Former Fire Chief's Election to Coventry Fire Board Challenged

COVENTRY, RI—A resident of and unsuccessful candidate for a seat on the Coventry Fire District board is challenging the election of the district’s former fire chief, Andrew Perra, at an annual budget meeting last week.

Robert Gallo has filed a Superior Court motion in the hopes of getting a judge to issue an injunction to undo Perra’s election and to call for a runoff between himself and the other next-highest vote getter, Robert Rock.

The lawsuit, filed this week, alleges that Perra is barred from serving on the board since he is getting paid by the district for various services post-retirement.

“He cannot make financial decisions in the best interests of the district and its taxpayers when every decision impacts the payments he wishes to receive,” Gallo said in a press release. “The bylaws expressly forbid an individual who provides services to the district from serving on the Board for these very reasons.”

According to the district’s lawyer, Arthur M. Read II, the situation isn’t as black and white as the lawsuit alleges.

Read said that Perra has retired as chief and fire marshal, though he is collecting compensation from the district known as “bust out pay,” or unused sick and vacation time.

Perra earned between $90,000 and $100,000 worth of payout over his long career and “what he did was a favor to the fire district and said ‘look, I don’t want it all at once. Give it to me over three years,’” Read said. “He was kind enough to do that.”

As a result, he’s not getting a 1099-R for the payout as someone would ordinarily get upon official retirement. Instead, he’s getting a W-2 and that technically can count as payment of wages.

The legal challenge hinges on that classification of payment. Perra claims to be providing services for free and is collecting his unused sick and vacation time. Gallo alleges that he is receiving employee tax forms while voting on budget items that affect firefighters.

“It creates a fundamental conflict with his public duties to the residents of this District. Hopefully, the Court will grant the relief we are seeking,” Gallo said.

Read said the issue is made complicated by a lack of clarity in the bylaws, which he said are due for a revamp. He noted that the bylaws are silent about eligibility after an election, among other areas.

As an example: someone could move into the Coventry Fire District and be an eligible candidate, get elected, and then become a firefighter weeks later. While it could be assumed that that would violate the spirit of the bylaws, “the bylaws don’t say” specifically, Perra said.

Judge Brian Stern will hear the matter on Friday. Perra said that the district board will respect the judge’s decision.

“As far as I’m concerned, Mr. Perra was validly elected as a director until the court tells me to the contrary,” he said.

It is unlikely the fire district will mount an aggressive legal challenge. In fact, Perra’s entry into the race the night of Dec. 9 at the annual budget meeting came as a surprise to many, including many firefighters in the room.

That same night, about 70 voters attended the budget meeting and along with electing members to the fire board, it added $400,000 to the budget fueled by a desire to hire more firefighters. The district’s budget was slashed by the same amount a year earlier by angry taxpayers in response to revelations that now-disgraced former Fire Chief Paul Labbadia was golfing during work hours, among other allegations.

Gallo and Rock both garnered 27 votes, tying for the fifth spot. The top four vote getters won seats on the board: Nick Ahart and John Cook, both with 45 votes; Perra, with 37 and Frank Palin, with 31.

The hearing will be held at the Kent County Courthouse at 9:30 a.m. in the fourth floor.