nothin City Settles With Egan | New Haven Independent

City Settles With Egan

MacMillan Photo

Egan: Case closed.

A long-running impasse at the fire department has been broken with a legal settlement between the Harp administration and soon-to-be former assistant fire chief.

Mayor Toni Harp signed the agreement this week with Pat Egan.

Egan had been on administrative leave since Sept. 22, 2014, when an investigation began into allegations of mismanagement. However, then-Fire Chief Allyn Wright never ended up bringing formal charges to terminate Egan; Egan kept collecting his salary while his lawyer negotiated a settlement with city lawyers. Wright was believed to be at odds with members of the administration over this issue when Wright retired Jan. 4.

This week’s settlement calls for the city to pay $30,000 to Egan and $70,000 his attorney. It also includes a salary enhancement that allows Egan — a former fire union president who is 46 and started working with the department 21 years ago —to retire effective May 4 in good standing with a $92,750 annual pension rather than $73,000.

In return, Egan promised not to sue the city.

Click here to read the settlement.

I’m happy outstanding issues are resolved,” Egan said Thursday. I certainly wish all the success to the city leadership and the department and union leadership and all the firefighters in New Haven. I live here. My family lives here. I certainly will remain active in city life.”

Egan said he’s looking at a couple of different options” for employment.

The city initially engaged outside counsel to handle the case. After spending $110,000 it took the case in-house.

The City would like to thank Assistant Chief Egan for over two decades of honorable and dedicated service to the New Haven Fire Department and to the City of New Haven in which he and his family live,” a city press release quoted Corporation Counsel John Rose saying Thursday afternoon.

Egan was at the center of a number of controversies, including the handling of a fire at Westville’s old Delaney’s restaurant; and his dealings with a firefighter who was later convicted of attempted bribery in connection with the case. The New Haven Firebirds and the NAACP publicly called for Egan’s termination. Lt. Gary Tinney of the Firebirds declined further comment on Thursday.

Assistant Fire Chief Matt Marcarelli Thursday praised the work Egan did as assistant chief.

Chief Egan created and administered policies that reduced sick and workers comp time by over 25 percent. Unfortunately those gains have been lost in his absence,” Marcarelli said. The fact is that complaints made by others clearly had no merit and were just red herrings to distract from others’ unethical behavior and poor tactical decisions.”

New Haven firefighters wish him best of luck in his future endeavors. As president of this local, he accomplished great things for the citizens and the union,” said current union President Frank Ricci. Ricci said the union wants to make sure the city puts enough money into the fire pension fund to cover the costs of legal settlements like this one.

This New Haven Register editorial last November chastised the city for continuing to pay Egan for not working rather than either bring formal charges or dropping the case.

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