By Neil Vigdor
Staff Writer
October 3, 2007
The Greenwich Fire Department, an organization that prides itself
on its quick response to emergencies, has been anything but fleet
of foot when paying its phone bill.
Town officials say records show that phone bills for the North Street and Cos Cob fire stations have not been paid since at
least 2003, incurring $35,000 in unpaid invoices, including
interest and late fees.
Town Comptroller Peter Mynarski Jr. said the town finally paid
the outstanding balance about 10 days ago after First Selectman
Jim Lash asked his department to look into the matter.
"Nobody's been beating on our door for payment,"
Mynarski said.
In an interview last month, Lash said he had been told that the
town had not paid a single phone bill for the North Street
station since the facility opened in the winter of 2001.
Mynarski could not confirm yesterday whether that was true, and
Lash said the initial account may not be entirely accurate.
Still, Lash said it was unacceptable that the Fire Department's
bills had been allowed to go unpaid.
"The town is supposed to pay its bills on a timely basis if
the bills are correct," Lash said. "If that was through
the failure of someone to do their job, then that person is going
to be subject to discipline."
The Fire Department has had three different chiefs in the past
21Ú2 years. Messages seeking comment from Peter Siecienski and
Sandy Anderson, the most recent two, were left yesterday at the
Fire Department and Anderson's home in Norwalk.
Town officials said they budgeted the needed amount for phone
service but that the bills were never paid.
"It came to people's attention that we had unpaid bills out
there," said Roland Gieger, the town's budget director.
Most phone bills come into the town's Purchasing and
Administrative Services Department for processing and payment.
The bills for the North Street and Cos Cob fire stations came
into the Fire Department, however.
Both Mynarski and Gieger speculated that town officials never
told the phone company to send the bills to the Purchasing
Department when they ordered new lines for the North Street
station in 2001. Mynarski and Gieger said they did not know why
Cos Cob's bills got sent to the fire department. They also could
not explain why the Fire Department did not pay them or forward
them to purchasing officials.
Lash said he wants to know how the town got behind on its
payments and is having finance officials look into the matter
further.
As for whether the town offered an explanation to Verizon, Lash
said he thought it would probably go unnoticed.
"Well, my guess is the accounts receivable department at
Verizon doesn't deal in apologies," Lash said.
Copyright © 2007, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.