The race for a seat on the New Hyde Park Board of Fire Commissioners received a last-minute jolt this week when former fire commissioner John Niewender joined the fray as a late third candidate entrant in what had been a two-man race between incumbent John Brown and challenger John Waldron.
Brown said Niewender “doesn’t have a chance” of winning the election, but Niewender’s decision to run hurts his chances of retaining his seat on the fire commission.
“It strongly hurts me,” Brown said. “We have mutual friends who are now stuck in the middle.”
Brown, 55, and Niewender, 53, had served together in the fire department until Niewender left the department several years ago.
Waldron, 34, said he didn’t know what effect Niewender’s candidacy might have on the race.
“It is what it is,” Waldron said. “The people who are voting for me are voting for me. I’m looking for the younger vote.”
Niewender’s late entrance to the race set off an angry exchange between Niewender and Brown.
Brown said Niewender actively served only three years of his last five-year term when he was fire commissioner. Niewender’s wife has been seriously ill for the past several years, Brown said, and Niewender has been her caretaker.
“He didn’t step down and that’s the issue. He should have resigned,” Brown said. “The board could have appointed somebody immediately. I don’t think it’s fair to the taxpayers.”
Niewender said he’s running because he believes change is needed in the board of fire commissioners.
“It’s become too personal, and too political. It appears to me that everyone there, including (Michael) Dolan, (Rich) Stein and (John) Brown forgot what the title of fire commissioner is,” he said.
“There seems to be a lot of internal controversy in terms of guys being arrested and accused,” Niewender said. “There seems to be a lot of different factions. It seems they want to use the office of fire commissioner as a weapon.”
He said his agenda as commissioner would be to restore the department’s focus to its core mission.
Niewender disputed Brown’s allegation that he was absent during the final two years of his second term as fire commissioner.
“I was not absent. I was in attendance. There were personal issues,” he said.
Niewender acknowledged that his wife has been ill and said she is now in a hospice. But, he said, he still feels compelled to run for fire commissioner.
Niewender is a lifelong resident of New Hyde Park and said he was in active service in the fire department for 30 years starting in 1978.
Niewender said Brown had “issues” during his years of active duty with the fire department.
“He shouldn’t be casting stones,” Niewender said.
Brown has been collecting annual disability pension benefits of $82,000 as a retired New York City firefighter since September 2002. He retired after 24 years of serving in Ladder Co. 165 in St. Albans, Queens due to impaired lung function after more than 40 days of working amid the debris at the World Trade Tower following the 2011 attacks. But he said he’s still fit to serve as a class A volunteer firefighter, able to enter burning buildings.
“I can do anything that anybody else can do,” Brown said. “The problem with my disability is that I can’t do it as long and I need more recuperation.”
A New York Post article in 2010 accused Brown of simultaneously collecting disability benefits from his former city job, while he was collecting a form of pension benefits from his volunteer service.
Brown said the Post story was untrue. He said he has only begun collecting benefits for his volunteer service this year. And he said his fire fighting status has nothing to do with his ability to serve as a fire commissioner.
“This has nothing to do with running for commissioner,” Brown said.
Brown is a lifelong New Hyde Park resident and a member of the fire department since 1977.
Brown said the reason he ran for fire commissioner against longtime fire commissioner John Melinski was his feeling that a change in leadership was needed at the time.
“I did not feel that everything was being run properly. I thought a change was needed to break the cast that was formed year to year,” he said.
Over his five-year term, Brown cites budget reductions over the three consecutive years and a 2 percent increase last year among his contributions.
Waldron has said he now sees a further need for a change in leadership.
“There has to be more accountability,” he said. “Everybody seems to be a boss at the firehouse.”
Waldron comes from a family of volunteers. His father, Edward, is a 40-year member of the department and his brother, Steve, a deputy chief, has been in the department for 20 years.
Waldron received a gold medal of valor last year for his role in saving the lives of two New Hyde Park firefighters in a basement fire on 6th Avenue in New Hyde Park.
Both Brown and Waldron are members of New Hyde Park Fire Department Hook & Ladder Co. 1.
Waldron said Rich Stein, chairman of the New Hyde Park Board of Fire Commissioners, is supporting him in the race.
Brown said Anthony Vaglica, who was terminated as a volunteer in the New Hyde Park Fire Department in 2009, is supporting Waldron’s candidacy as well. Vaglica was terminated because of conduct “unbecoming a member,” according to a Supreme Court order upholding his termination.
Vaglica was unsuccessful in challenging Stein in a race for Stein’s seat on the fire commission last year.
Waldron said he was not aware that Vaglica was supporting his election effort.
“He’s not going to do any work for me, nor am I going to ask him to,” Waldron said.
Brown, he said, was “grasping at straws.”
Voting in the fire commissioner race will take place at the New Hyde Park Fire Department headquarters on Dec. 11 between 1 p.m. and 9 p.m.
