Comments prompt inquiry in Falls ; Fire chief denies posts made in his name

The city is investigating a derogatory comment that appeared onan online firefighter's forum under the name of recently hired FireChief Roger Melchior.

The comment, which referred to people in Cairo as "cameljockeys," was posted Wednesday under the name Roger Melchior on anonline forum run by the Baltimore Fire Officers Association

"This matter is now under investigation," Mayor Paul A. Dystersaid after The Buffalo News contacted his office about a series of online comments posted under Melchior's name.

Melchior said he did not write the post and has not written an online comment on the forum in at least six months.

"It could be anybody who put my name down," said Melchior, who started working for the city in November. "It's just part of life in the public sector."

The comment, posted Wednesday, was a reply in a discussion threadabout taxes. An earlier comment had complained about a delay in the release of Internal Revenue Service tax forms. In response, a comment was posted under the name "Roger Melchior, ret FA" that read, "Cmon Joe, you could be in Cairo with the camel jockeys, change is coming in 2012 if not in courts before:)."

Other posts on the forum written under the same name referred toa meeting with the mayor in which the December snowstorm that shut down the Thruway was discussed.

Dyster said the investigation would look at "whether theindividual purported to have made these comments" did write theposts, as well as whether they were written during city businesshours or whether a city computer was used.

"The city's policy is that employees utilizing the city'scomputer system don't have any reasonable expectation of privacy,"Dyster said.

Dyster said he was not aware of the posts until The Buffalo News brought them to the city's attention.

The comments were posted on a forum run by Local 964, Baltimore Fire Officers Association, but open to the public.

"Some people do post my name on things, because anybody canpost," Melchior told The News. "I read the forum, but I haven'tposted, gosh, in a good six, eight months."

Melchior said he's seen earlier forum comments posted under his name and has contacted to the union to see if they could track down the Internet Protocol address of the person making the posts.

"They haven't been able to find that out yet," Melchior said.

The forum is open to public view and allows anyone to type a comment as long as they leave a first and last name. Whether the union verifies names of individual posters was not clear.

Stephan G. Fugate, listed as president of Local 964, did notreturn a call seeking comment.

"Pretty much, you can put anybody down," Melchior said.

Several other postings made under Melchior's name on the forum referred to Niagara Falls or meetings or events in Niagara Falls that have occurred since Melchior was hired.

In a Jan. 27 comment, the poster described attending the mayor's State of the City address that night and said the mayor "made Obama look like a chump." The poster described sitting next to the city's finance director at the event.

In a Jan. 31 comment, a poster using Melchior's name described a morning meeting with a mayor in which he was asked his perspective on closing an interstate "after what happened on Thruway in December in Buffalo."

Melchior, who spoke to The News early Friday, said he wasn't worried about the forum posts. People in the Baltimore Fire Department who are aware he is working in Niagara Falls could have posted the comments, he said.

Melchior, 63, moved from Ellenton, Fla., to take the top jobwithin the Niagara Falls Fire Department in November. He wasappointed to the position in October, but had to delay starting thejob because an illness and a family emergency. He has previouslyworked in Baltimore and Green Bay, Wis.

Friday night, a new comment entitled "my last post" was posted under the name "Roger Melchior, Proudly retired Lt" that read, in part, "People have been posting in my name for a couple of months now, it is no longer a joke, I am being held to task because of this. I am done. Thanks and stay safe."

e-mail: djgee@buffnews.com