Nov. 26--Decatur received 41 applications to fill its vacant fire chief position at Decatur Fire and Rescue, and only one came from within the department.
Personnel Director Kenneth Smith said he will seek guidance from the City Council on Dec. 3 as to how the list will be narrowed.
"We penetrated the market very well, and that shows both in the quality and the location of the applicants," Smith said.
The internal applicant is Division Chief Lorenzo "Sonny" Jackson. The fire chief of the Hartselle Fire Department, Steven Ethon Shelton, also applied. One applicant is from North Pole, Alaska. Several are stationed in Afghanistan.
"The council and the mayor will choose who they want to interview," Smith said. "Obviously I'll go through the list and say some are highly qualified, some are not so highly qualified. It's really up to them, though. They can interview every single one, or they can just interview one."
The vacancy came when former Fire Chief Darwin Clark announced his resignation, effective Sept. 30, after 13 months on the job. He was embroiled in a controversy on whether he crafted bid specifications to match a truck that was parked in Fire Station 7 well before the specs were prepared.
Brindlee Mountain Fire Apparatus, the owner of the truck, submitted the sole bid. In a contentious meeting, the City Council accepted the bid Sept. 16. The next day, Clark announced he would retire. He said his announcement was unrelated to the bid controversy.
Since Clark's departure, Jackson and Operations Chief Janice Johnson have been running the department. Jackson served as interim chief before Clark's appointment, and he was among the finalists for the permanent position.
In a 3-2 vote Sept. 30, the City Council authorized Smith to conduct a national search. Council President Gary Hammon and Councilman Billy Jackson dissented. Both said the previous search had been recent, and despite the expense of flying out-of-town candidates to Decatur for interviews, they had opted for an internal candidate.
Clark was fire marshal before becoming chief.
Smith said he advertised in the print or online versions of The Decatur Daily, the Florence TimesDaily, the Huntsville Times, the Birmingham News, the Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce, the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce, the National League of Cities, the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, the Alabama League of Municipalities and the International Association of Fire Chiefs.
Division Chief Jackson said the department has run smoothly with he and Johnson sharing interim duties, but the department will benefit from a permanent appointment. He declined comment on his application or on the specifics of the search.
"Things are going fairly smoothly -- there haven't been any problems -- but the department is looking for stability," Division Chief Jackson said. "From their perspective, they don't see a lot of stability without anyone in the driver's seat. I'd like to see someone in the position to make decisions."
Eric Fleischauer can be reached at 256-340-2435 or [email protected].
Copyright 2013 - The Decatur Daily, Ala.
