The Daily Herald has an article with an interview of Carol Stream‘s Deputy Chief Bob Hoff:

When he stepped down in February as commissioner of the nation’s second-largest fire department, [Bob Hoff] planned to do some teaching at the Illinois Fire Service Institute and spend more time with his family.

Then he got a job offer to become deputy chief for the Carol Stream Fire Protection District, a 15-square-mile area that includes all of Carol Stream and parts of Bloomingdale, Winfield and Glendale Heights.

Since April, Hoff has been back at fire stations, going out on calls, overseeing training exercises and effectively serving as right-hand man to longtime friend and colleague Rick Kolomay, Carol Stream’s fire chief.

Hoff, appointed as Chicago fire commissioner by then-Mayor Richard M. Daley in June 2010, says he was planning to retire last December.

Insiders speculated Hoff’s move had to do with his opposition to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s budget-cutting plan to reduce fire truck staffing levels from five firefighters to four.

But Hoff says Emanuel “couldn’t have been nicer” to him, and when the mayor took office in May 2011, he asked Hoff to stay on a few months longer to see through the transition. “He was really great to me.” he said. “All the baloney you hear about is just that — baloney. He was good, he’s dynamic, he was new, he’s full of energy. He wants a lot of good things for the city. It had nothing to do with him. It had to do with me personally shifting gears.”

 Hoff first met Kolomay in 1985 in a class at the state fire academy. Kolomay was the instructor, Hoff was the student. Hoff later became an instructor himself, and the two co-authored a firefighting training manual in 2003.By 2010, with Hoff at the helm in Chicago and Kolomay in Carol Stream, the two departments were partnering in training exercises.In February, Kolomay proposed a reorganization of the district’s leadership posts. Then-Deputy Fire Chief Perry Johnson moved to a newly created civilian position, chief administrative officer, an office-based job overseeing the district’s finances, fire prevention bureau and information technology.

Hoff replaced Johnson as deputy chief, a sworn position that includes hands-on training and more day-to-day interaction with firefighters. Hoff is making a base annual salary of $115,000, slightly less than the $117,198 pension he’s collecting from Chicago.

The entire article can be found HERE.

thanks Chris

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