City FD light on leadership

With a chief who would admittedly rather be carrying a fishing pole than rolling hose and a vacancy at the deputy chief position, the city’s fire department is most certainly light on leadership right now.

That will remain the case until at least March, after the city administers civil service tests for both positions. I talked with Chief Milton Sayre about the challenges the department is facing while it searches for candidates to fill those two posts.

You might remember Daniel Gaumont left the chief’s position in March to take a spot in Keller, Texas. Since then, the only two candidates that passed a civil service test given last January, making them eligible to fill the position, withdrew their names from consideration.

Check out Wednesday’s Times for a full update of the city’s effort to find a new chief and the challenges the department is facing being short staffed.