Building Inspector’s Staffing Request Fails in 3–2 FinCom Vote-September 12, 1979

Following the receipt of detailed staffing schedules from Fire Chief Thomas J. Barry Jr., the Finance Commission (FinCom) voted last night to transfer $1,063 into the fire department’s vacation replacement account.

Vacation Replacement Funding Approved

Chief Barry requested the funds to cover seven shifts of vacation time for a fire lieutenant beginning Sunday. Two weeks prior, the FinCom had rejected an initial request from Barry for $11,000 to replenish the account, stipulating that funds would be released incrementally once a comprehensive vacation schedule was provided.

During last night’s session, member Joseph Adakonis successfully moved to request that the fire chief furnish an ongoing itemized accounting detailing the number of vacation shifts utilized to date alongside projected absences through December 31. Records indicated that as of September 8, only $553 remained in the account—which pays substitute firefighters covering staff vacations—out of $37,222 expended since July 1.

“If the chief can tell us how much vacation time is yet to be taken, we can project how much more vacation substitutes will cost us,” Adakonis explained.

In separate financial business, the FinCom denied a request from Building Inspector John Grover for $3,360 to hire a temporary replacement, pending submission of further supporting data. Chairman Allan D. Howard and William Collins voted in favor of Grover’s request, while E. Peter Bamber, Joseph Adakonis, and Norman Rickard voted in opposition.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger