PROVIDENCE — At the urging of the Providence fire union, the Rhode Island State Association of Fire Fighters voted no confidence in Providence Fire Chief George S. Farrell, the first time in its 45-year history that the state union has weighed in on a local chief.

The state association voted no confidence in Farrell at its annual convention in Warwick Friday night at the request of Paul Doughty, the president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 799, who has sparred constantly with Farrell since Farrell became chief in May 2007.

Thursday, the Providence union took its own no-confidence vote in Farrell. Doughty said it passed 282 to 19, with roughly 125 members not voting.

Neither the local vote nor the statewide vote is binding.

“It’s really symbolic and I hope he takes this as a message that what he’s doing is not effective as a leader,” Doughty said, referring to the lopsided nature of the local union’s vote as evidence of the dissatisfaction of the rank-and-file.

“Those ratings are worse than George Bush’s, and I think it’s an indictment of his leadership ability,” Doughty said.

The local union and city have been unable to agree to contracts since Mayor David N. Cicilline took office in 2002, and every fire contract from 2001 through mid-2005 has been decided in arbitration. The department has been working without a contract since 2005, and arbitration continues. Farrell and the union have had several public fights recently, including a scrap in September in which the firefighters planned to picket a $50,000 federal disaster drill. Doughty and Farrell clashed publicly before the union backed down and agreed not to picket.

Farrell, himself a former Providence fire union president, said that this vote means little and that it is a continuation of Doughty’s vendetta against him, which he said began when Farrell ordered the union president back to his special hazards truck instead of allowing him to do union business full-time as he had under previous chiefs.

He also said the state association is beholden to the Providence union, the state’s biggest.

“Should anybody be surprised? This is the same group of individuals who supported Paul Doughty back in September when they tried to undermine the Homeland Security drill, so should it be a surprise to anyone that they would support this now?” he said. “This is actually an easier thing for them to support than that was.”

Farrell said the state association was afraid that Providence would pull its membership if the state group did not support the measure, and the state association and its president, state AFL-CIO boss Frank Montanaro, would lose Providence’s dues. Providence did not belong to the group until 1997, when Farrell decided to bring the local union into the state group.

“It’s an organization that Local 799 belongs to, for which they pay Frank Montanaro and the state association approximately $80,000 a year. Does anybody think that the state firefighters’ association would go against them, when they would be giving up $80,000 a year? I think not,” Farrell said.

Doughty said that is false, for the simple reason that the Providence union needs the inexpensive legal representation that the state association provides in order to continue its costly contract arbitrations with the city. If it dropped out, the local union could not afford the cost of the ongoing arbitration, he said.

“Which … was the reason we joined the state association to begin with,” Doughty said.

After the vote, the Rhode Island Association of Fire Chiefs immediately shot back with a statement supporting Farrell and condemning the actions of the firefighters’ association.

“I don’t think it belongs there. I don’t think that the state association has anything to do with the little squabble in Providence because they don’t have a contract,” said Timothy McLaughlin, Pawtucket fire chief and president of the chiefs’ association.

“It appears that they’re looking to blame the chief for something they can’t get done. … I think it’s a shame that a president can use his power to try to ruin a person’s reputation,” he said.

Fortunately, McLaughlin said, this action has no real ramifications.

“What does a no-confidence vote mean? Who knows and who cares?”

dbarbari@projo.com