The president of Utica’s firefighters union is threatening legal action against the city as to how the Utica Fire Department’s assistant chief, once retired, was reinstated to his former job.
A few months after Asst. Chief George Clark retired in April, Mayor Robert Palmieri requested his reinstatement by the Utica Civil Service Commission as he named Scott Ingersoll — Clark’s successor — the department’s new fire chief.
Replacing retired Chief Russell Brooks, Ingersoll’s appointment is provisional as the city will host civil service testing in January for candidates. Ingersoll, then, is technically still the assistant chief.
That said, Clark cannot be reinstated since the assistant chief’s position is not vacant, said Thomas Carcone, president of the firefighters union.
“By reinstating George Clark to that position, you’ve actually filled it. That eliminates his position to return to,” Carcone said Wednesday. “I’ve tried to explain this. It fell on deaf ears, and I was forced to turn to the New York State Civil Service Department.”