Prudential Committee meets to rewrite fire chief job listing, saving $250

Aug 25, 2022

One week after voting to post a job listing for the position of fire chief, Dartmouth’s Fire District 2 Prudential Committee called a special meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 23 to approve a rewrite of the listing.

The revision was made in order to save the department about $250 on the cost of posting the job to the Massachusetts Municipal Association website, an online job board for advertising open town positions.

Despite the change, Committee Chair Bob Bouley said the listing was already posted and the vote to amend it was done retroactively.

As such, Bouley said the committee would not extend the three week deadline for applications set at the committee’s Aug. 15 meeting, meaning all applications for the position will be due by Sept. 5.

The listing seeks a candidate with at least 15 years of firefighting experience with at least five years in a command position.

It offers a salary range of $85,000 to $95,000 for the position — well under the $115,000 appropriated by district meeting voters back in May.

At the meeting, the committee also revealed that a district bylaw requires the fire chief to live within the fire district or move there within nine months of their appointment to the position.

The residency requirement can only be waived through a unanimous vote of the committee, something committee member Ralph Medeiros said he was “inclined not to [do].”

“I think we’re looking at the best situation right now,” he said, referring to Acting Chief Greg Edgcomb, a long-time district resident.

Medeiros added that, “to his knowledge,” the committee has not yet received any applications for the position.

At the Aug. 15 meeting, Medeiros proposed offering Edgcomb a compromise deal that would pay him a salary of $110,000 for his first year rising to $115,000 the following year.

However, the motion failed to garner a second after Committee Member Bill Coutu said he had not had a chance to meet privately with Edgcomb in order to vet him for the position.

At the Aug. 23 meeting Coutu revealed that he still had not met with Edgcomb, despite assurances at the previous meeting that he would do so within a week.

Edgcomb asserted that he had provided Coutu with a list of times during the week when he was free to meet, but never received a response.

The Prudential Committee’s next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 12.