White Plains Mayoral Candidate Picks Up Fire Union Issue
(Updated March 1, 2017) – White Plains Councilwoman and mayoral candidate Milagros Lecuona spoke out at a press conference over the weekend, announcing her support of White Plains firefighters and concerns about their union’s accusations that the city’s fire department is at the “breaking point.”
“New development in White Plains is a critical concern. More high-rise buildings and higher population have our fire department at the breaking point,” said Lecuona.
“The current mayor has maintained numbers of firefighters at dangerously low levels. Ladder truck 34 is almost always out of service, leaving our children at White Plains High School, Ridgeway Elementary, the YWCA, the German School, and Ridgeway Alliance without all their own neighborhood equipment. Yet today’s synthetic building and furniture materials burst into hotter flames 5 times faster than old materials, so whole rooms or buildings can be engulfed in flames before a crucial truck arrives from another neighborhood,” Lecuona said.
In response to Lecuona’s and the union’s accusations, which were expressed during a joint neighborhood association meeting earlier in the month, Mayor Tom Roach released the following statement: “Our fire department is one of only three in New York State with the nation’s highest fire protection rating of ISO1. The people of White Plains are safe and to suggest otherwise for political purposes is simply reckless. Further, it’s an insult to the professional leadership of our department, which has worked so hard to achieve this rating, and protect our citizens with an intelligent and efficient application of resources.”
Lecuona further said Mayor Roach has slipped raises for himself and some of his senior staff members into the budget. “Our firefighters have expressed a need for additional manpower, training and preparedness funding. What does the Mayor do? He ignores them, and gives raises to himself and his staff,” said Lecuona. “The ongoing lack of vision, process, and leadership have placed White Plains on a dangerous path.”
There was no specific response to raises for city administrative staff, but because of recent public safety discussions by members of the fire fighters union in White Plains that have become politically charged in some neighborhoods, the White Plains Public Safety Dept. recently posted the following update on its website:
“The City of White Plains continues to demonstrate its strong commitment to public safety and to maintaining professional and highly trained police and fire departments. The White Plains Fire Department holds an ISO Pubic Protection Classification (PPC) rating of 1, the highest rating offered. Out of 49,000 rated departments across the country, only 97 earned this rating and only three have it in New York State. The ISO is an independent appraiser and its PPC evaluates communities according to a uniform set of criteria, incorporating recognized standards (including emergency communications and dispatching systems, fire department equipment, fire department staffing, training, geographic distribution of fire companies, community risk reduction programs, water supply and flows). Twelve new fire fighter candidates have passed their physicals and will be sworn in on March 10, 2017. They will enter the next Fire Fighter Academy class on March 13, 2017.”
Further, “The City’s crime rate has continued on its annual downward trend. The calendar year 2016, the already low crime rate decreased by 7.2 percent. Six new police officers were sworn in during the first week of January. They are attending the Police Academy now and will be on the street by May. White Plains was an early adopter of body worn cameras. The city was the first municipality in Westchester to utilize them. All uniformed officers now routinely use the cameras when out on the street. The program has been a success from every perspective, with one of the most positive and impactful results being the ability of police to review interactions with the public and use them as continuous training opportunities.”
