MVFD Is Hiding Incentive Spreadsheet From The Community?

 “According to historical record the original intent of the "incentive" plan was to form and plan some sort of retirement fund for firemen. A good idea. We believe that the fund devolved into another sort of fire call pay. We would like to see how the fund is used, i.e., are individuals being paid out of the fund? When we asked for the info we got what follows below, a lump sum figure. This is not what we asked for and why we are willing to take all legal steps to get what we asked for. We want to know how the taxpayer's money is being spent.”

The original intent of the MVFD was to create a “retirement fund,” however it was determined at the time, that it would cost the Town far too much to try to get the program going.  The problem was, how far do you go back? Where is the cutoff? How much should Veterans who have been with the Department for years receive? All the available money would have been paid out to the Veterans leaving the program basically unfunded for actively participating firefighters. It just was not going to work out in the form it was presented for either the Town, or the MVFD.

An alternative program was proposed and accepted by the Town.  Instead of paying firefighters for what they have contributed over the years, why not create a plan that would be an incentive for firefighters to participate now.  Thus the “Incentive Plan” was created.

A point system was created to take into account, years of service, the total number of fire calls, total number of drills, and the total number of meetings. To receive any payment from the incentive fund, a firefighter needed to make a certain amount of points.  A formula was created by firefighter Mike von Kannewurff that could take the total amount in the incentive fund and calculate what each firefighter’s share was of the total. A spreadsheet was then created in Excel that was able to accomplish this difficult task.

A copy of this spread sheet has been posted at Fire Headquarters since July of 2007, and at the request of the State FOI Rep,  it is also posted at the MVFD’s website since March 18, 2008.  http://www.middleburyfire.org/Incent2007.pdf.

Mr. DeAngelis has been told this by the Fire Department’s attorney and by the State, yet he claims he is being denied the information, and keeps sending the innuendo that the MVFD is doing something illegal. Both the Incentive Pay and the Fire Pay are posted on the MVFD website for the entire community to see. 

The system is fair.  The more you participate, the more of the total you get.  If you do not make enough points, you get nothing.