Village of Copenhagen holds special meeting to address fire department audits

Jan. 26—COPENHAGEN — A special Tuesday night meeting of the Copenhagen Village Board to discuss recently released state financial and safety audits consisted of a lengthy executive session with a number of parties concerned with the Fire Department's challenges.

Participants in the executive session included Mayor Mark Souva, who attended virtually, and all four village trustees; Fire Department Chief T.J. Williams; representatives from the four towns that pay the Copenhagen Fire Department for its fire control services, including Denmark, Pinckney, Harrisburg and Champion; Lewis County Manager Ryan M. Piche; County Fire and Emergency Management Director Robert MacKenzie; and the new attorney for the village, Candace Randall of Campany, McArdle & Randall, PLLC law firm in Lowville.

The primary reason given for the closed session was for attorney-client privilege, but Trustee Kimberly Vogt said after the meeting that contract negotiations with the towns for their fire districts and personnel issues were also at play in the executive session.

"With our attorney being new, we had to make sure we did things right," Mrs. Vogt said.

The "things" that had to be addressed included financial audit findings from the state Comptroller's Office that $27,334 of the $110,469 worth of disbursements it reviewed did not have proper supporting documents, various accounts were not being reconciled, and cash donations were not being properly or consistently handled, among other issues.

Some of the issues identified by the audit are similar to faults found in the comptroller's 2015 audit of the department's accounts.

The state Public Employee Safety and Health Bureau's safety audit cited the department for insufficient training and because two firefighters did not wear their turnout gear while they were "performing interior structural fire fighting" during a fire on July 30.

In PESH's 2018 safety audit of the department, an exterior firefighter was also cited for not wearing turnout gear while at a fire.

The personnel matter discussed in the executive session related to the safety infractions, but Mrs. Vogt would only say that "measures would be taken for corrective action."

"We're moving forward with the department to make sure it's up and going, to correct these issues and strengthen our relationship between the village and the fire department to ensure that the taxpayers get everything that they need out of the dollars they put into it," Mr. Souva said after the meeting.

Part of the remedy to the bookkeeping issues raised by the audit — including the mixing of funds raised specifically for the drill team versus taxpayer dollars paid through the village and the fire districts — is to make sure those funds are no longer commingled and "to correct their (the fire department's) financials so that they can better track it," Mr. Souva said.

"And we'll make sure they're set up correctly to do that," he said.

The fire department has also followed the recommendations of the comptroller's office and is working with a consultant to create better policies and procedures, according to the mayor.

For the village leaders, one important point was clarified during the meeting that they believe will make the corrective process more productive.

"The greatest understanding coming out of this is that this (village) board is responsible for the fire department," Mrs. Vogt said. "They are a department of the village no different than the DPW (Department of Public Works)."

"That's the big thing, (Mrs. Randall) reinforced that with the fire department, yes, we (the village) are responsible and we need to take a big part in maintaining and taking care of things," Mr. Souva added.

"I think that was something that was important for the fire department to understand and important for us to understand," Trustee Shareef Stokely said.

Two other village trustees, Gerald Snyder and Benjamin Shambo left directly following the end of the meeting.

"At some point the village board decided to start turning the money over to them (the fire department) but didn't want really anything to do with them. That's my understanding," Mr. Souva said. "So they got the impression they were on their own, which they never were."

Since the village board voted to shut down the drill team's active participation in firematics competitions in 2019 because accidents through the dangerous sport had driven up the cost of workers' compensation costs for village taxpayers, the rift between the village and the fire department has been polarizing throughout the entire village.

"You see some of the commentary on Facebook, they think we're after the fire department, but that's not what we're doing," Mr. Stokely said.

The village board will be meeting with Mrs. Randall to draw up new regulations and guidelines to govern the fire department. The drafts are expected to be presented during the board's February meeting.

The special meeting was called over the weekend by Mr. Souva — who attended via Zoom remotely due to testing positive for COVID-19 Tuesday morning. While a number of representatives from the Copenhagen Fire Department and other fire departments in the county, as well as some residents attended the meeting opening, the fire department audits were discussed only in the executive session.