PORTSMOUTH, Va. -- The top three positions in a public safety department that has struggled to reach full staff are open.
City Manager Kenneth Chandler must decide how to fill the position of fire chief following Don Horton's resignation in July.
The fire department also has two open deputy chief positions. Deputy Chief Troy Tilley's last day of work was Friday. He accepted a position as fire chief in Kill Devil Hills, N.C. The other deputy chief job opened after the retirement of Beck Barfield, who agreed last month to come back as interim fire chief.
Toni Smaw-Bembry, the city's director of human resource management, said Chandler has not yet decided how to proceed in filling the chief's job.
Barfield is evaluating options for how to fill the deputy chief position, she said.
Under the structure of Portsmouth Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services, one deputy fire chief oversees administration and the other oversees operations.
Chandler said in July that family medical reasons led to Horton's resignation after three years on the job.
The fire department has struggled with vacancies.
In a 2009 agreement with the Justice Department, the city had to limit hiring of new firefighters until it gave previous applicants who were unfairly disqualified a chance. The Justice Department found that Portsmouth's use of a test on reading comprehension, math and listening comprehension caused a disproportionate number of black applicants to be rejected.
Currently, 215 of 227 sworn positions are filled, Smaw-Bembry said. The last promotions were made in March 2011.
Rusty Quillin, president of Local 539 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said firefighters are comfortable with Barfield because they've known him for years and trust his knowledge.
"We would like to see somebody that's come through the ranks internally be promoted," he said.
Barfield was the interim chief when Horton was hired in 2009. Barfield had support from the firefighters' union then, and members were caught off-guard by the hiring of Horton, Quillin said.
"We'd never heard of him before," Quillin said.
As far as staffing, Quillin said about 20 rookie firefighters were just placed at stations and eight more will be soon. But staffing remains so tight that one or two people sick means an engine company -- a fire truck and three firefighters -- are sometimes put out of service.
"We're a small city and putting one or two engine companies out of service could mean a lot, depending on the type of call we get at a particular time," he said.
Copyright 2012 - The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
