Excerpts from the ChicagoSunTimes.com:

With a leadership vacuum in the Chicago Fire Department nearing crisis stage, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has chosen the second in command to replace retired Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago until the mayoral election.

Richard C. Ford II, who is African-American, will fill the $202,728-a-year void created when Santiago reached the mandatory retirement age of 63 and Emanuel was either unable or unwilling to find a legal path to keep Santiago as a civilian fire commissioner. A 35-year veteran Chicago firefighter, Ford has served as the No. 2 man since February, 2016. Prior to that, he spent five years overseeing a Fire Prevention Bureau wracked by a timekeeping and mileage padding scandal that prompted the inspector general to recommend all 54 firefighters be fired only to be thwarted by an independent arbitrator.

Ford takes over the department during a challenging time.

A wave of retirements tied, in part, to a pay differential, may soon leave the Chicago Fire Department without a single deputy commissioner. Already, the fire department is 25 short in the exempt ranks with three more retirements pending. Last year, 32 members of the fire department’s exempt ranks returned to their career service ranks after Emanuel discontinued the longstanding practice of boosting the pay of exempt-rank members in response to union contracts that increased pay for the rank-and-file.

The fire officials are seeking pension changes, expanded health insurance benefits and pay raises. They recently got a four percent pay raise, far short of the 11 percent they were seeking.

Another source, who asked to remain anonymous, said the leadership vacuum in the Chicago Fire Department is nearing a crisis stage.

“Come Nov. 1, if we have two major events at the same time, we won’t have enough officers to cover it. That means we may have to go to the…Mutual Aid Box Alarm System, where we have a suburban chief run a Chicago fire,” the source said.

In a press release announcing Ford’s appointment, the mayor’s office also disclosed that the fire department would begin exploring a new paramedicine program for high users overly-reliant on ambulance services for routine care. The new program was described as providing pro-active medical treatment…to improve healthcare and wellness, reducing the burden on Chicago taxpayers for emergency medical services that are not necessary.

thanks Scott

Tags: Chicago Fire Department, Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago, Richard C. Ford II