March 01--HARLINGEN -- City Manager Carlos Yerena removed Fire Chief Michael J. Rinaldi from the post Friday in a move that the longtime firefighter said had not come as a surprise.
"I was expecting this," Rinaldi told the Valley Morning Star, confirming reports of an administrative shake-up.
Rinaldi, however, says he is weighing his options for remaining in the department.
Yerena's decision comes after Yerena's and the City Commission's recent move to create the post of public safety director to oversee the fire and police departments.
For his part, Yerena said: "I felt we needed a change."
Yerena said that he made the mayor and commissioners aware of the decision, but, "this is solely my decision that I made under the authority of the city manager and that is what I did."
Mayor Chris Boswell and most commissioners were not immediately available to comment. District 5 Commissioner Victor Leal said: "No comment at this time. This is a personnel matter."
Suggesting that city officials had expected that he would retire, Rinaldi said that he was weighing returning to the last non-appointed post that he held within the fire department, which is that of lieutenant. Rinaldi had been fire chief for approximately seven years. Prior to that, he held the appointed post of assistant fire chief after having been lieutenant.
Yerena said Rinaldi would be returning to the lieutenant post and that Assistant Fire Chief Cirilo Rodriguez Jr. would take care of the department's day-to-day management pending selection of a fire chief. Yerena said that Rinaldi's salary had been approximately $108,000.
Yerena said his decision had not been politically-motivated, that no one on the commission pressed for Rinaldi's removal and that "it was my judgment call."
He said the fire department needs a "different direction." Asked what that direction is, Yerena pointed to a more efficient and productive department that also provides good customer service. "Sometimes change is necessary. Sometimes it's not popular," he said.
Furthermore, "the city will be going into collective bargaining and I felt that we needed new leadership," Yerena said, adding that there was not one specific situation that spurred his decision.
Yerena said that it should not be long before both the public safety director post and fire chief position is filled.
He explained that the public safety director will actually be a police chief with additional duties. Whoever holds this post would not be fire chief, he said, but would supervise the department, and thus, dual certification is not a requirement. Asked why he preempted whoever will hold the post of public safety director, not allowing the opportunity to assess the department under Rinaldi, Yerena said that he felt that a change had been immediately needed.
"Ultimately, all report to the city manager," he said.
Copyright 2014 - Valley Morning Star, Harlingen, Texas
