Call Him ​“Battalion Chief Ricci”

Frank Ricci didn’t crash the latest fire promotion ceremony. This time he was invited. He sat quietly this time, his head slightly bowed, watching the meeting unfold in front of him.

Ricci was promoted from captain to battalion chief at a meeting of the Board of Fire Commissioners Tuesday — about a month and a half after he dramatically interrupted another promotion ceremony, in his role as fire union president, to protest a breach in civil service protocol.

“I will concede that it is ironic,” Ricci told the Independent Tuesday as friends and family circled to congratulate him.

At the June 8 Fire Commission meeting, Ricci crashed the promotion of firefighter Antonio Almodovar, arguing that then-Acting Chief Ralph Black had failed to obtain formal approval from commissioners. He called Black and Commissioner Will Celentano ​“liars” in a seven-minute harangue that ended only when he was ordered to leave the room. The commissioners had to hold a separate meeting to re-promote Almodovar. At the time, Black was in the running for the position of permanent chief. He has since withdrawn from contention.

Ricci was promoted Tuesday alongside two other firefighters, Mark Vendetto and Tim Keilly, at the commissioners meeting, which was held at Fire Department Training Academy on Ella Grasso Boulevard.

Assistant Fire Chief Matt Marcarelli advised the families gathered at the training academy to skip the commission meeting: It would be more pleasant, he said, just to hang out in the hallway until the ceremonial swearing-in kicked off in the auditorium.

“I don’t think it will be exciting,” he said. ​“You can come, but I wouldn’t if I didn’t have to.”

At the meeting, Ricci sat quietly as the commissioners voted to approve the names of the three firefighters eligible for promotion to battalion chief — precisely the step they skipped when Almodovar was promoted in June.

Ricci, who was also the named plaintiff in the landmark anti-affirmative action Supreme Court case Ricci v. DeStefano, remained impassive when the commissioners quickly approved the minutes of the special meeting he forced last month to ​“clarify” the director of training promotion.

“It’s great to see the proper process followed,” said Vendetto, the union vice-president. ​“It is very important.”

Vendetto, a New Haven native who dreamed of joining the fire department as a child, has worked in the department since 1997. In recent years, he has helped spearhead high-profile operations conducted by the department’s marine unit.

As battalion chiefs, Vendetto and Keilly will each take charge of half the department’s firefighters, making strategic choices about how to allocate resources at the scene of a blaze. Ricci, who works as a trainer at the academy, will continue in his current role, albeit with an enhanced title.

In an interview with the Independent, Marcarelli praised all three newly promoted battalion chiefs, calling Keilly ​“an outstanding firefighter” for whom the day’s promotion represents a natural progression.

Keilly told the Independent that he has enjoyed every minute of his career since he arrived at the scene of his first fire as a 19-year-old in 1997.

“The whole job has been a dream come true,” Keilly said. ​“It’s always exciting.”

Ricci, who was accompanied by his father and his teenage son Nik, was similarly ebullient. He politely shook hands with all the city officials gathered for the ceremony, including those he has publicly called liars.

Afterward, he posed for photographs with Keilly and Vendetto.

“I’m humbled to be in the company of the battalion chiefs that serve this city with distinction every day,” he said.