Changes afoot for city fire department
City Hall is beginning to feel like a pressure cooker, a culmination of substantial events that will take place in the next month that will change the shape and look of one of the city’s largest departments.
We’ll go through these events chronologically:
April 10: As announced Monday night, Chief Milton M. Sayre will hang up the white hat for good, more than eight months after he had originally planned to retire from the post. This move will leave the fire department without a chief or deputy chief meaning the city will likely need to appoint one of five battalion chiefs to lead the 80 member department.
April 19: The city manager is scheduled to release the proposed 2010-2011 budget. While revenues have dipped and expenses continue to climb, City Council members have publically questioned whether the chief and deputy chief positions should be combined. While Mr. Sayre had defended the need for both positions, he will be out of the picture during budget discussions.
April 20: The city’s Civil Service Commission is scheduled to meet. On the agenda will be the test results of the civil service exam given in January for the chief and deputy chief positions. While the commission can schedule a special meeting prior to this date, it failed to do so when meeting Tuesday (March 16). Until the commission reviews the results and completes a list for the city manager to consider, the city will need to promote someone from the department to run the show.
This is a trying time for the department’s rank-and-file who will see wholesale changes in the leadership roles, assuming there are still more than one after the budget is adopted in late June. The $7.73 million department has not had a chief and deputy chief since March of last year, and the union leader Tucker Wiley has suggested it’s been longer since a proper chief has taken the reins.
Mr. Wiley has criticized the City Manager’s office for hiring former chief Dan Gaumont, who hailed from Ipswich, Mass., and instead has pushed to have one of its own promoted to fill both positions instead of hiring someone from out of the area.
