The Garden City Park Fire Department will hold another election on an unknown date for fire chief after the Garden City Park Fire and Water District commissioners barred Matthew Flood from taking the post.
The commissioners said they took the action at last Wednesday’s board meeting. Flood and former Chief Augustine Carnevale said the commissioners acted after a Jan. 29 disciplinary hearing to decide whether a policy violation Flood committed warranted blocking him from the position.
Flood, who was elected to the post in December, admitted that he violated a policy that limits how far out of town district members can take department vehicles.
Flood said he drove the vehicle to Ohio to pick up his pet, and came right back.
The board said it could not comment on disciplinary matters.
Flood said the commissioners had told him that his ex-girlfriend would be testifying at the disciplinary hearing.
Flood was arrested in August for threatening to kill his ex-girlfriend, Angela Alday, according to court documents.
He also faced criminal charges from an incident in April, in which he yelled at Alday and her teenage daughter, broke Alday’s cellphone and punched her television, according to separate criminal complaints.
Flood pleaded not guilty to a second-degree harassment charge, along with two counts of third-degree criminal mischief and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.
Judge Norman St. George released Flood without bail and issued a do-not-harass order forbidding him from threatening Alday or her daughter.
Flood said he was advised by a hearing officer and attorney not to attend the board’s disciplinary hearing because it would violate the order of protection.
“They continued to have the hearing anyway against my objection,” Flood said.
During a meeting last Wednesday the board approved a resolution denying him the post as chief and ordering the department to have another election, according to Flood, Carnevale and the commissioners.
Carnevale said it is within the board’s rights to deny Flood the job, but he added that the men and women of the department had chosen to elect Flood.
Carnevale also said it is “mind boggling” how long it took the board to make this decision.
Carnevale said a slate of elected chiefs is sent to the board to approve or deny at the meeting in the first week of January.
If there is a problem, the board can reject the slate.
Instead, the board waited until late February, he said.
In response, the board said the members wanted more time to consider the matter.
Flood was not sworn in along with the rest of the board in early January, and First Assistant Salju Thomas was appointed acting chief for the time being, Flood previously told Blank Slate Media.
Carnevale said because of the delay, he subsequently came back to serve as chief, but he stepped down on Tuesday, and said what will likely happen is that people will be shifted up.
Thomas would become chief, the second assistant chief would become first, and so on.
An election would be held to fill the open position at the bottom, Carnevale said.
Flood said he is going to continue the process of filing for an Article 36 hearing on the commissioners, which can remove an elected official by a court ruling.
Flood, of Puerto Rican decent, previously told Blank Slate Media he believes there’s a discrepancy between how the commissioners treated him and how they treat their “white friends.”
Flood also said he is going to file for an Article 78 hearing to appeal the board’s decision.
Flood said his decision is partly because he wants to serve as chief as he was elected to do.
“I joined the Fire Department to protect the community that I live in and that’s what I want to continue to do,” Flood said. “I’m an effective leader and an ALS provider and I want to continue to do that.”
However, he said, his decision is partly to stop the commissioners from “abusing their powers” and “stepping over their boundaries.”
