Meet the actors

Sam Wilson

Samuel C. Wilson III · Fire Chief

Sam Wilson came to Norwich in February 2025 after serving as Wallingford’s deputy and acting chief. His career included service as a firefighter/paramedic and as EMS lieutenant.

What fireground command experience qualified him to judge Norwich’s longstanding volunteer companies, and how did the City evaluate it?

Residents deserve to see the standards and specific incident evidence behind those judgments—and why restricting volunteer operations was the necessary response.

A February 2026 MRI assessment describes the department’s leadership working to overcome ‘a long-standing crisis of culture and vision’ and reports improving morale and communication. It also praises the emergency work of career and volunteer firefighters. Its discussion of conditions before 2024 does not name Wilson as the ‘previous fire chief.’

Municipal Resources, Inc., Town of Wallingford, Connecticut: Fire and Emergency Services Department Strategic Risk Analysis, February 2026, p. 6, ‘Current State of the Department.’

These reports do not establish that Wilson was fired or found responsible for the department’s problems.

John Salomone

John L. Salomone · City Manager

John Salomone is the executive who must answer for the City’s decisions. In December 2021, he identified DeLucia’s paid-chief oversight proposal as a Democratic caucus priority and said he would work on it. The Charter makes him accountable to the City Council, within his lawful authority. Whose direction drove the later restrictions, and what did he independently verify before acting? Carrying out a political priority does not remove the responsibility to explain the evidence and the decision.

Charter reference: Chapter VI, §§ 1, 3 and 6.

Joe DeLucia

Joseph A. DeLucia · Alderman · Council President Pro Tempore

Joe DeLucia was pushing for paid-chief authority across Norwich’s fire districts in December 2021—years before the 2026 restrictions. His email put that objective on the Democratic caucus’s agenda. Did a longstanding policy goal shape his response to the later safety claims? Residents deserve to know whether the remedy followed the evidence, or whether an existing plan shaped the remedy.

The email records a policy request; it does not by itself establish what was enacted or decide the legality of later actions.