Fire chief search to begin by end of month

It’s been nine months and a day since the city announced that Will Gray had been terminated as the fire chief of the Boulder City Fire Department.

Since then, Greg Chesser has been serving as the acting chief. He has been with the department since 2020.

At that time, in a brief statement to the Review, the city wrote, “Will Gray is no longer with the Boulder City Fire Department, effective Thursday, April 4.”

Former City Manager Taylour Tedder said, “Hired just weeks after the pandemic started, Chief Gray helped Boulder City residents with COVID testing and vaccination clinics. I wish him well in his next endeavors.”

Gray is currently enjoying retirement with his family in Colorado.

“I am happy to be moving forward to what God has planned for my life,” Gray said in an email after being contacted by the Review. “I wish the city the best in finding the right person to lead the department going forward.”

Some have questioned why it’s taken so long to find a replacement. The answer is fairly simple.

According to Acting City Manager Michael Mays, “The city will be posting the position at the end of December. It will be a national search. The new city manager will be hiring the fire chief.”

This is fairly standard practice as the fire chief answers directly to the city manager and not the city council. In fact, the only positions within the city the council decides upon when hiring is city manager, city attorney and city clerk.

The city council made an offer to Ned Thomas, who is currently the city manager in Milpitas, Calif., to become Boulder City’s next city manager. As of Tuesday, Thomas had yet to give his decision to the city. (See related story in today’s edition.)