Almost a year after the retirement of Ronnie Lassiter, Henderson and Vance County have an assistant fire chief again.
Henderson-Vance Fire Chief Danny Wilkerson gave the job Wednesday to R.B. “Bob” Lloyd, a 29-year veteran of the local Fire Department who was serving as a battalion commander with the rank of captain.
Now that he has a second in command, Wilkerson joked Thursday, he’s expendable.
“It relieves my headache I’ve been having since last June,” the chief said.
The chief had been persistent in trying to fill Lassiter’s post since last spring, but City Manager Eric Williams froze the position.
The post was caught in a combination of budget concerns and uncertainty over the future of the city’s fire services contract. Vance County contracts with the city to provide administrative and ambulance services to its Fire Department. The proposal for the fiscal year that starts July 1 calls for the county to pay $101,260 for the administrative services and $60,000 for the ambulance agreement.
The county pays 45 percent of the salaries of the chief and assistant chief, as well as 40 percent of the salaries of the department secretary and training officer.
Wilkerson explained several times to the City Council’s finance committee that he was overworked without an assistant chief and that the city and county were in a vulnerable position in case anything happened to him. The chief also expressed growing unease throughout the year that the county was paying for an assistant chief it was not getting, and he said he would not include the position in his county budget request unless he knew he could hire an assistant chief.
Wilkerson won authorization to hire an assistant chief March 23 at a session of the Finance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee that drew five of the eight City Council members. The budgetary impact this fiscal year is minimal because less than two months remains in fiscal 2004-05, and the Fire Department is certain to have a surplus in its salary account. Long term, Wilkerson agreed to give up an entry-level firefighter to get the assistant chief, which he said is a standard position in a municipal fire department.
Wilkerson said he was one of two assistant fire chiefs — one for administrative services and one for operations — when he was promoted to the top job six years ago. With one assistant over both areas, the Fire Department is running with a leaner administrative structure.
Lloyd, 47, will help oversee all shift operations and fire suppression efforts through the two city fire stations and the one county station and will be in charge in Wilkerson’s absence.
Lloyd was one of two in-house candidates for the job. Wilkerson said Lloyd was the right choice because he has more knowledge and more experience, and he did well in the interview process.
A panel consisting of the chief, City Manager Eric Williams, Assistant City Manager Mark Warren, Human Resources Manager Mary Cephas and an assistant fire chief from Raleigh interviewed the candidates Tuesday at the Municipal Building. Wilkerson said the questions covered leadership “from A to Z” and presented a tactical scenario that forced the candidates to go through the entire process of battling a large fire in the city.
“Capt. Lloyd did very well” on the scenario, Wilkerson said.
In one more year Lloyd will be eligible for retirement with full benefits. But he’s only 47, and Wilkerson said his new assistant hasn’t indicated any interest in leaving firefighting. Lassiter was 62 when he retired.
Wilkerson said the city will follow a similar process of advertising in house to fill Lloyd’s old post of battalion commander. The job requirements will be framed so that the candidates will be limited to the department’s six lieutenants and, if he’s interested in a lateral move, the city’s fire training officer, who already holds the rank of captain.
Interested candidates will go through an assessment center and face a written exam, oral interviews and a tactical scenario.