PROVIDENCE — The Fire Department has both fewer firefighters and fewer administrators, with six upper-command positions vacant, including the chief's job.
For several months, Public Safety Commissioner Steven Paré has been acting chief as the city searches for a new department head from outside the city — an effort that has hit some bumps since it began a year ago.
"I can see when a department is in need of someone from the outside," Paré says. "New ideas. New perspective. No ties politically. No ties internally. No A team. No B team. Just someone fresh and gonna call it as they see it and bring the department to the next level."
Paré said a new chief will play a role in filling the other top jobs.
No one from within the department has applied for any of the six top positions: the $135,000-to-$160,000 chief’s position; two assistant chief’s positions, which pay $105,000 each; and three deputy assistant chief’s jobs, which pay $85,000 to $90,000 each.
The city administration and the firefighters union have, for the last year, been involved in a dispute over the switch from a four- to three-platoon staffing system.
The president of the firefighters union, Paul Doughty, says his members strongly disagree with the platoon change and various other management policies and the firefighters' lack of interest in chiefs' positions reflects their unwillingness to help carryout such management policies as non-union commanders.
"The lack of applications speaks for itself," he says.
For several moths after Clarence A. Cunha retired as chief in July 2015, Assistant Chief Scott Mello was acting chief. But in November, Paré moved Mello back to his regular job because, he said, Mello wasn't effectively managing the department during a time of increases in claimed injuries and sick time by firefighters in the wake of the platoon change. Paré took over. Mello retired in June.
The city, Paré said, has paid Maryland consultant Leslie Adams $25,000 to help find the person who would be the first outsider to take command of the 160-year-old department.
Many candidates who have the necessary professional experience are almost 60 years old and cannot serve in the position for the expected three to five years, Paré said.
Paré is not getting any extra pay, even though he has additional responsibilities as acting chief.
Money that was budgeted to pay Cunha’s salary was, for a time, used to pay former chief George S. Farrell, who was hired in the fall on a consultancy basis to help Paré run the department. Farrell retired as chief in 2011.
Farrell's formal role as a consultant has ended but Paré said he still confers with the former chief over the phone from time to time. In June, the city courted a former acting chief, Michael Dillon, for a consultancy but the outreach didn’t pan out.
The search for a permanent chief continues.
"We want to make sure that we get the right person for our next fire chief," Paré said, "and we can’t be overly concerned with the time that it takes us."
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