Four chiefs in two months. St. Joseph, Michigan is in search of chief number 5.
City of St. Joseph Fire Department
Read and watch WNDU-TV’s story
The last time we checked in with the St. Joseph Fire Department in Michigan it was December 6 and City Manager Frank Walsh said the budget wasn’t big enough for both a police and fire chief. Fire Chief Kevin Luhrs was given the boot.
But soon Walsh and Police Chief Mark Clapp realized the new arrangement of Clapp running the fire department wouldn’t work out. Next up, police Sgt. Rick Smiedendorf, a former firefighter, was appointed to the post. That’s fire chief number 3.
Then Smiedendorf changed his mind. Enter chief number 4, Joe Clark, a retired St. Joseph Fire Department captain who agreed to take the 20-hour-a-week job supervising one station, 11 full-time firefighters and a group of on-call firefighters.
Clark and Walsh immediately clashed on some issues. Here are excerpts from an article by David Warfield in The Herald-Palladium:
Clark said he ran into an unresolvable disagreement with City Manager Frank Walsh over department policy and the philosophy of running the department. The major disagreement, both Walsh and Clark reported, was over a new demand that firefighters stop using a fire engine to run errands.
“I was hired to be the chief, and if you hire someone to do a job, you at least have to let them run it in a way they think is best,” Clark said. “I just feel (Walsh’s) style and my style were not going to mesh.”
He said city firefighters have used fire engines to run errands for eight years.
In an e-mail to The Herald-Palladium, Walsh said, “Joe believes that I’ve created a safety issue by not allowing the men to drive the truck to Martin’s to buy groceries.”
Clark repeated several times that the resistance to the city’s demand came from him, and not the union.
“This is something that I feel is critical. The firefighters did not say we could not do this. They were willing to compromise,” Clark said. “This is something I felt uncomfortable with. It had nothing to do with the firefighters.”
Walsh, in a phone interview, said fire trucks are too expensive to use for grocery runs.
He said he’s received “several calls from taxpayers in the city wondering why there are fire engines out there in (St. Joseph) township, idling in the (Martin’s) parking lot.”
He said the city bought a $16,000 4×4 pickup truck for the firefighters, specifically to use for running errands.
WNDU-TV also did the story, but not once on the air or in its web story was the name of the most recent fire chief used. But can you blame them? It’s tough to keep up, especially since the city website still lists fire chief number 1, Kevin Luhrs as chief.
Anyone interested in being fire chief number 5?
