Decatur Fire & Rescue Chief Tony Grande announced Thursday he is resigning to take a position with his home state of Tennessee.
Grande, who will be 56 on Sunday, has been with the city five years and five months. He said in a Thursday news conference he plans to talk with Human Resources Director Richelle Sandlin about a resignation date “in the second or third week of December.”
Grande was appointed Wednesday night as the executive director of the state of Tennessee’s Firefighting Personnel Standards and Education Commission, located in the small town of Bell Buckle just outside Murfreesboro. His start date in Tennessee is Jan. 2.
He had to hold back his emotions during Thursday’s news conference at City Hall with Mayor Tab Bowling.
“It’s a hard choice,” Grande said. “It’s like leaving your baby behind, but they (Decatur Fire & Rescue employees) are grown men and women, and they will figure this thing out.”
Division Chief Trent Putman will lead the department during a transition period until the City Council decides if it wants to appoint an interim chief and how it wants to handle the search for Grande’s successor.
Bowling said he has confidence in the DFR leadership “because of Chief Grande’s planning and leadership. He’s trained his employees to make decisions and prepared them for scenarios like this.”
Starting with the U.S. Air Force in 1985, Grande has been a firefighter for 34½ years. Most of his career was with the Knoxville, Tennessee, Fire Department.
“We talked about retirement, but the position over there is such an opportunity,” said Grande, whose daughter, son-in-law and grandchild live in the Murfreesboro area.
Bowling said Grande and his wife, Janice Grande, will be a big loss for the city. She teaches at Frances Nungester Elementary School.
Grande was a battalion chief at Knoxville Fire Department before he became Decatur’s fire chief in June 2014. He took office amidst a controversy over a selection process that passed over the sole internal candidate.
Division Chief Lorenzo Jackson, a 33-year veteran of the department, initially was not interviewed for the fire chief slot.
After complaints from the community and firefighters and allegations of racism, the selection process was re-started and Lorenzo Jackson was one of the finalists interviewed by the City Council.
Grande was the first choice of Mayor Don Kyle, and he received the highest marks from the council.
“You don’t take the job of fire chief without anticipating struggles and troubles,” Grande said. “The question is how you deal with them. My hope is that, regardless of how the door opened and that it’s closing, we look back and see that things were handled correctly.”
Councilman Chuck Ard said he “hates to see” Grande leave. “He’s done a fantastic job. He’s added a lot of professionalism and rigor to the Fire Department.”
Council President Paige Bibbee said Grande “has been a wonderful fire chief, and they’re getting a wonderful man in Tennessee to do that job.”
Bibbee credited Grande, who makes $110,508 per year as DFR chief, with helping push through the controversial ambulance service ordinance “after a long, hard battle that lasted more than a decade.”
She said he also increased the use of the Lucas resuscitation device in all of the department’s firetrucks, “which saved lives,” and has been a “valuable team member” on the Morgan County 911 board.
Grande, who is vice president of the Alabama Association of Fire Chiefs, became chairman of Decatur's Ambulance Regulatory Board. The ARB was formed by the new ambulance ordinance that took effect Sept. 22 and has held two meetings.
Councilman Charles Kirby wasn’t a fan of Grande as the fire chief, mainly because of his involvement in the ambulance ordinance that Kirby fiercely opposed and continues to fight.
“I like Chief Grande, but this department is in need of a huge dose of discipline,” Kirby said.
Councilman Billy Jackson, a younger brother of Lorenzo Jackson, said he was surprised by Grande’s resignation. When asked for his assessment of Grande’s tenure, he said it’s difficult for a council member to evaluate a chief “because we’ve never been in that position.”
Putman said Grande left the department “better than it was when he arrived.”
Battalion Chief Troy Thornton said Grande insisted the department upgrade its equipment and gear. He started a five-year rotation of turnout gear.
Putman said DFR got seven new firetrucks during Grande's tenure, including a $500,000 rescue truck bought with a grant from the application that Grande wrote.
“He promoted education for all of us,” Thornton said. “He insisted the younger firemen train for leadership roles. He worked hard on developing his professional staff by sending us to leadership and education conferences. He encouraged us and did things that made us better.”
While Bibbee said she doesn’t know how the council will conduct its search for a replacement, Thornton said he expects there will be internal applicants.
“I think we should open it up locally and go out as far as we can,” Bibbee said.
Jackson said he doesn’t want a council committee to cull through the applicants before the City Council holds public interviews of the finalists. He said a council committee leads to one or two council members controlling the selection process.
“We should do the search as other councils before us have done,” Jackson said. “The council should look at every applicant so it can make an informed decision.”
Morgan County 911 Board President Virginia Alexander said Grande’s spot on the board doesn’t specifically have to go to the city’s next fire chief.
“This comes as a surprise to me. The city of Decatur will recommend a board member to the Morgan County Commission and it will have to approve the candidate,” she said.
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