Vollie dept. hiring a paid chief what do you think

Ok my department is in the process of hiring a paid chief. They opened it up to and said they would hire from within first. Now here is my problem, I went and picked up an application and job discription and my jaw hit the floor when I read the qualifications. Just some quick history on how we got to this point. Back when our curent vollie chief was the asst. chief the mayor asked him to write the qualifications and job description up. I was absolutely shocked when I started reading these qualifications and noticed that they were all of his qualifications and nobody else was even remotely qualified. Now I am not bashing the current chief he is a great guy but why would a vollie dept that runs less than 400 calls per year need someone like this.

Must be atleast firefighter I certified- I agree

Must be an Iowa certified Paramedic specialist- dont agree

Must have been on our dept. for no less than 5 years- I agree

Must have been in a supervisory role as a paramedic specialist for 5 years- dont agree

Must be a resident of the city- I agree however our by-laws state you must live in the city for 6 months before you can join the department. So that knocks out anybody from the outside.

Must have held the rank of fire captain or ems captain for no less than 2 years.- I agree

what you just read fits our current chiefs qualifications to the letter so I am starting to think this whole thing has been rigged from the start.

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Permalink Reply by Cody Baker on March 19, 2009 at 2:08am
WOW them standards seem pretty Harsh... How do you qualify all of them what if your not an EMT or Paramedic Specialist??? That eliminates you there I mean My department and another Department in my County doesn't have them standards. I am beginning to think this was a rigged qualification application or what ever...
Permalink Reply by Jeremy Bell on March 19, 2009 at 3:55am
well cody one thing you will find is pretty much all depts are requiring that even ff's get their emt/medic if they are getting paid.i never even got a second look from depts until i got my emt. just a little info.
Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on March 19, 2009 at 2:19pm
Can you say POLITICS?
Why is anyone surprised?
Hell; the mayor was handing it to the chief.
And believe it or not; human nature says that any one of you given the same task would put your personal perspective to writing the job description. It may not be as obvious as this example, but my Iowa friend has just had his first lesson in the deck that gets stacked usually wins the hand.
Hang in there.
Or move to Illinois!
TCSS.
Art
Permalink Reply by Dennis Steele on March 19, 2009 at 3:14pm
Well thats got deal written all over it,but can't say that for sure since I dont know all the facts. We had a similar situation on our dept also,except we where all suppose to be able to apply,and didnt get the oppertunity to do so. Now granted our chief is from the dept and he's done fine,however there were several other officers with more time and qualifications who might have wanted it if given a chance..
Permalink Reply by John Malcom on March 20, 2009 at 8:39pm
Thats it? Well, I guess thats what ya get for vollies.
Permalink Reply by sully on March 20, 2009 at 8:44pm
these days you need someone with that type of qualifications. chief is a very important job. someone deaprtment just hire someone with less then a year of service.
Permalink Reply by drew on March 20, 2009 at 9:26pm
I don't mean to be the bad guy in this thread, but if I read it correctly the qualifications were written in the past by the assistant chief who became chief with these qualifications and is currently serving as chief in a volunteer capacity. Now that money is introduced, people are paying attention to the qualifications and want his job that he has been serving in. So my question, why is it an issue now that money is involved as opposed to when money wasn't involved?
Permalink Reply by David Cook on March 22, 2009 at 12:51am
No matter what size department or how many calls you run all departments should have a full time chief. There are so many compliance issues alone that with training and everything else the feds, state, local, and inter dept stuff its too much . firefighter I min is a give, what ever license level your dept is licesed as is what the chief should be, its nice if the person as been on the dept for a few years but dont over look a new guy with exp.
Permalink Reply by drew on March 22, 2009 at 12:57am
Must be a union man. Man I despise the term vollie.
Permalink Reply by FETC on March 22, 2009 at 2:01pm
Your requirements are very light. Yes, if you are not providing paramedic service then does he really need to be a Paragod, probably not. That is probably written by him for him. But do you blame the guy. He took the initiative to be vollie chief and they are now going to pay him for his time.... nice concept huh? It is called drive... almost everyone here would have said the same thing unless you had no desire to be a FT Chief. But his training is not enough to be a fulltime firefighter in my department, if you applied with that list your resume goes in the trash, do not even get an interview. Could work across the street on the private bus though...

Fire Chief Minimum Quals.

BS Degree
Certified Career C2F2
FF2
Fire Officer 2
Fire Instructor 1
Fire Inspector 1
NFA Command and Control of Natural and Manmade Disasters
Hazmat Tech
ICS 100/200/300/400/700
Minimum of EMT
CPR

10 years experience in our organization with 5 years LT and 3 yrs Captain or higher experience.

When they offer it to the outside, you can throw out your bylaws, it is no longer a vollie position and the federal discrimination laws will take over, the actual contract between the town and the chief will dictate the chief's residency and time served...

Better yet, why does a department that runs 400 calls need a full time fire chief?????
Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on March 22, 2009 at 5:25pm
You DO realize that having a full time chief for a department that only runs 400 a year is going to suck much needed money out of your budget for stuff you REALLY need and a full time chief isn't one of them.
We call this "padding your nest egg" or a Wall Street term "golden parachute". Wonder what retirement the city is paying in to for him?
This one has trouble written all over it.
TCSS.
Art

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