Long Island Fire Vehicle in Manhattan?

MYFOXNY.COM - Fox 5 found a fire chief's vehicle from Holtsville, Long Island, in Central Park for days.

The vehicle is used by an NYPD officer, Joseph Castiglone, who works out of the Central Park Precinct. But in Holtsville, he is a volunteer fire chief. So when he leaves to go work in the early hours of the morning he drives the vehicle provided by Holtsville taxpayers. He makes a 53-mile trip via the Long Island Expressway to work, and 53 miles back.

"He's getting a free ride while everybody has to got to pay insurance," said one Holtsville resident.

"It's important for the fire chief to have a vehicle. He does a big service for us," said another resident. "But I don't think it's fair that he uses it for his own personal gain making money for his own family."

Yet Fox 5 saw the vehicle in Central Park day after day, after day, again, and again, and again.

"It shouldn't be coming out of our pocket to go all the way to Manhattan," a resident said.

Fox 5 asked Castiglione who pays for the car and gas.

"Can you shut the camera off please," he said and did not answer at first.

Holtsville is a community of about 5,000 homes 19,000 people. Taxpayers fund the fire district's $2.2 million budget. Businesses also pay through insurance premiums. 85 volunteers man the fire and ambulance service, and they're appreciated.

"I think they do a great job here," one resident said. "They saved somebody's life here the other night that crashed into that tree."

Yet with high gas prices and people pinching pennies themselves, Holtsville residents are upset about the vehicle use.

"We pay gas out here. We pay for everything and they are going to get it for free and go into the city," one resident said. "No, it's not right."

"I don't think people should get free car and using it for work only," another resident said. "No reason to drive to Manhattan.

But when the chief finally talked to Fox 5, he explained.

"The taxpayers are getting the services of myself and the other volunteers," Castiglione said. "I'm always working for Holtsville 24 hours a day, 7 days a week." He said even when he is in Manhattan, he has assistants in Holtsville working for him.

Larry Levy of Hofstra University's National Center for Suburban Studies said it is not good for taxpayers.

"There may be a good reason for fire chiefs to have fire department cars so they can get to fires quickly," Levy said. "But 53 miles away? It doesn't hold up."

Long Island's volunteer firefighters do get other perks. Most qualify for pensions and property tax breaks. And Holtsville's chief said that after 26 years of volunteering he deserves the privilege.

"This is a perk we get for volunteering," Castiglione said. "I think it's more beneficial for them to pay for the vehicle for me to drive than it would be if they paid me to be the chief."

One Holtsville resident said: "It's nice to be a volunteer. But when you volunteer, it's not to get something back to be abused. If you volunteer it is to help out."

While Fox 5 was interviewing Holtsville residents, we bumped into the chief's wife. She reminded us of the chief's sacrifices.

"He doesn't get a paycheck. He volunteers his own personal time for it," she said. "He misses my kids' birthday parties. He misses Christmas holidays. He's up in the middle of the night."

We randomly surveyed fire districts and found many restrict the use of department vehicles to just Suffolk or to Suffolk and Nassau.

"Fire departments that have restrictions are paying attention to tax dollars," Hoftsra's Levy said. They are paying attention to the sensibility of the community."

But we also found some Nassau districts allow their chiefs to use their vehicles to commute to work in the city.

"It might make sense for a chief who has a department in Freeport and works in Queens to keep a car because he can respond quickly," Levy said. "But somebody who is 53 miles away can't, it really makes no sense."

Fox 5 asked Castiglione: "Why not just leave the vehicle at home in Holtsville and use when you are there and you can be the real fire chief?"

"Because I use it on my way home and I'm always the real fire chief," he said, adding that he had just responded to a call the day before.

"It's almost like an impunity he can get away with whatever he likes to do while the taxpayers pay," a Holtsville resident said.

Fox 5 spoke with an elected Holtsville fire commissioner. He said the chief is allowed by the district to drive to Manhattan. Also, an assistant chief is also allowed to commute to Manhattan in his Holtsville fire vehicle.

The district views it as the price of keeping a valued employee. But he said that because taxpayers are upset the district may rethink its policy.