Two Pittsfield Firefighters ‘Forced’ To Resign Amid Residency Issue

Some deciding factors on where one ends up on the hiring list for the Pittsfield Fire Department include, civil service exam score, city of residence, and veteran status.

So, if a candidate scores well and lives in Pittsfield during the complete duration of one year prior to the date of the civil service exam, they would, in fact, place higher on the hiring list than someone who didn't live in Pittsfield during that time.

This happened to Pittsfield resident Justin Brady, according to a story on iberkshires.com; he landed lower on the list than Jon LaCasse, Lucas Perry, and Nico Amuso.

The three candidates listed above Brady, LaCasse, Perry, and Amuso were all hired by the Pittsfield Fire Department, trained at the academy, and graduated.

Brady obtained information that the three candidates listed above him 'may not have' resided in Pittsfield in the year prior to the exam. Brady wound up challenging his bypass.

"My belief is that proper verification of residency was not performed on the gentlemen mentioned above by the city of Pittsfield. As previously mentioned, those representing the city of Pittsfield, named above, were unaware of the basic Civil Service residency verification rule. Therefore, I am formally requesting that an independent investigation be performed," Brady wrote to the Civil Service Commission. -iberkshires.com

As a result of the investigation aforementioned in the quote above, LaCasse and Amuso resigned effectively on May 31 after failing to come up with sufficient literature proving residency. Perry did; however, come up with suitable paperwork and remains with Pittsfield Fire.

Listen below to Andy McKeever from iberkshires.com on his reporting of this story.