Blue Hills Fire District Commissioners in Shouting Match at Special Meeting

Accusations started flying within minutes of the beginning of a special meeting by the Blue Hills Fire District in Bloomfield on Wednesday night.

Last fall, the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters did a series of investigative stories about the thousands of dollars in perks received by the commissioners.

Since our stories aired, a new commissioner got elected. She appears to have already sided with one of the incumbent commissioners, in asking the other incumbent commissioner, Tanya Farmer, to step down. The two commissioners accused Farmer of fabricating and destroying public documents. The commissioners did not show their findings to the audience, which included Bloomfield Mayor Joan Gamble.

Gamble had several outbursts, telling the two commissioners making the accusations that they should resign.

The commissioners who formed the voting block against Farmer also plan to ask Bloomfield Police to investigate whether she and the fire chief destroyed, or removed, their district credit card records. After a while, many of the taxpayers in the audience had enough with the two commissioners who called for the special meeting and made the accusations, asking them to step down.

Both Farmer and the fire chief, who are married, deny the accusations against them. One of the other commissioners, the board chair, is also married to a full-time firefighter in the department.

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