COLCHESTER — Fire Chief Stephen Bourgeois said he was forced to resign last week amid a staffing dispute with the town manager.
The former Colchester chief’s departure further depletes the department, which recently lost one of its three full-time firefighters.
Bourgeois said he had pushed to fill the job but clashed with the town manager, Aaron Frank, who, he said, did not want it to be a union position.
“If I didn’t resign, he was going to fire me, to be honest with you,” Bourgeois said in an interview Monday. “Three weeks prior to that I was doing a great job in his eyes, you know.”
Frank declined to comment on the dispute or the chief’s resignation, calling it a personnel matter, but he confirmed that Bourgeois had stepped down and that he had appointed Seth Lasker, the assistant chief, to replace Bourgeois that same day.
The firefighter position will be filled soon, according to Frank, and will continue to be a union position. As for whether the town will fill Lasker’s previous position, that will be “evaluated as time goes on based on the needs of the department,” the town manager said.
Colchester has a population of about 17,000, and the fire department fielded roughly 1,100 calls last year. In addition to its full-time staff, the town relies on 45 volunteers who work on stipend and receives assistance from Saint Michael’s College Fire and Rescue.
Matters came to a head after the Colchester Career Firefighters Association, the union that represents local firefighters (but not the chief), published a statement April 4 about its staffing concerns, the vacant position, and the strife between Bourgeois and Frank.
The statement, signed by union President Tyler Cootware, describes the union’s advocacy for new firefighting positions, which it says are necessary in part to respond quickly throughout the town’s sprawling geography.
The union, Cootware wrote in the statement, “refuses to let the Town Manager continue to hold our third position hostage and we strongly believe the members of our community should refuse to let this happen as well.”
Frank declined to comment on the union statement.
Cootware, who is one of Colchester’s two remaining full-time firefighters, said the union was surprised to learn Bourgeois had resigned the following day.
“We did not expect him to leave,” Cootware said.
On Bourgeois’ way to visit his father in respite care on April 5, he stopped by the town offices where, he said, Frank told him, “I’ve had enough with you” and issued an ultimatum.
Frank told him he could work for two weeks until the assistant chief returned from vacation, Bourgeois said. “He slid across the table a one-line, typed-out resignation from me that he had already made up on town letterhead, and he said, ‘or you can sign this and leave today.’”
Bourgeois said he signed the letter and had hoped to send an email notifying the town but was locked out of his email soon after.
“Somebody had to stand up to him, and that’s what I did. And I am where I am now,” Bourgeois said. “It’s just a shame, but I wasn’t going to do something that was detrimental to the department.”
A Burlington resident, Bourgeois, 62, helped merge Colchester’s volunteer departments to create the town fire department in 2020.
He previously worked for the Burlington Fire Department as a deputy chief, retiring in 2011. He returned as a volunteer and became chief of the Malletts Bay Fire Department in 2015, until the merger. Frank then picked him to head the new town department.
“I’ve been in the fire service for 42 years, and I’ve never been treated like that,” Bourgeois said. “You hire a department head, you gotta let that department head do what he thinks is best for the department. I mean, he doesn’t know how a fire department’s supposed to run, you know?”
The town has not publicly announced the resignation, although it updated the fire department webpage Monday.
In a statement dated April 7, the Colchester Police Officers Association, a law enforcement union, said it “supports the endeavors of the Colchester Career Firefighters to advocate for an increase of their staffing levels.”
Frank said the town contributes about $487,000 toward the fire department — 48% more than before the merger. “So we’ve certainly added financial resources to it,” he said.
He spoke highly of the department and Bourgeois’ work.
“Steve was the town’s first fire chief from January 2020 to April 2023,” he said, outlining a long list of contributions from consolidating services during the merger to collaborating on jointly managed IT services.
“Steve did his consolidation work right at the onset of Covid,” Frank said. “It made everything — meetings, trainings — more challenging, and he was able to come up with hybrid trainings that were online and other ways to get people to come together. So I’m very thankful for what he did for the town as our first chief.”
Bourgeois drew a salary of $94,234, which is also what Lasker is receiving, according to Deputy Town Manager Renae Marshall.
Lasker, who also helped with the merger three years ago and previously served as Burlington’s fire chief, said he expects to fill the vacant firefighter position soon, in consultation with a hiring board.
“My priority is to hire and bring the paid staff back to its former strength,” he said.
Cootware said Lasker had a good working relationship with Bourgeois, so the union expects the new chief will take a similar approach to the position.
Selectboard members did not respond to requests for comment or deferred to the chair, Pam Loranger, who did not respond to emails and calls. Union members said they expect to attend a Selectboard meeting scheduled for Tuesday.
Frank said his goal now is for everyone to work together.
“I really want harmony for everybody involved in this, and so that’s what I would like to see, and I’m trying to work hard to do that,” he said.
