Secret audio recording implicates RFD Chief

Posted at: 03/11/2010 3:16 PM | Updated at: 03/11/2010 5:01 PM
By: Berkeley Brean | WHEC.com

News 10NBC was contacted by a firefighter who says he caught Rochester Fire Chief John Caufield on tape calling the mayor's budget director an "idiot" and threatens to "stuff him in a box, put the lid on the box and watch the box to make sure he doesn't get out."

The voice in the recording also says, "you guys know me, I mean, so I have to restrain myself from killing him first and then I think, I gotta deal with this guy." At the end, the voice on the tape says, "the community needs to have the same thing. The mayor needs to have the same thing. Even "Budget Bill" deserves fire protection. Well, maybe not "Budget Bill," but his family does."

The firefighter who sent us the recording (listen to it here) says it was done as the chief made rounds to different fire houses prior to Christmas. According to a source in the fire department, the specific audio comes from one of those visits in December, 2009. The chief was not aware he was being recorded. At least two sources say the chief was speaking to a group of 35 to 40 fire fighters complaining to them about the budget pressures and cuts to the fire department mandated by the mayor's budget director Bill Ansbrow. In the audio, the person on the tape refers to Ansbrow as "Budget Bill."

At least three sources tell News 10NBC that the voice on the recording is that of Chief Caufield. Executive Deputy Fire Chief Sam Mitrano told News 10NBC's Berkeley Brean that the chief was speaking to rank and file firefighters to "bolster their support" and to let them know he was "fighting for what they want." We also had a Rochester firefighter listen to the audio. He told us it was the voice of the chief.

The fire department was forced by City Hall to make a mid-year cut of $1.5 million. The fire department is in a four-year restructuring plan reducing the number of fire fighters in the department.

News 10NBC obtained the audio recording from a member of the Rochester fire department via email Monday, March 1.

On Tuesday and early Wednesday morning, News 10NBC gave a transcript of the audio to Chief Caufield and Mayor Bob Duffy's spokesman Gary Walker. This afternoon, Mayor Duffy talked to News 10NBC's Berkeley Brean about what was said on the recording.

Mayor Duffy: I would call it locker room talk or fire house talk, back and forth, airing some frustration about the budget process.
Brean: Inappropriate talk?
Duffy: Well I would say the comments about Bill Ansbrow on the one hand may have been a joke. I think some of the comments were not even accurate about Mr. Ansbrow.

Mayor Duffy acknowledged he read the transcript of the recording.

Brean: Are you going to talk to (the chief) about the language he used?
Duffy: Yes. Actually he was in a meeting this morning, he talked to our staff. I'll talk to him a little later today.
Brean: What are you going to say to him?
Duffy: I think what I'll say to the chief will be private but I think the chief already knows what I will say. I think he understands that's not the message anyone wants to put out.

Mayor Duffy: I think the chief learned a very valuable lesson on this already. My sense is he's already apologized to Bill Ansbrow. He's learned a lesson and sometimes these lessons are important to learn.

Chief Caufield has so far declined to talk. News 10NBC called Mr. Ansbrow's office at City Hall but that call was not returned.

Here is the transcript of the recording:

Let's see, about six weeks ago roughly, the state announced that they were preparing for a mid-year budget reduction and that was supposed to translate to a $7.4 million cut to the City of Rochester in terms of aid from the state and that triggered all kinds of alarms, and my favorite budget director who I'll call "Budget Bill," to keep me from swearing about him or at him, you know, sounded the alarms and every department was asked to submit or put together a plan to meet this number for mid-year budget cut. For us it was $1.5 million.

You know, there's a lot of places that have made those correlations where you say, hey, four minute response time with a full complement of firefighters allows us to contain 90% of the fires to the room of origin. You know, that's a benchmark. That's our standard. "Budget Bill" isn't going to know what that is. The public doesn't understand it. You know, for the public, four minute response time to them sounds better than five minutes, but it still doesn't have any real relevant value to them.

Instead of building our budget by the Grinch coming around, "Budget Bill," coming around with his sack of …uh...whatever…sardines, and drops a couple of crumbs out of the bag for us, and then we move forward based on how many crumbs he gives us, I think we're completely upside down.

I do know this, this guy and others have had way too much influence on how we operate this department. "Budget Bill" don't know nothin' about the fire department….doesn't care about the fire department any more than he cares about the police department or DES. "Budget Bill" knows beans because he's a bean counter. And one bean costs a dollar and two beans cost two dollars, so if I can do with one bean I save a dollar.

I'm not saying it's easy to do, if it were it'd already be done. But that's how I'm trying to drive this thing. We've got to look in the mirror and decide what do we stand for. If we wait for "Budget Bill" to define what the response model is for the fire department, we're gonna continue along this path with 22 out of 24 years cuts until some tragedy happens or whatever, but it's our department. We've gotta figure out what it is we stand for instead of waiting for "Budget Bill" to sort of set our policy based on his use of checkbook.

So, you know, some might say, well, you're numbers are going down therefore you can cut the budget. That's what "Budget Bill" would say. I don't really care what "Budget Bill" says. We need to send what we think is appropriate. Again, that's our decision to make, not his.

If you're waiting for me to address your problems, you're gonna wait a long time. My job is pretty simple, it's to keep "Budget Bill," grab him, stuff him in the box, put the lid on the box, and watch the box to make sure he doesn't get out. That's my job right now. And I can't afford to fail on that without putting everything we do at risk…to be honest.

Go back to "Budget Bill" for a minute. It's a relate and I'm coming back around. The budget director just commissioned an EMS study to examine the role of the Rochester Fire Department in EMS service delivery. I got news for you. He didn't do it to help the fire department. Whatever his motivation is, obviously beans are a big motivation. He spent $50,000 to do that study…43-44, whatever it is. He can, as a result of that study, he can cut one firefighter job. He sees that to the good. That's the way it is. But by commissioning this study I can be pissed, the union president can be pissed. At the end of the day you gotta deal with it. And that's where this guy has exerted undue influence on this department. And the other thing is, it takes me away from my central job is to stuff him in the box and make sure the box stays nailed down and all that kind of stuff.

I want this little pointy-headed whatever out of the fire department. He doesn't belong in the fire department. We'll invite him in when we need his help and that's how I see it. We're gonna go at this study, as I said a minute ago, at the end of the day you can be pissed about this and you think it's useless, this, that and the other thing. You still gotta deal with it.

But "Budget Bill's" idea is, well, if the fire department doesn't do it, maybe we can double the number of ambulances and we wouldn't need you guys. Then we could even subsidize the ambulances. That's what this idiot actually says. You guys know me, I mean, so I have to restrain myself from killing him first, and then I think, I gotta deal with this guy. I mean, he's serious. Get out of our shop. I gotta drive him out. I'm not gonna invite him out…we gotta drive him out. But this is what this guy does. Again, we're playing defense. That's the system that it is. We all have a vested interest in flipping that thing around.

This is b******t. Pardon my French. I could go on all day about this stuff and I frequently do. To some extent we've all been very genteel with each other at senior management. Well, I'm telling you what, the budget director is no friend to this department. He's no friend to me. But he's no friend to anybody. I don't care what he does to the police department.

The community needs to have the same thing. The mayor needs to have the same thing. Even "Budget Bill" deserves fire protection. Well, maybe not "Budget Bill," but his family does.

For more Rochester, N.Y. news go to our website www.whec.com.

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