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Harp, Neal & Brown.
As she accepted the endorsement of New Haven’s black firefighters association, Toni Harp praised the group’s efforts to make sure city-dwellers — not just suburbanites — are ready for public safety jobs.
State Sen. Harp offered that praise at a Monday afternoon press conference outside the Elks Club on Webster Street in Dixwell.
She was joined there by Michael Neal and Leon Brown of the New Haven Firebirds, the city’s association of black firefighters.
Harp saluted the Firebirds for their efforts to start the Public Safety Academy, a training program to ready New Haven high school students for careers as firefighters, police officers, or EMTs.
Harp said suburban young people often have a leg up on fire jobs because they come from towns with volunteer fire departments that allow them to get involved at an early age. The public safety academy helps New Haven’s young people get the certifications that will make them more attractive candidates for police and fire jobs in the city, she said.
Neal said teens who stick with the program for four years graduate with EMT and “Firefighter One” certifications.
At the press conference, Harp also weighed in on a couple of recent fire department controversies.
Asked about recent allegations that the department has a problem with racism, Harp said that “there’s a perception that it does.” She said the way to change that perception is by putting more New Haveners into fire department jobs and having a more transparent hiring and promotions process.
Asked about the dispute between the city and the fire union over the creation of new lieutenant positions, Harp sided with the union. “I think it’s a mistake to not fill from the top down,” she said. She said the department should have a captains exam first, before creating more lieutenant slots below.
“It’s bad for morale” to have too many “acting captains,” as is required when captain positions go empty, she said. “That creates tension in the department.”
Neal agreed. He said that adding lieutenants before promoting captains is “polluting the pool.”
Asked about the recent incident in which Captain Richard Rife was arrested for displaying a gun during a firehouse argument, Harp said the situation “epitomizes the morale issue,” since the display happened during a conversation between a captain and an acting captain, Lt. Frank Ricci.