Fairview fire chief who uttered anti-Semitic slur to retire

GREENBURGH – Fairview Fire Chief Anthony LoGiudice on Thursday night announced his retirement, three weeks after Tax Watch reported on the anti-Semitic remarks about town Supervisor Paul Feiner attributed to him in an age-discrimination lawsuit.

Disclosure of the remarks sparked rebuke from the Anti-Defamation League, local rabbis and Greenburgh citizens. LoGiudice apologized for the remarks on March 28.

LoGiudice announced his upcoming departure at the end of a rancorous meeting of the Fairview Fire Commission, held in the fire station on Rosemount Avenue.

"I will be retiring at the end of the year," he said.

LoGiudice declined to say why he was ending his firefighting career. But he said his decision was not related to the criticism that rained down on him after his vulgar remarks about Feiner were made public.

"Not at all," he said.

LoGiudice's announcement means that one of the department's deputy chiefs will be elevated to chief in the coming months. Commission Chairwoman Vikki Simmons said the board would be able to train LoGiudice's successor, without promoting a deputy chief to executive deputy chief, has had been proposed.

Several residents on Thursday night urged the panel to keep that job open, saying that Fairview taxpayers couldn't afford another supervisory position in the fire department.

They also called on the department to consider consolidation with the Hartsdale Fire Department, another one of the three paid departments that serve an estimated 73 percent of the town's unincorporated area.

"This town is bleeding money," said Shawn Thomas. "People can't take these taxes anymore."

References to LoGiudice's anti-Semitic remarks appeared in a federal age discrimination lawsuit, filed in 2012 by David Hecht, 45, who has charged that the district passed him over for a job because of his age. Fairview Deputy Chief John Malone testified that LoGiudice told him that he didn't want Fairview spending $7,000 on training Hecht because he would retire before qualifying for a pension after 20 years.

Hecht, a Fairview volunteer who still wants to join the department, said change will be good for the department.

"Morale there is terrible now," he said.

But others were disappointed that LoGiudice decided to retire. Greenburgh activist Tom Bock said the town was losing the services of "a good man."

"He was a very well-qualified man, and he is getting short-changed for political expediency," Bock said. "The town is losing a good man."