Fire Chief Interviews To Start Next Week

After receiving some 40 applications for the vacant fire chief post, Johnston's selection committee has narrowed the field, and is expected to start interviewing candidates next week, Chief of Staff Doug Jeffrey confirmed.

During a phone interview Thursday afternoon, Jeffrey said that the committee had "made considerable progress" in the search to replace Andrew Baynes, who resigned from the post in January. Mayor Joseph M. Polisena later named himself acting fire chief and assigned Police Deputy Chief David DeCesare to serve in an administrative capacity and work on the transition to a new chief for the fire department.

"I'm confident that we'll have a round of interviews next week, and an idea of who we'd like to hire, if not by the end of two weeks, no later than three or four weeks from now," Jeffrey said.

Last week, Polisena reported that the search committee — which incudes Jeffrey, Police Chief Richard S. Tamburini, Central Coventry Fire District Chief Bob Seltzer, and Lime Rock (Lincoln) Fire Department Chief Frank M. Sylvester — would start meeting to review the applications.

According to Polisena, candidates from New York City, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, New Jersey, and Texas submitted applications to the town. Fifteen Rhode Islanders have also applied to the post.

Of the candidates whose resumes have been reviewed, Jeffery said: "They're all very qualified — I think they could all be very good fire chiefs."

While declining to provide specific numbers because of the confidential nature of the search process, Jeffrey said the number of remaining candidates is "fewer than 10," and confirmed that there are Rhode Islanders in the smaller group. No Johnston firefighters applied for the chief's post, Jeffrey said.

This marks Jeffrey's first selection process for an administrative position in Johnston, following his appointment to the chief of staff post in January.

Asked to reflect on the process, Jeffrey said: "I've been very fortunate to work with the people on the selection committee — I've kind of just been navigating the process; they've really done the heavy lifting."

Jeffrey also said he's been impressed with the caliber of applicants who have offered their services to the town.

"I thought that it would be limited to New England, or at most the Northeast, (but) it was a really good cross-section of people from all over the country," Jeffrey explained.

Under the Johnston Town Charter, the authority to appoint the fire chief rests solely with the mayor (Ch. 27, Art. 4).