Northwood City Council may be inching closer to hiring a full-time fire chief after discussing City Administrator Dennis Recker’s latest recommendation to hire a part-time chief.

Council and the administration have been vacillating on their decision between hiring a part-time or full-time fire chief since the death of a resident brought to light issues, including EMS service gaps, within the fire department.

On March 3, Tim Mix waited 28 minutes for a rescue squad to arrive at his home on Parc Rue after his wife, Ellen Jean, called 9-1-1 three times. Tim, who had pneumonia, passed away March 5 after being pronounced “brain dead due to the lack of oxygen after he stopped breathing,” Ellen Jean told The Press.

Last year, Mayor Mark Stoner cut the two-man Medic 800 crew during the budget process. The mayor and council have since re-hired the two-man crew to man the 800 unit during the day, Monday through Friday.

Former Fire Chief Tim Romstadt resigned in April following the Mix incident. Stoner then hired him, at Romstadt’s request, as the part-time deputy fire chief. Romstadt had recommended to the Safety Committee that his former position be part-time.

Dr. David Miramontes, Northwood’s EMS medical director since 2001, wrote a letter to Stoner on April 16 in which he made 14 recommendations for adequate staffing, supervision and deployment of resources in the fire department. In the letter, Miramontes strongly recommended the city hire a full-time fire chief who is a firefighter level II, a certified paramedic and fire inspector.

Recker then advised council during its May 26 meeting that it should advertise for a full-time chief. Council’s Safety Committee made the same recommendation.

During the June 2 Committee of the Whole meeting, Recker seemed to have a change of heart as he recommended council go with a part-time chief instead.

Recker told council he had time to go through the applications for the part-time chief position and he was pleased with the quality of the four candidates that had applied.

“In retrospect, we can accomplish the same thing with a part-time chief as we can with a full-time one if we get the right person in the position,” Recker said.

Recker stated the city would save $60,000 in combined salary and benefits if they went with a part-time chief. The savings could then be used elsewhere in the department.

Members of council seemed confused with the recent change in Recker’s recommendation.

“Wasn’t it Safety’s and Recker’s original recommendation to go with a part-time chief?” Councilwoman Connie Hughes asked. “Now we can go back to square one and go with his original recommendation?”

Councilman Dave Gallaher stated he was tired of money being put ahead of safety.

“If I hear one more person talk about the money aspect before they talk about the safety aspect I will go crazy,” Gallaher said. “I cannot understand, for the life of me, why we keep looking at the money on a safety issue when we should be looking at what is best for the city and then figure out how we are going to finance it. We cannot do everything we want to do based on cost. We need to prioritize.”

Stoner agreed that safety was a priority but warned council that additional cuts may be needed in order to pay for a full-time chief.

“I agree that safety has to be paramount in our discussions and decisions,” Stoner said. “We only have a finite number of funds we can spend and there might be some unpopular cuts coming if we proceed with this. We are cut. We are down in police, streets, and the city buildings. Who knows, maybe Chrysler will announce they are bringing new products into Toledo Jeep and our supplier plants will go crazy and have to put on second and third shifts. Then, problem solved. We need to really think about this and weigh our options.”

Recker added he would like to see the EMS service in the city be upgraded and “gap-free.”

“I would like to be able to say to our citizens that we can provide 24/7 ALS coverage,” Recker said.

“That is the standard in Lucas County and the surrounding communities. If you rely on purely a volunteer force, you would need 15 to 20 paramedics on our part-time department to be able to handle those shift requirements. You need a professional chief to sit down there and put together a plan. You can get a professional part-time.

“We’re not 100 percent gap-free today and that is a scary thing to say,” Recker continued. “Situations like hers (Mix) are far less likely today than they were just a month ago, but they are still possible when you have known gaps.”

Gallahar asked who would be responsible for the fire department.

“If something goes wrong, who is going to be responsible?” he asked. “A part-time person is not going to take the same amount of responsibility. You can’t ask a part-time person to do that. When stuff hits the fan, who do we go to?”

Councilman Ed Schimmel, chairman of the Safety Committee, said he was confused over council’s infighting over money.

“There was very little opposition to the health insurance pickup of $40,000,” Schimmel said. “Now we’re fighting over 30,000?”

Gallaher agreed.

“I don’t think we fill find $60,000 in a bucket. It is a matter of finding $500 here, $500 there.”

Stoner said the city had a full-time chief in the past yet there were problems.

“We had a full-time chief and we had a problem,” he said. “I was more willing to put the day shift back on. At least we have two people who will be here and that we can rely on. I need to know the coverage is there when the alarm goes off.”

Recker said he would stand behind any policy decisions made by the new fire chief.

“Part-time leadership is not the absence of leadership,” Recker said.

Stoner told council he and Recker would meet with Finance and Revenue Director Toby Schroyer to come up with a list of cuts.

“We will do our best to come up with the money with the least possible effect on our residents,” Stoner said. “We will sit with Toby and put down potential cuts and then see where we go.”

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