Police, Mayor: We've Already Spent Money on Safety Gear

In spite of growing complaints from residents, police officers and volunteer firefighters about faulty radio communication systems, Shelton's mayor and police chief are disputing those claims, and they have the city's purchase orders and an extensive list of resolutions to back themselves up.

After Patch posted Democratic mayoral candidate Chris Jones , shortly followed by a Board of Aldermen meeting where volunteer firefighters took to the podium to voice grievances, Mayor Mark A. Lauretti and Chief Joel Hurliman are seeking to set the record straight.

At the Board meeting, held Oct. 13 in , Jones, a volunteer firefighter himself, read his “report card” to the city, giving the fire department radio system an F.

Veteran firefighter John Tatun also took the stand and said quite bluntly: “Mayor Lauretti is treating the fire department like dirt.” Tatun served at the Norwalk Fire Dept. for 23 years, and his 16-year-old son just recently joined Shelton’s fire team.

“I’m scared for my son and the rest of the guys, and for the citizens,” Tatun said. “Somebody is going to die.”

However, in a separate meeting with Lauretti and Hurliman, they presented documents and information to explain that such fears have been largely inflated.

“The public has been misled into thinking that firefighters are in danger and the facts just don’t support that,” Lauretti said.

Here is a look at what Shelton’s mayor and police chief had to say on the controversial issue:

• Shelton has a maintenance agreement with Northeastern Communications, Inc. The vendor covers $13,000 worth of repairs to fire radio systems. Lauretti said the Board of Fire Commissioner’s claim that needed repairs amounting to $70,000 are false, meaning the has little basis.

• “We have spent $350,000 on two new receiver transmitters for the police department and the [communications] system is currently at over 90 percent,” said Hurliman, which clashes with other reports claiming equipment works only 50 percent of the time.

• Hurliman explained that major problems reported dealt with individual pieces of equipment, not the entire communications system. For example:

• One officer went to the scene of a burglary in White Hills with a radio that “they knew the battery was going dead on.”

• One officer’s shirt microphone was upright during a call “in the midst of a downpour.” The mics do not work under water. The accompanying officer’s radio, positioned properly, was “clear as a bell.”

• On Feb. 16, 2011, the Echo Hose Fire Dept. put in a complaint that their communications base was not working. When Northeastern Communications was called in to investigate the problem, they found that the public address (PA) system’s volume was simply turned down. Turning it back up was a service agreement (no cost to the municipality).