Lindenmayer wants KVFD collaboration on finances, emergency management

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KENT, Conn.—First Selectman Marty Lindenmayer is proposing a collaborative board composed of members of the Board of Selectmen and the Kent Volunteer Fire Department to oversee financial issues between KVFD and the municipal government.

He told the selectmen during their January meeting that he and Town Treasurer Barbara Herbst had met with the newly elected leaders of the fire department to discuss formation of a joint board specifically tasked with oversight of the town’s investment in the department. 

The town contributes more than $500,000 annually to the department, in addition to grants and ambulance staffing costs.

“With issues having come out on EMS staffing oversight and contract negotiating communications …  it’s apparent that some controls and accountability [need to] be established between the town and KVFD,” Lindenmayer wrote in his monthly report.

He said during the selectmen’s meeting that the new board is not intended to tell the fire department how to run its operation.

“The town’s financial investment is significant,” he said. “We would work together for financial stability, to get a better idea of how to do budgeting and have oversight of how our money is invested.”

A previous effort to create an advisory board collapsed when members drawn from the Board of Finance stepped down and no other members volunteered. Then Covid struck, ending the effort. 

Fire Chief Alan Gawel agrees with the first selectman’s comment regarding “long-term financial stability,” and said the leadership of KVFD looks forward to discussing the establishment of a collaborative board to be specifically tasked to support the economic investment and oversight of financial matters between the Town of Kent and KVFD.

“Costs for staffing, operations and equipment have become increasingly challenging,” he said.

Finances are not the only concern on Lindenmayer’s plate, however. He said he will call an executive session of KVFD members, the selectmen and the Emergency Management Director Matt Starr. There has long been a breakdown in cooperation between the emergency management department and the firefighters.

“We have to improve that relationship,” Lindenmayer told his selectmen. “[Starr] is very forceful professionally, but we have hired him, and he has done a credible job. We all need to be able to collaborate and figure how to improve that relationship, but it’s very difficult to do.”

In his monthly report, Lindenmayer wrote, “There still remains a failure of cooperation and support coming from the KVFD. Despite whatever issues the KVFD has with the current EM director, the professional responsibility to cooperate on areas of mutual support required to keep our town safe and secure must transcend this animosity.” 

He wrote that the emergency management team has been ignored and has even met with hostility when it has attempted to coordinate communications and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) support. 

Lindenmayer wrote that the lack of cooperation is so entrenched that the KVFD CERT coordinator quit rather than work with Emergency Management, forcing the first selectman to move the CERT team from KVFD leadership to the Emergency Management department.

Gawel pointed out that the CERT coordinator happens to be a firefighter, but that the team is not and never was part of the fire department.

The situation is not confined to interactions with Starr, however. Brian Hunt, who took the position in early 2024 remained on the job for only a matter of months before resigning.

He complained about the lack of cooperation from the KVFD, which he said had been an ongoing problem for years. In his letter of resignation, he wrote, “Despite my best efforts to collaborate and communicate effectively, the ongoing back and forth, coupled with the continued lack of cooperation and communication from the Kent Volunteer Fire Department, has made progress extremely challenging.”

Two persons confirmed that Hunt had not reported his dissatisfaction to the selectmen before submitting his letter of resignation. Both he and Starr are former members of the fire department.

Early in his tenure, Starr suggested moving the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) from a small space in the firehouse to the second-floor conference/break room in Kent Town Hall removing any potential interference with the KVFD.

The fire department’s senior leadership said In a statement, “It’s become unsettling that despite our monthly meetings with the First Selectman, there has been inaccurate/misleading information in both his monthly reports (specifically the most recent report titled “First Selectman’s Report of 08-28 January 2025”) and in comments made by the First Selectman during Board of Selectmen meetings. We look forward to helping the board better understand the facts, so they are not misinformed.

“Regarding emergency management, the KVFD leadership looks forward to hearing what the Board of Selectmen have for suggestions to fix the ‘personality-side obstacle’ with the emergency management director,” the statetment said.