Fire Chief Allen LaCroix announced Monday that he will retire effective June 30 after a decade of leading the Fire Department.
He said the timing of the retirement is based on his pension, which hits its maximum at 30 years, and he will hit 37 years in March.
"I did not want to leave when we were going through such a significant financial crisis a few years back, but I think we're past that," he told the Tulsa World.
While there will always be financially challenges for the city, LaCroix said. "I think it is the right time to leave. It's funny, people have told me over the years that 'you'll know when it's time.' "
LaCroix, 58, became a Tulsa firefighter in 1975 and rose through the ranks until being appointed fire chief in 2002. Under former Mayor Bill LaFortune, LaCroix also served as the city operations chief.
"It's been a great career. I've done what every 5-year-old kid wants to do, and I've been fortunate enough to move up the ranks and lead an organization I think is second to none both in the public eyes and the eyes of the firefighters," he said.
Mayor Dewey Bartlett said, "Chief Allen LaCroix has been an outstanding public servant and has seen this city through many historic events, including the 2007 ice storm, last year's record blizzards and the economic downturn when I first took office."
Bartlett said LaCroix was instrumental in the reorganization of the Tulsa Fire Department, saving the jobs of 147 firefighters and ensuring that the level of service to citizens never changed, he said.
"Chief LaCroix's guidance, advice and experience will be missed at the city of Tulsa, and I am so very grateful for his service to this community."
LaCroix said his biggest regret is the decision he made regarding former mayoral Chief of Staff Terry Simonson's son's pre-fire academy testing.
Controversy erupted in September over LaCroix offering to help Simonson's get into the fire academy testing after he failed to secure a spot as other applicants had to do.
LaCroix was placed on paid administrative leave and was later returned to duty, while Simonson resigned from his position.
"I hate what happened to Terry. He is a good person," LaCroix said. "It was a bad decision."
In 2009, the Fire Department also was at the center of a scandal involving where firefighters had falsified documents stating the had completed their required continuing education training.
Copyright 2012 - Tulsa World, Okla.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
