Fix troubles at North Amityville Fire Company

The North Amityville Fire Company has experienced years of dysfunction, neglect and turmoil, as accusations of financial mismanagement, sexual harassment, poor leadership and a retaliatory, even violent culture festered. Turnover in board membership and management, and the Town of Babylon's involvement, have yet to fully resolve the longstanding issues. 

Now, with new leadership in place and promises of change on the way, the company may have finally begun to turn a corner. But there is more to do.

A recent audit by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli found the fire company improperly spent hundreds of dollars on alcohol and thousands of dollars on area hotel rooms from May 2023 to May 2024. Among the payments: $6,725 of taxpayer funds for 12 local hotel rooms in advance of a local installation dinner, supposedly needed for those who had to "set up" the dinner.

That's not a plausible excuse for an inappropriate use of taxpayer money.

Unfortunately, the comptroller also found the fire company had not implemented six of its nine previous recommendations, including basic requests like maintaining accurate, complete records of cash disbursements; approving payments only with appropriate documentation, including invoices and receipts; and ensuring spending is for "company business activities."

Even with those concerns, however, the latest findings represent a considerable improvement. A 2023 audit of company finances from 2017 and 2018 found nearly $586,000 in unsupported spending, including thousands of dollars on a Caribbean trip and thousands more on gold and diamond rings for the former chief and his wife, the former board secretary.

Now, town officials say the company's new district manager, John Heidrich, who came on board in April, is moving the company in the right direction. But no one person can change a fire company, and broad culture shifts take time and effort. The company still requires tight oversight, proper monitoring, and resources to upgrade equipment, improve training and recruit new talent. Company officials are rightly working to expel members involved in past wrongdoing, and to add new volunteers to its staff of mostly paid firefighters. They're starting to offer classes and programming to the surrounding community and seeking grants to supplement taxpayer funds. And for this year's installation dinner, anyone who stayed in a hotel paid their own way.

That bodes well. But the proof will come when the company is no longer spending taxpayer funds inappropriately and when the next audits and analyses find its fiscal management, leadership and culture are prudent. For now, town officials must keep a close eye on the fire company's budgeting and spending, and the comptroller's office must reassess the company's progress. The state's auditing power should be used to examine other local fire districts, too. Taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent.

But if all goes well, perhaps the North Amityville Fire Company will soon be seen as a model for best practices, rather than the prime example of what not to do.