Post by district5 on Aug 20, 2010 17:34:16 GMT -5
Cincinnati.Com » Government
Updated: 6:00 pm | August 20, 2010
29 want to be Cincy fire chief
By Jane Prendergast • jprendergast@enquirer.com • August 20, 2010
Cincinnati's fire chief job is drawing interest locally and from across the country, with resumes from an assistant chief who responded to the Columbine high school shootings, five internal candidates and the chiefs of Lockland and Wyoming.
Twenty-nine people applied to replace Chief Robert Wright, who will leave by April. The applicants - mostly assistant chiefs and chiefs of smaller departments, but also fire college professors and a defense contractor in Afghanistan - live as far away as Arizona. All but one are men.
The is the first time in the city's history that a chief can be hired from the outside instead of taking one that has come up through the ranks. Despite that, five internal candidates still applied: district chiefs Duane Herth, Ed Dadosky, Tom Lakamp and Roy Winston; and Assistant Chief Mose Demasi.
Among the applicants, according to resumes obtained by the Enquirer via a public records request:
• David Foster, former chief in DeKalb County, Ga., who fired four firefighters in January after a fire in which a woman died after calling 911 for help. An investigation found that the firefighters left the home after seeing no flames without knocking on the woman's door. Foster then quit in February.
He must be sending out a lot of resumes - his says his objective is to be fire chief in Gulfport, Miss.
• Capt. Rick Curtis, operations captain for West Palm Beach, Fla., who was arrested in January for drunken driving, a charge that remains pending. He was one of three West Palm Beach Fire Rescue workers to sue that city, claiming they were denied promotions because they're black. A jury cleared that city last year.
• Anthony Missig, a former Cleveland battalion chief fired in 2007 for allegedly violating the city's requirement that firefighters must live in the city. He got his job back in June after an appeals court ruled that a state law passed in 2006 banned the city from having such a requirement. He's now risk manager for the Cleveland Clinic Health System.
• Wyoming Chief Robert Rielage, also the former Ohio state fire marshal, and James Benjamin, the Lockland fire chief who also works for Wyoming and Cincinnati.
• Andre Valentine, assistant fire chief for defense contractor DynCorp International-Afghanistan. He also was an assistant chief of fire training in Kuwait.
• The only female applicant is Cynthia Bonham, battalion chief in Charlotte, N.C.
The application deadline was Aug. 13, but City Manager Milton Dohoney said the job will remain open and applications will be accepted until the job is filled. Meg Olberding, Dohoney's spokeswoman, said Friday the process for narrowing down the field has not yet begun.
Updated: 6:00 pm | August 20, 2010
29 want to be Cincy fire chief
By Jane Prendergast • jprendergast@enquirer.com • August 20, 2010
Cincinnati's fire chief job is drawing interest locally and from across the country, with resumes from an assistant chief who responded to the Columbine high school shootings, five internal candidates and the chiefs of Lockland and Wyoming.
Twenty-nine people applied to replace Chief Robert Wright, who will leave by April. The applicants - mostly assistant chiefs and chiefs of smaller departments, but also fire college professors and a defense contractor in Afghanistan - live as far away as Arizona. All but one are men.
The is the first time in the city's history that a chief can be hired from the outside instead of taking one that has come up through the ranks. Despite that, five internal candidates still applied: district chiefs Duane Herth, Ed Dadosky, Tom Lakamp and Roy Winston; and Assistant Chief Mose Demasi.
Among the applicants, according to resumes obtained by the Enquirer via a public records request:
• David Foster, former chief in DeKalb County, Ga., who fired four firefighters in January after a fire in which a woman died after calling 911 for help. An investigation found that the firefighters left the home after seeing no flames without knocking on the woman's door. Foster then quit in February.
He must be sending out a lot of resumes - his says his objective is to be fire chief in Gulfport, Miss.
• Capt. Rick Curtis, operations captain for West Palm Beach, Fla., who was arrested in January for drunken driving, a charge that remains pending. He was one of three West Palm Beach Fire Rescue workers to sue that city, claiming they were denied promotions because they're black. A jury cleared that city last year.
• Anthony Missig, a former Cleveland battalion chief fired in 2007 for allegedly violating the city's requirement that firefighters must live in the city. He got his job back in June after an appeals court ruled that a state law passed in 2006 banned the city from having such a requirement. He's now risk manager for the Cleveland Clinic Health System.
• Wyoming Chief Robert Rielage, also the former Ohio state fire marshal, and James Benjamin, the Lockland fire chief who also works for Wyoming and Cincinnati.
• Andre Valentine, assistant fire chief for defense contractor DynCorp International-Afghanistan. He also was an assistant chief of fire training in Kuwait.
• The only female applicant is Cynthia Bonham, battalion chief in Charlotte, N.C.
The application deadline was Aug. 13, but City Manager Milton Dohoney said the job will remain open and applications will be accepted until the job is filled. Meg Olberding, Dohoney's spokeswoman, said Friday the process for narrowing down the field has not yet begun.