San Antonio Chief Hopefuls Down to 5

City Manager Sheryl Sculley narrowed her list of candidates for San Antonio’s new fire chief to five this week. The list includes two local names, two candidates from Phoenix (where Sculley was an assistant city manager) and an African American fire chief who was the first minority to hold the position in a metropolitan department in Ohio.

The list doesn’t appear to include any Hispanic candidates.

Sculley cut the list of choices in half after conducting community panel sessions Feb. 16. She will interview all five candidates Monday. They will also meet with panels made up of Fire Department and city management team members.

“The position of San Antonio fire chief is a significant one, and our community deserves the best candidate to oversee the public’s fire safety needs,” Sculley said in a written statement.

She plans to announce the city’s next fire chief in March.

Fire Chief Robert Ojeda announced his retirement in August after serving 33 years with the San Antonio Fire Department. His last official day is today.

City officials extended his contract through March 14, but his tenure could be longer depending on the city manager’s timeline to choose the next chief.

All the candidates spoke of the importance of diversity in the ranks and addressed the importance of firefighter safety.

Local contender and SAFD District Chief David A. Covington, 54, is a veteran member of the department, joining in 1976 as a paramedic and rising to the ranks of fire marshal inspector, captain with the department’s Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting division and chief of training.

He believes his experience within the department makes him a prime choice for the job.

“It’s my department,” said Covington, who also cited his master’s degree in human resource development from Texas A&M University.

As chief, he hopes to improve the department’s level of training, especially with professional development.

“Certainly, there’s a lot of skill sets and a lot of techniques you can use to build better leaders,” Covington said.

SAFD Deputy Chief Rodney Hitzfelder, 51, who has 13 years of administrative experience and has been with the department since 1979, said his long tenure makes him an ideal choice for Ojeda’s successor because “I’ve worked within almost every aspect in the department.”

Noting firefighters’ low morale, he listed improved relationships and better communication with the union as his first priority.

“It’s absolutely imperative that the fire chief is visible and touches base with his firefighters and the public,” he said.

Hitzfelder has overseen all firefighting operations since 2000 and was the city’s emergency management coordinator in 2004; he also started the department’s first public information office and facilities maintenance department.

Assistant Chief Terry A. Garrison, 49, oversees the Phoenix Fire Department’s operations division, homeland defense bureau, fire investigations, community involvement and the public information office.

He cited the importance of diversity within the department ranks, something that begins with recruitment.

“What we say is the fire department should probably look a lot like the community it serves,” Garrison said.

He believes in planning a budget around two things: servicing the community and firefighter safety.

As division chief of corporate communications in the mid-1990s, Garrison started a program for media members so they could train with firefighters and better understand the department’s perspective.

“It’s the fire chief’s job to take the budget, the mission and the goals of the city and match that up with the service that is required at the street level,” Garrison said.

Also competing for San Antonio’s fire chief is fellow Phoenix Assistant Fire Chief Charles N. Hood, 47.

Hood, one of two minority candidates, said he will bring leadership and credibility.

“I’m not going to have all the answers, but I’m going to be open to all of the questions,” Hood said.

If a chief addresses the needs of his firefighters, he said, they will provide a better service to the community.

“I look at this as a family that I would be taking care of,” Hood said.

Deployed to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina to act as a rescue effort liaison, he cited his ability to manage large-scale incidents and is a member of a national incident management team.

Michael P. Bell, 51, is the only candidate with previous experience as a chief, serving at the helm of the Fire Department in Toledo, Ohio, for more than 16 years. He’s co-chairman of a joint regional terrorism task force and was a member of his department’s dive rescue team.

He was the youngest person ever to fill the spot. He also was the first minority fire chief to run a metropolitan fire department in Ohio and has been chairman of the diversity committee for the International Fire Chiefs Association.

He said open communication and honesty are the keys to solving problems of morale he encountered when visiting with San Antonio firefighters.

“My job is to make sure that I appropriately lead and make sure whatever organization I’m a part of, that we’re on the front end of change as opposed to on the back end,” he said

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