The city’s in no hurry to hire a new fire chief. Since Chuck Hubbard retired abruptly in January after just two years on the job, two deputy chiefs have run the fire and police departments, with police chief John Seto overseeing both as safety services chief.
That’s unlikely to change any time soon. “We are still working on developing the process for the selection of a new Fire Chief,” Seto emails.
“The city has retained Affion [consultants] to assist with the recruitment,” explains city administrator Steve Powers. “Scott Reilly from Affion will be talking with individuals about the position, the department, the organization, and the community. Scott will be developing a recruitment profile and schedule which will be shared when available.”
“There’s no rush,” says mayor John Hieftje. “John Seto is a highly competent administrator. In fact, I’d go so far as to say John Seto is the best police chief we’ve ever had–and John Seto is a trained firefighter.” Hieftje says the only reason to hire a new fire chief is so Seto won’t get worn out.
“It’s a hard position to fill because fire chiefs come here thinking they’ll run the fire department, but they don’t run the fire department,” Hieftje adds. “The fire department is run by the labor contracts, and all the decisions are made there. Every change costs us money, and it’s like pulling teeth to make any changes.”
He figures there’s no rush to fill his job. Thanks to the mutual aid agreements between Ann Arbor and the city of Ypsilanti and Pittsfield and Ypsilanti townships, he points out, “we have more trucks and firefighters available to us than we did [when he took office] in 2000, and with much fewer fires.”
