Fire chief candidates stress wise spending, leadership

May 01--Candidates for Decatur's vacant fire chief job stressed management of resources, leadership skills, firefighter safety and department morale during interviews today.

The council and mayor interviewed four candidates, beginning this morning and ending early this afternoon.

Interviewed were Decatur Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Lorenzo Jackson as well as three men from outside the department: Michael Walker, Anthony Grande and Kenneth Harrison.

Only four of the five councilmen took part in the interviews. The fifth, District I Councilman Billy Jackson, couldn't take part because his brother is Lorenzo Jackson.

Shane Boyd, a battallion chief in the Bessemer Fire Department, was unable to attend interviews today. Personnel Director Ken Smith said his office was trying to schedule an interview with him sometime next week.

Lorenzo Jackson

Jackson was the third candidate to interview. Several off-duty firefighters attended the interviews of all the candidates, but many residents also showed up for the interview of. Jackson, a 33-year veteran of Decatur Fire and Rescue.

Jackson took more time before responding to questions than the first two candidates and asked that several questions be repeated.

Jackson said working with tight budgets is part of the chief's job.

"We have to make some ugly cuts we don't like," Jackson said. "While making those cuts, we should be as efficient as we can."

He promoted cost recovery from insurance and industry as a way to alleviate budget shortfalls.

Eliminating services does not always increase efficiency, Jackson said, because staffing levels are dictated by preparedness for fires.

Providing emergency medical services provides a benefit to taxpayers without significantly increasing labor costs.

"I was raised here," Jackson said. "This is my home. The people I love live here. These are the people I want to protect."

Michael Walker

Walker, chief of the Yarmouth (Mass.) Fire Department, was the final candidate to interview today.

Ninth-grader Sarah Walker got three questions from Council President Gary Hammon before her father got any. She sat at the interview table with her father.

Michael Walker said his main strength was organizational ability and his weakness was impatience. He said he has seen bad leadership and learned to avoid it.

"Authoritarian leadership -- leadership by bullying -- never works," Walker said. "If you have good people, use them."

He frequently referred to the firefighters behind him in the audience.

"We've got a bunch of folks back here who know what the hell they are doing," Walker said, and their knowledge should be tapped in creating effective procedures.

After the interview, Walker shook hands with each of the firefighters in attendance and spoke with them.

Anthony Grande

Grande, an assistant chief with the Knoxville Fire Department, was the first applicant interviewed. He stressed service to taxpayers, an imperative he said required firefighters to serve as first responders in medical emergencies.

Private ambulances, he said, necessarily focus on finances.

He said the safety of firefighters is his most important concern.

"I will not compromise the safety of our personnel," Grande said. "I never again want to ride to the hospital with an injured firefighter and call his wife."

Kenneth Harrison

Harrison, director of public safety programs at Chattahoochee a Valley Community College in Phenix City, was the second candidate interviewed. He stressed the importance of a specific and attainable strategic plan.

"If you let firefighters be part if the strategic plan, you get buy-in," Harrison said. "You're getting input from the people on the ground."

Harrison said morale is an issue in all fire departments.

"You need a chief who can be vibrant and motivational," Harrison said.

"If you have firefighters doing productive things... there's not a lot of time to complain and argue."

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