AUBURN — A third-party review of city Fire Department operations is needed to fix the department’s efficiency problems and heal divisions between the city and the local firefighters union, Deputy Chief Geoff Low told city councilors Monday night.

Low said he would like to hire an outside contractor to review the department and its operations and look for ways to streamline the operation.

“We have an opportunity for review of the Fire Department,” he said. “I mean the entire department. We are under increased public scrutiny, not just in Auburn but industrywide. And we have identified some inefficiencies and it’s time for us to look at possibly restructuring and finding ways to provide more cost effective services, if you will.”

Low said the Fire Department last updated its management structure in 1996, but most of the individuals responsible for making that work have since left the city.

“We have moved back toward a labor management process,” Low said. “So a lot of the inefficiencies we have right now, the extra running around, are because duties have been pushed down to the floor level to the working firefighter. They don’t belong there. They belong up with me and other deputy chiefs. “

Low said the study, completed over the next six months, needed to be done by an independent group so the results would accepted by both city councilors and members of the Auburn Professional Firefighters Local 797.

“If we did this efficiency study in-house, I guarantee that the results will never be accepted,” Low said. “Whatever this document produces, hopefully it will be the foundation to provide more public trust, to operate more efficiently and to show greater accountability.”

Friction between members of the local firefighters union and city councilors have been bubbling up over the past few weeks and they were on display Monday.

Union President Craig Bouchard defended the union’s decision to request councilors’ emails concerning Fire Department efficiency and truck use.

“Our request was not due to any desire to create conflict but to better understand why so many changes in so short a time frame were made that affected our ability to function, train and operate,” Bouchard said.

The union has filed a suit requiring councilors to make all emails concerning the Fire Department’s operations public.

Councilor Mike Farrell, who has refused to give his emails to the firefighters union until they pay for the time he needs to collect them, told Bouchard he would take the union president in the room behind the Council Chambers and show him his email account then and there, free of charge, if the union dropped the suit.

Bouchard said it wasn’t the right time and urged Farrell to send his emails to Aho.

“There never is a right time,” Farrell said. “There is no solution to this, is there? It just goes on and on.”

Farrell was also criticized for his video, posted to YouTube last week, showing a Fire Department truck driving around southern Auburn.

Firefighter Mitch Sperry of 193 Cook St. said Farrell created a dangerous situation by driving and recording.

“Throughout the entire video, Mr. Farrell has one hand on the steering wheel while the other embraces the cell-phone video camera,” Sperry said. “So with one hand on the wheel and the other filming, he crosses a fairly narrow bridge while filming his documentary. Where were his eyes? Not on the road.”

Councilor Dan Herrick also criticized union officials for seeking emails he said do not exist. Herrick said he does not use email to communicate. People may send emails to him, but he doesn’t read them, he said.

Low intervened, suggesting councilors, union leaders and city staff meet in a work session to settle their differences.

“Respectfully, this is not the way to get to resolution tonight,” Low said.

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