Look locally for next fire chief

Recently the current city of Kenosha fire chief announced his retirement effective October of this year after only two years in this position, and following a nationwide search at a cost of $30,000 to our taxpayers.  Our mayor and some of his staff expressed a desire to go back and follow the original nationwide hiring process again.  To say that I’m disappointed and frustrated at the lack of leadership and the lack of respect for our city taxpayers is putting it politely to say the least. 

Most personnel individuals (now called “resource persons”) I have known over a public service record of three decades, expressed that good job candidates should stay in positions at least fire years (approximately) in order to show job stability.  The current fire chief falls far short of this goal.  Long before this chief accepted the Kenosha position, he should have thoroughly considered and weighed the issue of family separation; and if there was any doubt whatsoever, he should have declined then and there and not caused the city taxpayers to again face the prospect of another national search at an additional cost of $30,000.  In the spirit of spending of this administration, maybe they could conduct the new interviews in the Civil War museum after everyone involved rode the empty trolley cars to nowhere. 

Fast forward to the present day – since we already spent $30,000 for a nationwide search that lasted four months and since we had local candidates in the final round and since another national search would cost significant additional taxpayer dollars, I believe the best course of action now is to hire someone who is local and qualified and sign a date-specific contract of no less than five years (subject to health and job performance). 

Since the current mayor is not leading properly in this matter, the Police and Fire Commission should take immediate action and select another “Joe Trotta type” as chief.  If no, then those who advocate a new, second nationwide search should pay for it out of their own pockets.

 John D. Bilotti, former mayor

Taken in its entirety from the Kenosha News Voice of the People - June 23, 2006