Haverhill Mayor Denies Access to Fire Department Study Process

The actions of a failed mayoral administration, afraid to work on an even playing field.


CPSM Haverhill Fire Department Study,
Delayed Final Report Release & Initial Response

The actions of a failed mayoral administration, afraid to work on an even playing field.

Mayor Fiorentini not only lied to the city council and firefighters but to the citizens he works for. The mayor told the firefighters and the city council that we would be included in the Haverhill Fire Department study and review process. The mayor and his office hid the existence of every draft report he received from the rest of the city leadership, the citizens of Haverhill, and the firefighters this study impacts. The mayor received these initial documents at least 2 months ago, the city council only received a report as of yesterday, the firefighters have still not been given a report by the mayor.

The final draft date on this fire department study was 11 December 2022, we are still working out the details on when the earlier initial draft was received and still hidden by the mayor. Nonetheless, the firefighters got their first look at the study results today, 2/7/2023 more than 8 weeks later. This was done deliberately by Fiorentini.

The firefighters requested the draft study results from the mayor as soon as we knew we it was available early last week and the mayor refused to give Local 1011 Firefighters President Tim Carroll any version, despite past promises. Instead, Mayor Fiorentini gave the study and “summary” rhetoric to Mike LaBella to print, unchallenged. The mayor refusing to send the study of our fire department to the firefighters or city council prior to getting his version to the paper tells you everything you need to know about this administration. The mayor giving the Haverhill Fire Department study with his skewed “summary” rhetoric to Mike LaBella and The Eagle-Tribune printing anything prior talking to the firefighters tells you what you need to know about their publication. Unfortunately, it seems that the Tribune continues to facilitate and enable these unethical actions by a contentious mayor by not pursuing actual journalism. By not reaching out to the city council, or the firefighters about their thoughts on the study while at the same time only caring to receive and print the opinion of a person who has spent their career eroding the fire department forces us to call the paper’s motives into question.

This is a mayor who is afraid of dealing honestly, if this study was his honest pursuit of knowledge regarding Haverhill and our fire department, the firefighters and the city council would have and should have been involved in the process, they were not. Fiorentini purposefully cut everyone else out. The mayor delaying a much-needed staffing increase and calling for a study last year was designed from day 1 to undermine the firefighters and our safety concerns. There is an obvious bias here and you need to know that. Once we’ve had a chance to review the study results ourselves, we’ll let you know.

Faithfully,

Your Haverhill Firefighters Local 1011

Please see the attached statement below (same as above)

A statement from the Haverhill Firefighters Executive Board denouncing the actions of Mayor Fiorentini and the Eagle Tribune

Haverhill Firefighter Staffing Shortage

Portland Street Fire 4.29.22 – Scene on arrival

The current effort to increase Haverhill’s dangerously low firefighter staffing levels has been ongoing since 2019. Since that time, staffing levels have not increased at all. In fact, the proposed 2023 City of Haverhill budget reduces the number of guaranteed on-duty firefighters by removing them from the 911 Call center and not increasing the per-firetruck staffing (better known as “minimum manning” or per-piece staffing). The current daily compliment of on-duty firefighters is a minimum of 21, though Mayor James Fiorentini’s proposal reduces that number to 20. Under the mayor’s proposed 2023 budget, Haverhill will lose 4 firefighter positions per week unless the Haverhill City Council stands for a TRUE STAFFING increase.

Please read more…

Haverhill Firefighters Raise $14,000 for Charity

Haverhill Firefighters Raise Money for MDA Charity through Cornhole Tournament, Fill the Boot, & “Spray a Firefighter”

On Friday, November 19th, your Haverhill Firefighters presented the Muscular Dystrophy Association with $14,000 we were able to raise with your help this year! Continuing with a long-standing tradition of raising awareness and money for causes that particularly help children, we were able to raise the $14K during the annual “Fill the Boot” drive, “Spray a Firefighter”, and Annual Cornhole Tournament this year!

Haverhill Firefighter Cornhole Tournament, Hosted at Crescent Yacht Club

Firefighter Douglas Burrill coordinated the Haverhill Firefighter’s Annual Cornhole Tournament for the second time in a row, which raised $5,100 for the charity this year. Doug Burrill and the Charities team worked with the Crescent Yacht Club to facilitate the event, that took place on October 2nd. The function has been hosted at this location for the last two tournaments, both with great success.

Members of G6 Water Street Assist an HPD Officer in Filling the Boot

For more than 67 years, Fill the Boot has been a strong firefighter tradition – giving families with muscular dystrophy in hometowns across America hope for the future and support for today. Haverhill firefighters, along with firefighters from across the nation take to the streets to “Fill the Boot” for the MDA and with the help of creative members from Group 6 Water Street, started a brand new and creative tradition of “Spray a Firefighter” which, with help from the community, raise almost $9,000 throughout the Labor Day weekend.

Members of the public were able to donate $20 in order to spray a Haverhill Firefighter in good fun. Firefighter Robert “Soggy Bob” Miles took the brunt of the hosing with help from his fellow Firefighters in Group 6.

We’d like to sincerely thank our community for their continued support as we work to raise money and awareness to help fight these terrible ailments.

Santa Tracker to go live right before Parade

SantaTracker.Haverhillfirefighters.org

Please reference the link above just before noon on November 22 to get real-time location information for Santa while he is in Haverhill.

Haverhill Firefighters 2020 Santa Tracker should go live just prior to the start of the parade at noon on November 22 and stay live throughout the duration of Santa’s time in the city. See you soon!

If you do not see Santa’s location, check back at another time.

Thank you, see you on Sunday!

2020 Haverhill Santa Parade Announcement

56th Annual Santa Parade Hosts “Santa’s Food and Toy Drive

Your Haverhill Firefighters will be giving Santa a ride through the city on November 22 for this year’s parade. Please click the link to find out more information about the event and check regularly for updates, including safety precautions, the parade route, and Santa tracker.

http://haverhillfirefighters.org/2020-haverhill-santa-parade/

Current Map: http://vfw29santa56.haverhillfirefighters.org/

Haverhill Firefighters will be giving Santa a ride around Haverhill

Please check here for more information and updates: https://www.facebook.com/Haverhillsantaparade