Projo Politics Blog

PROVIDENCE -- Responding to the state firefighters union's no-confidence vote in Providence Fire Chief George S. Farrell, Mayor David N. Cicilline issued a statement late yesterday calling him a "man of enormous integrity" and saying the chief has his full support.

Cicilline said in the statement that Farrell's professionalism "has taken the Providence Fire Department to a new level of excellence and continues to gain the deep respect of public safety officials throughout New England."

The Rhode Island State Association of Fire Fighters at its yearly convention on Friday voted no confidence in Farrell at the urging of the city's fire union.

Paul Doughty, president of International Association of Fire Fighterts Local 799, requested the vote, The Journal reported Sundayday.

The city's union on Thursday took its own no-confidence vote, which Doughty has said passed 282 to 19. About 125 members did not vote.

Neither union's vote is binding.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with Journal archival reports

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