Tax relief is on the way for the surviving spouses of emergency services and public safety personnel who have died while in the performance of duty. Voters in North Haven approved the ordinance 17-7 on May 20, granting tax abatements for the surviving spouses of North Haven police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and school resource officers.

According to First Selectman Mike Freda, the ordinance came about following the tragic October 2022 death of late Bristol police officer and North Haven resident Dustin DeMonte.

“It was at that point after speaking with the Bristol Police Department, speaking with the DeMonte family, that we were on a mission to create this ordinance,” Freda said.

The deaths of North Haven Fire Department officials Anthony DeSimone and Matthias Wirtz were also factors that led to the creation of the ordinance, added Freda.

He said the resolution is a “byproduct of many months of trying to put an ordinance together to have families qualify” for a relatively generous 100% on real property abatement compared to other Connecticut municipalities with similar resolutions. He credited his colleagues on the Board of Selectmen (BOS), William J. Piper and Sally Buemi, and Town Attorney Jeff Donofrio, for the abundance of research that went into the resolution. He also acknowledged public input that influenced additions and subtractions to its official language.

Public input influenced a change in language from “line of duty” death to a more specific “performance of duty” death in the new draft. For EMTs and police and fire officials, the performance of duty applies to deaths that occur “solely related to the performance of their regular work or as part of it,” reads the ordinance.

Buemi said the ordinance was one of the BOS’ “finest hours” despite the difficulties the board encountered early on in the process of drafting the language.

“I believe that we, as a board, in presenting this ordinance as we unanimously recommended it, we did everything we could to make this tax abatement benefit available to as many people as possible,” said Buemi.

Echoing concerns from some residents, Piper lamented that the BOS did not have the latitude to extend the ordinance to North Haven residents who work for the town’s Public Works Department or who are veterans or active duty soldiers. However, he agreed with Buemi that the BOS did their best with the resolution as it conforms with state statutes.

The performance of duties as outlined in the ordinance include: for EMTs, “traveling to, at or returning directly from calls routed through an emergency dispatch center, or test of trials or anh apparatus or equipment normally used by the employer ambulance service providers;” for firefighters, “while at fires, while answering alarms of fires, while answering calls for mutual aid assistance” and for police officers, when “an officer is obligated or authorized by law, rule, regulation, or written condition of employment of service to perform during regularly scheduled hours…that qualify for compensation from a local police department.”

Performance of duty deaths would not apply to “deaths that could just have likely occurred while not the performance of such duties.” However, if the BOS wishes to determine that a death qualifies as a performance of duty death, “the First Selectman shall consult with the appliance Chief and Commission along with the Town Attorney” and with a licensed medical professional engaged by the town “if it is deemed appropriate to reach a consensus conclusion,” reads the ordinance.

Resident Mary White, who supported the ordinance, asked that in that circumstance, the BOS seek a licensed medical professional “who used to be a firefighter, or used to be a police officer, or used to be an EMT, depending on the occupation of the person who died.”

Resident James Buck, a public safety professional, agreed, saying that the chiefs of the North Haven police and fire departments should play a strong role in the determination of a performance of duty death.

“I think it’s important we stand up for the best arbiter of these decisions, and I believe that is the chiefs that the Board [of Selectmen] has appointed to those positions,” said Buck.

Donofrio pointed out that the town’s chiefs would be empowered to declare if a death does amount to a performance of duty death in certain circumstances, citing a bill recently adopted by the state entitled “An Act Concerning Authority To Declare That A Firefighter, Police Officer Or Emergency Medical Service Personnel Died In The Line Of Duty.”

“If the death of a uniformed, paid, or volunteer firefighter is caused by a cardiac event, stroke, or pulmonary embolism that occurred not later than 24 hours after such firefighter concluded a shift or training, during which such firefighter was involved non-routine or strenuous physical activity, the chief of such firefighters’s fire department shall have the authority to determine whether such firefighter died in the line of duty,” said Donofrio.

According to Donofrio, “there’s no sunset provision in the ordinance” and any “repeal…modification of an ordinance comes to a town meeting. But there is no expiration date.”

However, the tax abatements granted in the ordinance will expire for an individual surviving spouse “if such surviving spouse remarries,” according to the language.