of office when they "left the population of the Coram Fire District without adequate fire and EMS protection."

The charges, laid out in letters given to each chief at the Tuesday meeting, also accused each of "conduct unbecoming a fire fighter" for making "serious and inflammatory public statements" to local media in the wake of the controversy. "The statements were untrue and were specifically intended by you to bring discredit upon the Coram Fire District," the letters continue.

The chiefs said they would fight the suspensions. "I put 10 years into this place, and this is what happens," Cacace said after commissioners handed him the charges. "They feel backed into a corner and they're retaliating."

Copyright © 2007, Newsday Inc.