YOUNGSTOWN — The city fire department has announced plans to close the Madison Avenue station at the end of the year and to not replace three battalion chiefs when they retire.

The latter is not only a reversal from what the fire chief announced in August — which was a reversal from a month prior when he said that he planned to reduce two battalion chiefs through attrition.

“We’re not happy one bit,” Charlie Smith, firefighter union president, said. “The chief completely changed what he said. Safety will be at risk for firefighters and the citizens. You can imagine the stress to the firefighters.”

Law Director Jeff Limbian said the reduction in battalion chiefs is being done “for cost savings without giving up safety and security of the firefighters at the scene.”

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said he wanted the union to come up with ways to save money and when its members didn’t, he and fire Chief Barry Finley decided to make this decision.

“We looked at other cities and how they’re staffed, and we’ll be right where we need to be” with three battalion chiefs after attrition, Brown said. “We’re not talking about anybody losing their jobs. We’re talking about attrition. We’re right-sizing the department and making sure no one is being sent home. There is no concern about safety with this.”

Smith said he and Tracey Wright, the union’s secretary, met Tuesday with Limbian, Finley and Jeffrey Moliterno, an assistant law director, about the changes.

“This came out of nowhere,” Smith said.

One battalion chief is retiring in December, while another is expected to leave in about 12 to 18 months. It will be even longer before a third battalion chief would retire.

On July 24, Finley said he planned to reduce two battalion-chief positions through attrition to save money and help pay for a $285,000 improvement to the department’s radio system.

FLAWED SYSTEM

Smith objected at the time, saying it would put firefighters at risk.

Smith, a battalion chief, said the second battalion chief at a fire serves as the safety officer — making sure about the layout of the scene and handling communications between the firefighters and dispatch, which is difficult because of the flawed radio system.

Then, without warning, Finley said Aug. 5 that he wouldn’t follow through with the plan, citing risks to firefighter lives and public safety.

Fire captains and lieutenants would be trained to be safety officers, Brown said.

The union has an arbitration meeting in December to compel the city to make the radio improvements, Smith said.

The city will seek approval from Federal Communications Commission for two radio frequencies soon. The board of control will consider a $3,000 purchase order at its Thursday meeting to start the process.

Meanwhile, the department will not renew a lease that expires Dec. 31 to keep its Station 7, 141 Madison Ave., open, Limbian said.

“The building is not adequate for our needs,” he said. “It’s old and it’s lost its functionality. The chief has given us assurances this closing won’t have an impact on safety of any citizens in Youngstown and the same for the reduction of battalion chiefs.”

The station is one of the busiest — if not the busiest — in the city, as it answers calls for the North Side and the Youngstown State University campus. It’s also less than a mile from St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

“There’s no importance toward the fire department by the administration,” Smith said. “This makes it dangerous for firefighters and citizens. They’re playing games with us. We are now past being able to do our jobs effectively.”

The downtown station, 420 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., will respond to fires on the North Side starting in January.

“They decided not to renew the lease,” Smith said. “They said, ‘We’re just leaving.’ We’re very upset about this, very let down by the city.”

Limbian said Dominic Marchionda, managing partner of NYO Property Group, which owns the fire station property, called to discuss a rental renewal, but the city administration wasn’t interested.

INDICTMENT

The fire station purchase in 2009 was included in a charge of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity in an indictment against Marchionda and ex-city finance director David Bozanich. Those two — along with former Youngstown Mayor Charles Samamarone and 10 of Marchionda’s affiliated companies — were indicted Aug. 30, 2018, on 101 counts. They’ve all pleaded not guilty.

In the corrupt-activity charge, it is alleged that Bozanich agreed to give $1.2 million in city water funds for Marchionda’s Flats at Wick student-housing complex if the latter would immediately use $1 million to purchase the land for the fire station with Bozanich using that money to balance the then-struggling general fund. The indictment said that was “contrary to law.” Marchionda leased the fire station to the city for $10 per year for 10 years.

Bozanich is alleged to have allowed Marchionda to keep the remaining $200,000 with the developer using $70,000 of it for private purposes, according to the indictment.

The city had originally agreed to sell the fire station for $10 to Marchionda six weeks earlier. City council, acting on Bozanich’s advice, authorized the sale for $1 million rather than $10, the indictment alleges.

“The further the city moves from the taint of that era the better, but it didn’t play into the decision,” Limbian said.

dskolnick@tribtoday.com