06/11/2008 Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Bill Hohmann, the Vice Chair of the Civil Service Commission, asked how an appointed Chief will be different than what we have now. Lisa stated that right now we can only look at the North Olmsted Fire House, but this would open it up to a world of others. She cited the recent example where the Assistant Fire Chief was a fire fighter who was promoted over Captains and Lieutenants, because no one else applied for the job. This person received no leadership training. According to who is in the DROP,program, all current leadership except -2 will be retiring in the next 5-6 years. The current Fire Chief will retire in S-6 years and there is no leadership in place to take his place. Lieutenants in the police force, are. ordered to go to management school right away, so they do. Lieutenants in the fire department are ordered to go to management school right away, but they don't go and the Chief does not enforce it. Bill Hohmann wants to know how you change the culture. She proposes changing the culture by bringing in new hires. She has set up training programs for new hires. This has. been a failure of the structure and of individuals because they have no educational requirements. She can change the culture with training the new hires on all different aspects of department. Teach them to look at the vision as the city as a whole, not just the fire house. The only time there is respect for the chain of command is at a fire. Otherwise it does not exist. The Fire fighters are blatantly rude. The Fire Chief is generally not a liked position. Discussion continues. Lisa believes that this change will not cure the problem, but it will help -the immediate needs of curbing overtime. Mr. Thomay says that the civil service test is geared toward management. Lisa says the test is not the problem.. It is that we have a small pool of people to choose from in the North Olmsted Fire Department. There are a total of 48 on the fire department: 1 Chief, 1 assistant Chief, 4 Captains and 6 Lieutenants. When you become Chief you give up shim work, but the compensation is fabulous. There have been 4 Chiefs since 1981. Tim Roshetko believes that in business. you do not always promote from within, sometimes you need to look outside. Paul Barker as part of Council has tried to change things. He gave the example that the fire department has 3 SUV's for ch -ase vehicles. Every time a squad is called the fire truck goes too. Instead of the engine they should send the chase vehicles because the fire truck is more expensive and a larger vehicle. We need good management in place and hiring from within will not happen.