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Hernando Today

Fire Boss: Promotion Example Of Fraud

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By TONY HOLT

Hernando Today

Published: August 29, 2008

SPRING HILL - Rob Giammarco called it fraud.

That was the last straw for fellow Spring Hill Fire Rescue Commissioner George Biro, who frequently has locked horns with Giammarco during the last year.

"I have no idea where he's coming from," said an exasperated Biro, one day after Wednesday's fire commission meeting. "I'm tired of all his innuendos. That was the last straw."

Giammarco was referring to the "promotion" nearly four years ago of mechanic Calvin Hatcher, whose title was changed to mechanic/firefighter after the fire board voted unanimously to approve it Sept. 24, 2003.

The board was comprised of commissioners Jeffrey Hollander, Gene Panozzo, Tommy Marasciullo and Darryl Hamilton.

A fifth commissioner - Richard Martin - was not present during that September 2003 meeting.

The idea of promoting Hatcher was pitched to the board by then Chief J.J. Morrison.

The department was told it would incur an additional expense of $5,680 per year. The chief said he hoped an assistant would not need to be hired in the future.

Today, Hatcher's salary is $61,318.40, which according to Giammarco, makes him the sixth-highest paid employee in the district.

The subject of promoting Hatcher was first broached years prior the vote, while Bob Kanner was on the board. He told Morrison he disapproved.

"I was adamantly against it," recalled Kanner, who was elected for two terms and served from 1994 to 2002. "I said no way ..."

He didn't dispute Hatcher's entitlement to a raise and said he was "worth his weight in gold," but to pay for his schooling and make him a firefighter for the sake of boosting his pension seemed unethical.

"That was not the way to do it," Kanner said.

Hatcher was hired in 1993. He drives a district-owned vehicle to and from work and uses his own tools, which he pays for, said interim Chief Mike Rampino.

Giammarco also criticized the district for allowing Hatcher to set his own schedule and work on other vehicles in the department's garage.

"I see them," the commissioner said when asked how he knew Hatcher was working on vehicles not owned by the district. "We should not be fixing those vehicles."

Rampino said a policy will be introduced to the board during a meeting next month that would not allow Hatcher to work on other department's vehicles without written permission from the chief.

Giammarco asked Rampino when Hatcher ever responded to emergency calls. He said he never got a straight answer.

The chief said Thursday he had not gone through the stacks of log books to confirm which dates or how many times Hatcher responded to a call, but remembered instances where he was dispatched - once to a school and several more times to brush fires.

"We've utilized him on several occasions," Rampino said.

A job posting on Monster.com for a full-time fire vehicle mechanic in Dayton, Ohio, includes an hourly wage in the range of $15 to $20 per hour. That translates to $31,200 to $41,600 per year, excluding overtime.

By comparison, a mechanic for a fire department in a city of more than 166,000 people makes $20,000 or $30,000 less than the full-time fire vehicle mechanic in Spring Hill - a population of 69,000, according to the 2000 census.

The job in Dayton did not include firefighter or EMT duties or experience.

A promotion from mechanic to mechanic/firefighter requires state approval, said Biro.

"If it had been fraud, the state never would have allowed it," he said.

Fire commissioner Hamilton admitted publicly during the September 2003 meeting that he had reservations about Hatcher's firefighter certification.

"(Hamilton) feels this would be a promotion because he will benefit from the title change, as far as his pension," according to the minutes from that meeting.

The records also stated Morrison "would not allow firefighter duties to interfere to where the mechanic would require an assistant."

The district has since hired a part-time mechanic.

"These are the sins of J.J.," said Giammarco of the former chief. "This is coming back to bite us."
Kanner blames the 2003 board for approving Hatcher's promotion, even though one of the fire commissioners admitted he had concerns.

"The board at the time was foolish for buying into it," he said.

Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5823 or wholt@hernandotoday.com.

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