By Kate Hill
Staff Writer
The Village of Manlius Board of Trustees is seeking qualified candidates for the new full-time, paid position of Manlius Fire Department Chief of Fire.
Owned by the village, the Manlius Fire Department provides fire and emergency medical services to the Village of Manlius, the Town of Manlius and the Town of Pompey. The department’s coverage area includes approximately 27 square miles of residential, commercial and agricultural properties.
Members of the department include chief officers, line officers, volunteer fire company executive officers, career employees and volunteers.
The chief of fire is responsible for directing the Village of Manlius Fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Departments. According to the village’s recruitment notice, the new chief will “coordinate and direct the overall operations of the fire department, including fire suppression, emergency medical services, fire prevention, public education, and administrative and support services.”
Unlike the other village departments, which are run by full-time, paid supervisors or directors, the Manlius Fire Department is currently headed by a volunteer.
The fire chief has been a volunteer position since the department’s founding 206 years ago, according to Mayor Paul Whorrall, who served as chief for 25 years.
“When I first started out as chief, the job was mostly going to the calls,” Whorrall said. “We were running 60 fire calls and 200 or so ambulance calls a year. Today we are running 600-700 fire calls a year and anywhere from 1,600 to 1,800 EMS calls.”
As the department became increasingly busy throughout the years, it started to supplement its volunteer force with paid staff members.
“Back when the village had factories and farms, volunteer [firefighters] could just leave work,” Whorrall said. “But now they are all working out of the area, so we don’t have the volunteer availability we once had.”
The department hired its first career firefighter in the ‘80s, creating one of the few combination volunteer/paid departments in the region.
According to Whorrall, by 2000, the village started to realize that a volunteer fire chief lacked the time and availability required to run a department with 11 career staff members and around 70 volunteers.
That same year, the village hired a paid administrative assistant to take over all of the “department paperwork” such as payroll, scheduling and record-keeping, freeing up the fire chief to focus more exclusively on training and fire/EMS alarms.
“Then the state started putting more and more mandates on the fire department,” Whorrall said.
Meeting such mandates has added to the workload of the administrative assistant.
The mayor pointed specifically to legislation requiring specialized firefighter training, insurance coverage for cancer diagnoses and sexual harassment prevention training — all of which require considerable time and record-keeping.
Last fall, when the department’s administrative assistant announced his imminent retirement, the village revisited the idea of hiring a fulltime, paid fire chief, who would take on both the duties of the administrator and the existing volunteer chief.
Whorrall anticipates that in addition to overseeing the firehouse on a daily basis and working closely with the village, the new full time chief will help to bring some continuity and stability to the organization and to the municipality as a whole.
“Your mayor can change every four years, your trustees can change every two years . . . and, in our fire department, your chief [and union steward] could be in one year and out the next,” Whorrall said. “The only constants are your supervisors and administrators, who are paid and are here for the long run.”
The mayor also highlighted the fact that the fire department is more than an organization; it’s a business with a $10.5 million dollar fire station, millions of dollars worth of equipment and an almost $2 million dollar annual budget — covering salaries and benefits for career firefighters, insurance coverage for volunteers and training among other necessities.
“When you are looking at the equipment, the fire station and the overall budget, it’s a lot of money to have in the hands of a volunteer that’s really there less than part time,” Whorrall said.
The Village of Manlius is following in the footsteps of Fayetteville and Dewitt, which both previously transitioned to a fulltime, paid fire chief.
“The bottom line is that this is what we feel is best for the members of the fire department, the organization itself, the village and the people we protect,” concluded the mayor.
Village to bid farewell to Chief Brad Pinsky
Brad Pinsky, who has served the Manlius Fire Department for nearly two decades, will be the last volunteer to hold the position of chief of fire.
Pinsky is an attorney with Pinsky Law Group — a firm that represents approximately 500 fire departments and ambulance services throughout the state. He is also the co-owner of IamResponding.com, an international software company that serves emergency service entities.
He is the author of two books on managing fire departments and hundreds of articles on fire department and ambulance company management. He is also an international lecturer, who presents on legal and management topics relevant to fire departments.
Pinsky served as an EMT for 22 years — in Boston, New Orleans and Manlius — before joining the DeWitt Fire Department in 1988 and the Manlius Fire Department in 2002.
Prior to taking over as chief in 2016, he held the positions of Lieutenant (2007-2009), Captain (2009-2013) and 1st Assistant Chief (2013-2016). He has also served as municipal training officer for six years.
“I have been deeply honored to serve my community in the capacity of chief,” Pinsky said. “As the chief, I frequently see the members of our community in their greatest times of need and when they are the most vulnerable. It is impossible to explain the feeling of being able to assist them and their families during these times.”
The chief referred to his fellow department members as some of the community’s most cherished assets, describing them as the hardest working and most dedicated individuals with whom he has served.
Pinsky is the recipient of several service awards, including Training Officer of the Year (International Association of Fire Chiefs), Firefighter of the Year (Manlius Fire Department) and the President’s Award (Manlius Fire Department).
He said his greatest accomplishments as chief have been bringing professionalism to the department and propelling its firefighting tactics and administrative procedures into the modern era.
One of Pinsky’s goals as chief was to transform the fire department — administratively, financially and operationally — into a modern business. After three years, he believes he has achieved that goal and created a more professional, proficient and safer fire department.
Under Pinsky’s direction, Manlius Fire Department became the first in the county to institute a drone program and to provide ballistic vests to all medical personnel. The department also enhanced its operational readiness to wildland emergencies with the purchase of wildland firefighting equipment.
In 2017, the chief oversaw the relocation of the department to a brand new 26,000 square-foot, one-floor station located at the corner of Enders Road and Cazenovia Road in Manlius.
Other accomplishments, according to Pinsky, include increasing volunteer numbers and service, reducing response times, boosting department morale, and drafting and instituting a number of policies that resulted in the adoption of strict line officer requirements, training requirements, safety procedures and more.
“Although I do not believe that our community requires a paid chief, I thank the community and my department for permitting me to serve,” Pinsky said. “I do wish the community and its fire department had more of a say in this decision, but we all serve at the pleasure of our village board. Being known as the last volunteer chief of this 200 plus year department is truly bittersweet.”
For more information on the fire department or the chief of fire position, visit manliusfire.com or manliusvillage.org.
