Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:

The Carol Stream Fire Protection District board agreed to promote Deputy Chief Bob Hoff to the top post Monday night. Trustees are expected to approve a contract with Hoff at their meeting Monday, July 11. The length of Hoff’s contract will likely run three years. The board is still ironing out the terms of the deal, including Hoff’s salary.

Hoff will oversee a district with three fire stations and about 60 sworn employees. He joined Carol Stream in 2012 — less than two weeks after he stepped down as the head of the nation’s second-largest fire department. At the time, he aimed to spend more time with family, but got the job offer to become deputy under his longtime colleague, former Chief Rick Kolomay.

“The pace was set here when I got here, and we’re going to keep that pace up,” Hoff said shortly after the promotion. “The pride and the professionalism that this group has — it’s like when I was in the city. I love the fire service,” he said. “It’s my whole life. It’s my entire life other than my family.”

Including his son, his family has four generations of firefighters.

“He inspires me,” said Hoff, gesturing to a framed picture in his office of his father, a Chicago Fire Department battalion chief killed battling a blaze in an apartment building on Valentine’s Day 1962. Hoff was 5 years old at the time. “To live in the hearts we leave behind is not to die,” reads a message below the image of his dad, Thomas, and his mom, Eleanor, who died eight years later.

The other finalist for the job was Perry Johnson, a 38-year veteran with the district. At the time of Hoff’s hiring, Johnson, then deputy chief, moved to a newly created civilian position — chief administrative officer. Together, they  have been handling the day-to-day operations of the district since Kolomay had shoulder surgery, went on paid leave, and officially retired June 1.

The two also have sat on the district’s negotiating team in ongoing contract talks with the firefighters union. Both sides are expected to meet with a federal mediator later this month. Pay raises are one of the issues that remain on the table, Hoff said. Negotiators are considering increases that would align firefighters’ salaries with those of employees in surrounding departments.

thanks Dan & Dennis

Tags: Carol Stream Fire Department, Carol Stream Fire District, Carol Stream Fire Protection District, Deputy Chief Perry Johnson, Fire Chief Richard Kolomay, former Chicago Fire Commissioner Robert Hoff, new fire chief for Carol Stream, Robert Hoff named Carol Stream fire chief