The New Hyde Park Board of Fire Commissioners voted in a private meeting on Tuesday night to dismiss New Hyde Park Fire Commissioner Michael Dolan Sr. as a member of the New Hyde Park Fire Department for misconduct, according to a source close to the investigation.
Dolan and his son, Michael Dolan Jr., also a volunteer in the New Hyde Park department, had been charged with departmental misconduct for allegedly taking 65 smoke detectors from New Hyde Park Fire Department headquarters last June without permission from the other fire commissioners. Dolan’s dismissal was recommended by lawyer Walter Wagner, who served as hearing officer at a disciplinary hearing in early January.
Michael Bonura, chairman of the New Hyde Park Board of Fire Commissioners said a decision had been reached on the elder Dolan’s case after the closed door session on Tuesday, but declined to comment on what the commissioners had decided.
“We’re electing not to comment on what we discussed behind closed doors,” Bonura said.
Commissioner John Waldron also declined to comment.
Attempts to reach Commissioner Rich Stein and Commissioner John DiVello for comment were unavailing. New Hyde Park Fire Department Chief Brian Sherwood also declined to comment.
“We’ll see them in court. We’re going to appeal it.” said Michael Dolan Jr. of the decision to dismiss his father from the fire department.
The younger Dolan has been reinstated in the fire department based on Wagner’s recommendation.
In his recommendation on the elder Dolan, Wagner wrote, “Michael Dolan Sr.’s violation of the public trust can only undermine the public’s confidence and must be treated accordingly.”
Wagner wrote that Dolan violated department rules of conduct and procedure when he removed property from the fire department without authorization.
The elder Dolan remains a fire commissioner in the New Hyde Park district. His term expires at the end of next year.
Both Dolans had been suspended from volunteer duty.
Wagner said he found credible the younger Dolan’s testimony at the departmental hearing “that he knew nothing of any controversies concerning those smoke detectors” and, “was simply doing a favor that his father asked of him.” The fire commissioners followed his recommendation by reinstating him as a member of the fire department two weeks ago.
The Dolans’ lawyer, Michael Cornacchia, said before Tuesday night’s meeting he would appeal the board’s decision in court if the elder Dolan, a 45-year veteran of the fire department, was dismissed.
“Expulsion is really the nuclear option. And it’s totally disproportionate to the offense,” Cornacchia said.
Cornacchia could not be reached for comment following the commissioners’ decision to dismiss Dolan.
Joseph Frank, lawyer for the New Hyde Park Board of Fire Commissioners, declined to comment on the case.
In a March 17 letter to the New Hyde Park Board of Fire Commissioners, Cornacchia asked the commissioners to impose a suspension of “time-served” for the approximately eight months the elder Dolan has been suspended from duty, and immediately reinstate him.
He pointed to Wagner’s determination that the elder Dolan had not acted for personal gain. He said although Dolan disobeyed an order from his fellow fire commissioners, he did not impede the fire department’s fire-fighting, emergency or rescue operations. He called the proposed punishment of dismissing him after “meretorious” service to the department a “draconian measure.”
The case started when Dolan visited John Murray, chief instructor of vocational instruction at the Nassau County Firefighters Museum, at the firefighters museum in May or June and was given 150 Kidde smoke detectors., according to Murray,.
Murray said the smoke detectors were worth $10 apiece, but a subsequent police report on the alleged theft said 65 detectors were reported stolen at a value of $30 apiece for a total of $3,250.
In his opening remarks at the trial, Cornacchia said that by attaching a higher value on the detectors the fire commissioner had made the alleged theft a felony rather than a misdemeanor, and a conviction would have forced Dolan to resign his position as fire commissioner.
Dolan said he obtained the detectors after consulting with Stein for an ongoing department program to provide smoke detectors to senior citizens.
Stein said after Dolan brought the 100 smoke detectors to department headquarters, Stein distributed 15 of the Kidde smoke detectors to residents. He said he also took two of them for demonstration purposes and gave two to fire department secretaries Marie Cochran and Patty Guy. He said Cochran and Guy told him Dolan and his son subsequently removed 81 smoke detectors removed from the headquarters.
At the June 19, Stein said Dolan denied stealing the detectors, but said he had taken them.
Stein said Dolan told him he would return the smoke detectors, which he did the following day.
One of the other commissioners subsequently told him the Kidde smoke detectors had been taken again, Stein said.
Videotape from surveillance cameras showed the Dolans removing bags of smoke detectors on June 21, Stein said.
Stein said he reported to the Nassau County Police Department 3rd Precinct that a burglary had occurred and signed a complaint against the Dolans prepared by the police.
In a private conversation after the police became involved, Stein testified Dolan asked him “How do we make this all go away?”. The criminal charges against both Dolans were ultimately dropped by the county district attorney’s office without explanation.
Dolan testified that he removed the smoke detectors from the commissioners room on June 14 was that he said half of them had been taken and he put them in his garage for safe keeping. Stein said he asked Dolan if he knew where the smoke detectors were, and Dolan returned them.
But Dolan said after subsequently returning the smoke detectors to the fire department, he discovered more detectors had been taken, and then said he enlisted his son’s assistance to return them to the firefighter’s museum.
