Fire chief search down to 3

Now that Ned Thomas has had time to unpack a few things in his office and attend a couple of meetings as the new city manager, there’s been a list of things to tackle waiting for him in his new role.

One of those tasks is to hire a new fire chief. It was decided to wait until the city manager position was filled before a new chief was hired.

The city has been without a permanent one for more than a year following the termination of Will Gray early last year. Asst. Chief Greg Chesser has been filling in as acting chief since Gray’s departure.

“The city held the first round of panel interviews with six candidates in May,” Thomas said earlier this week. “We’ve narrowed down to three finalists and will be completing those interviews in June.”

The announcement for the opening went out a few months ago. And while some of those may have accepted employment elsewhere, Thomas said in all, they received 56 applications. The city narrowed the initial list to six candidates for the first round of interviews, which included both professional peers and community members. From there, the aforementioned three finalists will be interviewed this month.

Similar to the city manager position, the fire chief position has seen a fair amount of turnover during the past decade. But as Thomas pointed out, it didn’t stop the more than 50 candidates who applied.

“The fire chief is a critical leadership position within the community and the city as an organization,” he said. “We were pleased to receive applications from a large number of highly-qualified candidates and expect to hire the best person for this position to meet the current needs of the department and community. Former Chief Will Gray was hired in January 2020. Acting Chief Greg Chesser was hired as deputy chief in July 2020 and has been serving in a leadership capacity since that time.”

With Chesser in place as acting chief, Thomas added that it allows the city to find the perfect person for the job instead of being in a rush to fill the position.

“Like any executive recruitment, we are focused on finding the right person for the position,” he said. “Following final interviews in June, the timeline will be largely determined by the candidate selected. We will be able to provide a more definitive timeline once an offer has been made and accepted.”