By Daniel Drainville
The Day
NORWICH, Conn. — Four of the city’s five volunteer fire departments are suing the city, charging that City Manager John Salomone and City Fire Chief Sam Wilson exceeded their authority last August by establishing the Unified Command policy last summer.
The lawsuit, which comes from the Yantic, Taftville, Occum and Laurel Hill departments, has been served on the city and is expected to be filed in New London Superior Court, the departments’ attorney Mark Kovack said Wednesday. The city’s fifth volunteer department, East Great Plain, has signed the Unified Command policy.
| EARLIER: Conn. officials, with police escort, repossess fire trucks from volunteer FD after shutdown
Among other things, it alleges that Wilson does not possess the blanket power, authority, or right to order, direct, command, suspend, remove, eliminate, supersede, subordinate or otherwise control” the city’s five volunteer departments.
It also alleges that the establishment of the Unified Command policy, done by executive orders, constituted “an illegal usurpation of the rights, status, and property” of the departments.
Broadly, it asks the court to determine whether Salomone and Wilson exceeded their power under the city charter, and to nullify the Unified Command policy, which they established in August 2025. The policy puts Wilson in charge of paid and volunteer fire services, and creates standards for training, communications and emergency response protocols, in an effort to unite the six fire departments in the city under one umbrella.
Salomone and Wilson have maintained that the implementation of the policy was authorized by the charter, which they say was reviewed carefully by the city’s past and present corporation counsels.
The news of the lawsuit comes a week after trucks housed at the Yantic Fire Engine Co. No. 1 were repossessed by the city, one day after the department had been shut down for failing to sign a copy of a fire services agreement. The city obtained a court injunction ordering the return of the trucks, which are now back in service with the city department.
Wilson has maintained the Yantic department has not complied with the policy but Yantic Chief Bobby Allen has maintained he was not told how f his department failed to comply. Wilson has declined to discuss the specifics of the incidents, citing the pending litigation and that details should be heard in an impending court hearing.
Volunteers cheer lawsuit
Before a packed crowd in City Council chambers Monday night, Salomone discussed the city being sued by the departments prompting cheers and whoops from the more than 100 volunteers and their supprters.
“The operation change is intended to be temporary,” Salomone had earlier said, about the Yantic shutdown. “The city remains optimistic that continued dialogue and collaboration will result in a resolution that strengthens and stabilizes emergency (response).”
Allen, after the meeting, said he had breakfast with Salomone several days ago, and would be willing to sit down and work out a solution.
The meeting was capped by an hour-long public comment session in which residents and volunteers continued to voice concerns, criticizing and directing allegations at city officials, and telling heartfelt stories of how departments had helped them, their friends, or the community.
Mayor Swarnjit Singh also received criticism.
Resident John J. Rankowitz Jr. criticized the mayor Singh for not stepping in to keep Yantic department open.
“It seems like he could care less. Some mayor, huh?” he said.
After the meeting, Singh said he has been mayor for only two months while “this issue is decades old.”
“My vision for better fire services always included volunteers in it,” he said. “I understand the community sentiments and concerns due to recent fire service operational adjustments, and I have a lot of respect for traditions and the Yantic Fire Department, but public safety comes first.”
“This is an administrative decision by the City Manager and Fire Chief, but I am optimistic that issues can be resolved and a pathway to move Norwich forward can be created, if all chiefs and the City Manager work together with a solution-based approach,” Singh said. “I hope the Yantic and other departments understand the value in working together under an improved system can lead to better outcomes.”
He added that collaboration would bring an added layer of public safety to the city. Singh also cited that his primary charter-given responsibility is not to handle fire services matters, but ones of economic development.
“But I do care for public safety and understand that providing better standards is one of the factors that is needed for a strong economic development plan,” he stated.
Christopher Coutu , a former alderman and former Taftville firefighter with the Taftville department, pointed out the department’s contribution to the community.
“Five volunteer departments with more than 250 active members supported by auxiliary, cadets and alumni contribute nearly 100,000 hours of service annually, and have responded to more than 30,000 emergency calls over the past decade across our city. That is not symbolic participation,” he said.
Ron Stoltz, a 70-year volunteer with Taftville, stood before the podium and described the Yantic shutdown with one word:
“Doomsday.”
“Thrown under the bus after 70 years of active service with the Yantic Fire Engine Co.,” he said. “The disrespectful Chief Wilson you hired decided to shut the Yantic fire department down because we didn’t decide to follow his petty orders. You hired him to be our new fire chief, and his power trip is destroying the volunteer fire services in the town of Norwich.”
Stoltz called on Salomone to reign in Wilson’s “ego power trip”.
Questions of the two officials’ authority to establish the policy arose soon after it was announced, particularly from volunteer firefighters.
Nearly one month after the policy was announced Kovack stated in a Sept. 8 letter to the city their belief that Salomone and Wilson had exceeded their authority under the charter. Kovack wrote the directives and orders which established the policy were “legally void,” and requested a meeting to hear an explanation of the legal basis for the policy.
“Unless and/or until the legality of the subject directives/orders are resolved with finality, whether by agreement and/or judicial action, the Yantic Fire Engine Co. No. 1 and the Taftville Fire Department reserve all their rights, remedies, claims and/or defenses, whether at law, in equity, or otherwise, he wrote.
Kovack’s letter did not mention the Occum or Laurel Hill departments were considering legal action.
Wilson said last week that the Taftville department has also not complied with the policy since it was established, but not as blatantly as Yantic.
On Feb. 10, when Salomone and Wilson received word that Yantic was going to go sue the city, Salomone said if Taftville joined the suit, it could be shut down as well. On Wednesday, Salomone said the city has no plans to take action against the it, the Occum or Laurel Hill departments.
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