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Mayor Toni Harp is bringing a top officer back from retirement to take over the troubled fire department.
Harp has chosen Allyn R. Wright (pictured) to succeed Michael Grant as the city’s fire chief.
“I’ve got a lot on my plate that I have to address. I know I can do it. I’ve definitely got to bring back the morale,” Wright said in a conversation Sunday. “I want to make it better.”
Grant’s last day on the job is this coming Friday. Wright starts on March 31, according to Mayor Toni Harp.
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Grant has served as chief since 2003. Reached Sunday, Grant (pictured) declined comment.
“I hold Chief Grant in high esteem. I just thought it was time for the fire department to go in another direction,” Harp said Sunday. “I thought that former Assistant Chief Wright could really pull the department together, build the morale up, and is a proven leader who moved up through the ranks. He had almost every position in the department. I think he can take the department to the next level.”
Wright, who is 63 years old and a graduate of the Hillhouse High School class of 1969, takes over a department that for years has wrestled with racial controversies, understaffing, and costly discipline problems. He retired as assistant fire chief more than a dozen years ago. He has worked as a security consultant as well as a private investigator licensed in New York State. During his time in the New Haven fire department, he served in internal affairs and ran the arson unit, among other duties.
Wright begins work at the end of the month. He said his salary is still being negotiated.
In returning to the department, Wright said, he intends both to address existing problems and to initiate new programs.
He plans to revive a fire cadet program in high schools and team up with the boy scouts on youth initiatives, he said. “I want to get more involved in community, with kids, after-school programs,” he said. “I want to bring back an EMS supervisor. I want to bring back a director of community relations and public fire education.” He also vowed to fix up the firehouses.
Wright’s son Damien is a firefighter assigned to Truck 2 at the Howard Avenue firehouse. His nephew, also named Allyn Wright, is a beat cop covering the West Hills/West Rock area.
Wright’s fire-chief appointment won praise Sunday from Frank Ricci, vice-president of the fire union as well as the named plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court case against the city over department promotions.
New Haven Fire Lt. Gary Tinney, who serves as vice-president of the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters (IABPFF)‘s regional chapter, which represents some 1,500 members in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, called Wright’s appointment “a morale-builder.”
“He’s well-liked and well-respected by the men and women of the department,” Tinney said Sunday. ” When he was assistant chief here he was able to do a lot of things around community service and youth programs. I think we’ve lost sight of that. It’s important the community sees us, not only at emergency scenes.”
Click here to read more about Wright’s appointment in a New Haven Register story by Rich Scinto, who first reported the news.