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07/26/2016 04:30 PMAfter months of negotiations, George Rehberg and the town finally agreed on the terms of an agreement ending his employment as town fire marshal. With the selectmen’s approval of the agreement, Rehberg’s paid administrative leave that began Feb. 10 also ended.
Rehberg was placed on leave on Feb. 10 by Fire Commission Board Chair Bob Hagemeister while questions about his performance were investigated. Scrutiny of his work began after a field check of a town building by a town employee found fire code violations (including empty or out of date fire extinguishers) that his inspection report had not noted.
A July 14 vote by the Board of Selectmen approving the negotiated settlement agreement between the town and Rehberg officially ends his status as town fire marshal. He had held that position with the town for more than three decades.
Per the agreement, June 30 is the date of Rehberg’s official retirement as town fire marshal. The town in turn agreed to pay $16,000 to Rehberg over the next fiscal year, divided into bi-weekly installments. The payment is nearly the same as the annual pay Rehberg had received from the town to be the town fire marshal.
The agreement also had other provisions binding Rehberg and the town. With Rehberg’s signature, he waived and released all claims by him resulting from his prior town employment or separation from town employment “from the beginning of time until the date of the execution of this agreement.” In addition, he also agreed not to “make any disparaging or defamatory statements about employer [town] at any time, oral or written (including in any electronic form) to any other person or entity.” The town, as employer, made a similar commitment to former town employee Rehberg.
A final provision stated that Rehberg “shall not seek further employment or contract work with [the town] at any time...”
For the past six months that Rehberg was on paid administrative leave, the Board of Fire Commissioners hired three deputy fire marshals to perform the state-mandated duties of the office: John Planas, Donn Dobson, and Bill Robbins.
Armed with their checklists, deputy fire marshals perform inspections of facilities used by the public for their compliance with fire and life safety code rules. These facilities include schools, municipal buildings, theaters, day care centers, restaurants, inns, and malls.
They also are responsible for reviewing construction plans for their compliance with fire and life safety code standards.
In early April, the Board of Selectmen approved adding $39,000 to the 2016-’17 Fire Marshal’s Office budget to allow the deputies to continue working in July and August, the first two months of the new fiscal year. Already approved in the prior month was $19,000 to pay for the three deputies’ work hours logged between March and the end of June 2016.
The Board of Fire Commissioners had directed the deputies upon their hire to conduct all of the fire inspections that state rules required be done this year, whether or not the sites had already been checked by Rehberg.
The employment services agreements with the town’s four deputy fire marshals—the three hired this spring plus the previously appointed Richard Leighton—were extended by the town through August. Each of them will be paid $32.50 an hour. This is a change in the way the town pays Leighton; previously, he was simply paid an annual stipend of $1,500 to step in and help the Fire marshal when needed.
The Board of Fire Commissioners asked Dobson to coordinate the work assignments among the four deputies. Dobson also will be responsible for signing the deputy fire marshals’ time sheets.
Dobson already takes the lead on plan reviews for fire code compliance, working in coordination with Town Building Official David Maiden.