Burgess
The two guns were stolen from the fire chief’s office after a burglary in August. The weapons were never recovered.
Chief Ron Burgess Sr. was also slapped with a six-month suspension.
He has been on administrative leave since Aug. 10, when details of the theft were made public by the Valley Indy. The time off will count toward his suspension, meaning he can return as chief Feb. 10.
Mayor James Della Volpe announced the discipline Friday (Jan. 20), several days after an internal city review of the incident was completed.
Repeated attempts to contact Burgess since August were unsuccessful.
However, his statements on the incident were included in the report summarizing the internal review.
Burgess had been teaching a gun safety and pistol permitting class out of the Fire Chief’s office on North Division Street since 2009. He had brought guns into his office several times as part of his instruction, but said he had never stored the guns there overnight — except for the time they were stolen.
Burgess said he stored the weapons in his office the weekend in question because he had a family party scheduled at his house.
According to the report, Burgess had permission from former Chief Michael Eheman and then-fire commissioner/president of the Ansonia Board of Aldermen Stephen Blume to conduct the classes.
Burgess’ approvals happened outside of any formal process — such as at a meeting of the Ansonia Fire Commissioners.
Private Business, Public Property
The weapons themselves were perfectly legal — but the use of the public office for a private interest was questionable.
In addition, Burgess had liability insurance for the classes — but the City of Ansonia was not listed on the policy, nor was the location of the classes disclosed.
The city’s ethics code prohibits city officials or employees from using any publicly-owned property “for the personal convenience or the private advantage of himself or for any other person,” unless the employee or official has permission from “the appropriate authority or agency.”
Della Volpe on Friday said Burgess shouldn’t have been using the building for a private business.
“Obviously, he shouldn’t have,” Della Volpe said Friday. “I think it was poor judgment.”
Della Volpe said he decided to forfeit Burgess’s stipend as part of the discipline as a way to reimburse the city for the private use of the public building.
FILE The building where the guns were stolen.
The mayor said some type of disciplinary action is possible against Eheman, who is currently an Ansonia assistant fire chief.
“I’m definitely going to discuss it with Mike Eheman. It will be a personnel issue,” Della Volpe said.
As for Blume, he is not longer a member of the Board of Aldermen or the Board of Fire Commissioners, so Della Volpe said he can’t take any action against him.
Guns Gone
Sometime between Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, someone broke into the fire chief’s office inside the Ansonia Public Works complex and stole Burgess’ Smith & Wesson 9 mm handgun, a Smith & Wesson MP-15 tactical rifle and three boxes of ammunition for the rifle.
Della Volpe ordered the internal review in August, saying he wanted to know why the guns were stored at the building, and whether Burgess had permission from anyone in Ansonia government to do so.
Della Volpe said he was unaware of the gun storage.
The city’s interval review consisted of city labor attorney Fran Teodosio interviewing three people:
- Burgess
- Blume
- Eheman who was the fire chief in 2009 when Burgess started hosting gun safety courses at the Fire Chief’s office.
The four-page report was completed last week and was released to the Valley Independent Sentinel on Thursday (Jan. 19).
The report does not give any recommendation for action or take anyone to task.
It just lays out slightly different accounts of who gave permission for what — and what those permissions entailed — from Burgess, Blume and Eheman.
Article continues after report.
Finding Regarding Firearms 1 – 17-12
Permission
Burgess had permission from Eheman and Blume to conduct the gun safety classes at the city fire chief’s office, according to the report.
But both Eheman and Blume said they were not aware guns would be brought into the public space as part of the gun safety course.
Burgess, according to the report, thought it was obvious.
Eheman and Blume also said they were also surprised to find out the gun safety courses were open to the public. They were under the impression the courses were only for firefighters and would last only a couple months.
“It was mainly centered around firearm safety,” Blume said in an interview with the Valley Indy Thursday. “It had nothing to do with guns, nothing to do with bullets. It was a book class.”
The Fire Chief’s office is in a building at the public works complex. It has offices and a large meeting room, where firefighter training courses are sometimes held.
Della Volpe on Friday said the building is not typically used for outside classes.
Burgess ran the course out of the fire building from November 2009 to June 2011, according to the report.
About 54 students enrolled in the courses — paying $80 each.
Burgess had purchased liability insurance for the course, but the city was not named on the policy, the report says.
The course was advertised online as “Valley Guns Protection and Safety,” which offered NRA Pistol Certification courses for people working toward obtaining a pistol permit.
Burgess brought his rifle and pistol to the Fire Chief’s building “on many previous occasions” as part of the firearm class, according to the report.
Blume, in the interview Thursday, said he thought all gun use was done at a shooting range — not at the city owned building.
Della Volpe said he determined Burgess’s discipline by weighing the incident against his eight years as a volunteer assistant chief for the department.
Blume, when reached Thursday, said Burgess was knowledgeable and good to work with.
“He’s a good chief and he’s very good with fire rescue,” Blume said. “This is just an unfortunate situation.”
Police are still investigating that break-in, and haven’t recovered the guns or made any arrests, according to Ansonia Police Lt. Andrew Cota.
