Village to Fire Dept.: Don't Pay 'Til We Say It's OK

The Northport Fire Department's Board of Fire Commissioners submitted a request to the Northport Village Board of Trustees that they be permitted to pay the fire department's bills without prior approval from the village.

"Why would we want to do that?" Trustee Tom Kehoe asked Village Clerk Donna Koch, who conveyed the request to the board at its Sept. 21 meeting.

"Because the fire commissioners feel their bills sit around if a bill comes in, say, the day after their meeting," Koch said.

"So let them sit," Kehoe said. "They've come to us before with this and it completely goes against what our responsibility is. If they don't like it, let them come in and address us."

Trustee Henry Tobin agreed that the question has come up previously. "And previous boards have tried to address it," he said.

Koch said that previous administrations did not approve the fire department's warrants at all.

Tobin suggested Mayor George Doll speak to the fire commissioners in person.

"We all know the fire department has been extremely responsible in its affairs," Tobin said. "However, we are in a year with a very tight budget. If we were to decide to do anything like this, we would really have to consider it in terms of our budgetary control."

Kehoe said that "the only form of budgetary control is that [the warrants] sit until we approve it."

Northport Village Attorney James Matthews agreed. "That is the best management practice there is," he said.

Tobin said that he wants to see vendors be paid on time but Kehoe was having none of that.

"I'd like to see a list of vendors complaining to the fire department," he said. "They'll all get paid and they know it. We meet twice per month. It's not like we meet every 45 days."

Doll noted that the board will schedule a special meeting if needed. "We met this summer just to approve their bills. So we're declining."

The Board of Fire Commissioners is made up of longtime chair Phil Weber, James Clark, Tony Graziano, James Hall and Paul Latuso.

The board approved payment requests for a total of $25,880.66, including capital bill payments of $5,722 to Mobile Fleetfor emergency lights for the department's new first-responder vehicle; $1,671 to Firematic Supply, Co. for a battery charger, safety lock and mount; $569.36 to Scanner World USA for mobile trunk tracking scanners and antennae; and $1,175 to The Finishing Touch by Dan for lettering and graphics for the new first responder.