PARIS — For six days, Paris was the town without a fire department.

But the heated conflict that led to the mass resignation of 18 Paris firefighters on Feb. 26 ended with their reinstatement after a special Paris Board of Selectmen meeting at the Paris Town office on March 3.

The basis of the conflict stems from a personnel complaint and a letter of no confidence directed at an officer that was originally brought to town manager Dawn Noyes and Paris Human Resource manager Paula Andrews in September.

In between September and Febuary, Paris Fire Chief Mark Blauquire made a “good faith” decision about the situation and, with the support of other Paris Fire officers, stripped the officer of his rank. Later, Noyes reversed Blauquire’s decision and reinstated the officer back to his original rank.

Meanwhile, the letter of no confidence, signed by 70% of the firefighters on the force, never made it to the Selectmen until a Feb. 12 Selectmen’s meeting, where a group of firefighters attempted to hand a sealed envelope containing the complaint to the board.

At the time, Andrews said the handing the complaint over to the board on Monday violated the town’s personnel policies and advised the board not to take the envelope.

“It’s if personnel-related, you have to take it to your supervisor first, and if they haven’t addressed it, you take it to the town manager. If you haven’t brought it to her, you can’t bring it to the board.”

But, according to former selectman Scott Buffington, that procedure was changed without the authorization of the Board of Selectmen.

According to an updated complaint policy posted on a bulletin board at the town office on February 6, signed by Andrews, employees, as an extra step, are now required to submit complaints to the Human Resource Department. According to Buffington, that change was unauthorized.

“The whole thing’s a mess … that hasn’t been approved by the Selectboard. Any policy and procedure change has to be approved by the board,” said Buffington.

At that meeting, it wasn’t clear if the Selectboard was able to take the envelope.

“Are we able to accept the envelope?” Rusty Brackett asked.

“No.” Andrews replied. “We (the town) haven’t seen it.”

Later, Noyes and Andrews told firefighters that the policy was “prematurely” implemented and had since been retracted
According to former Paris Fire Chief and active Paris firefighter Jon Longley, the change of procedure meant “monthly” and “bimonthly” meetings for the department and affected the morale of the force.

“These people have nightmares on it,” he said on Feb. 26. “We’ve been grilled to death on it. I would prefer to say that it brought the morale of the Fire Department down to the point where people are like, ‘I do this as a volunteer, and I could do many things and not be bothered by this ridiculousness.’”

Tensions reached a boiling point during a meeting between Noyes, Andrews, and the fire department on Feb. 26. In an open letter submitted to the Sun Journal on Feb. 29, Longley said that during a question and answer segment of the meeting, firefighters asked Noyes about reversing Blaquiere’s decision.

Noyes “would not comment on the actions, stating it was a personnel issue.” After, members expressed concerns that if changes had been made to the current command structure, they should be made aware.

Noyes and Andrews refused to comment, and the same question was directed to the fire chief.

 

“The fire chief hesitated to answer, however, acknowledged his decision had been overturned. The chief was then asked ‘Is this your wish and are you comfortable with the final decision?’ His reply was simply ‘No’.” Longley wrote.

After, the meeting got “sassy and lippy,” according to Longley. Firefighters asked Noyes if she was standing behind her decision to reverse the action of the chief.

“Her final answer was she had made her decision, it was final. If individuals did not care for her determination they were free to do other things,” wrote Longley. And the firefighters did. One by one, 18 dropped their pagers and gear in piles next to the tankers and left the meeting, resigned.

“The people stood up, and a couple of members stood up and said ‘if that’s the way it’s going to be, I no longer wish to be part of this organization where the chief no longer has the authority to make decisions.’ Which led to a tidal wave of everyone lining up and handing their pagers to the town manager, lining up and saying ‘it’s been a pleasure working for you,’” Longley said on Feb. 26.

The resignations were never official, as the resignations were never approved by Blaquiere. Reached the next day by phone, Chief Blaquiere said that he did not accept the resignations, and as far as he was concerned, the force was operating at full capacity.

“We have a full staff here, and if the bell goes off, we will respond,” said Blaquiere on Feb. 27.

Luckily, that statement was never tested. Reached on Feb. 27, Norway Fire Department Chief Dennis Yates, said that mutual aid provides adequate protection from emergencies, even in the absence of a fire department.

“It wouldn’t make much difference,” Yates said. “When we have a structure fire, we always call Norway, Paris, and Oxford, and West Paris to begin with. If we have to, we’ll call Waterford, Harrison, and Bridgton. It’s not going to affect the way that we fight fires.”

But Kerri Ayers, one of about 20 fire department supporters who rallied outside of the Paris Town Office March 2, said the department’s prompt response helped her get through two terrifying experiences.
When Ayers rolled her car over on Route 117, the Paris Fire Department was there. When she found her basement full of smoke, the Fire Department was on the scene in less than 10 minutes. After the fire, they even did geothermal testing in her basement to make sure the house was safe to live in.

“When you here the unfortunate sound of your furnace exploding and see your basement fill with smoke, and you have to call 911 – and your fire department responds in less than 10 minutes. Mutual aid is great, but it was Paris Fire that was there first,” said Ayers. “To know that my fire department was there for me [is] less anxiety-provoking.”

The meeting on March 2 was an executive session and closed to the public, so it’s not known what, if any, agreement was made to reconcile the differences between the town and the fire department. To a crowd of supporters and TV crews, Blaquiere announced that the fire department decided to “come back to work.”

“Paris Fire Department is back to full capacity. All 18 guys have been reinstated, and the town is protected by their guys,” said Blaquire.

The Paris Fire Department moved from a paid, per diem department to a volunteer force after voting at the June 17, 2017, town meeting to cut the fire department budget by $145,629. They have a roster of about 30 volunteers.

Longley, chief at the time of the transition, said he was tasked with restructuring the fire department, and Blaquiere, deputy chief at the time, was “very much responsible for accomplishing this task handed to us by the citizens,” according to an email Longley sent on Saturday.

“Since that vote, the Paris Fire Department has rebuilt the call force, taken on new members and trained them to the standards outlined in NFPA 1001, standards for a professional firefighter. Collectively, they have responded to numerous emergencies and have received nothing but praise,” Longley wrote.

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