Burlington, News

City to screen fire chief candidates next week

By Jennifer Eisenbart

Editor

The City of Burlington will hold a two-day assessment center next week to screen the six candidates for the open fire chief position.

City officials declined to release the names of the applicants. Under state open records law, the city is not required to release the names at this point. According to the law, the city may narrow the field further before releasing any names.  Ultimately, state law requires that the names of at least five “final candidates” be disclosed before a decision is made.

The process listed online for the position lists several stages, starting with next week’s two-day assessment center on May 17 and 19. From there, candidates will have interviews with the Police and Fire Commission, and open house-type forum.

From there, the city has stated “two or more final candidates may be brought back for a final interview with the Police and Fire Commission.”

City Administrator Carina Walters said Tuesday that recruitment firm Gov HR will run a portion of next week’s assessment center, with city staff involved in the rest.

“We plan on involving city staff (and) the Police and Fire Commission,” Walters said. “We plan on involving the fire department, the full-time employees as well.

“We’re hoping for a comprehensive process,” she added.

Walters said the hope is to narrow the field further from there, but that would be up to the commission.

“I feel we have very strong candidates,” Walters said, adding that the majority of them are local to the southeast Wisconsin area.

Two potential local candidates would be Burlington Area Rescue Squad Chief Brian Zwiebel as well as Town of Burlington Fire Chief Ed Umnus.

Neither immediately responded to a request Tuesday for information as to whether they applied for the position.

5 Comments

  1. Well here we go again! We are now naming potential candidates. Are there any other “potential” candidates that you want to name. Half of the this story is explaining why you don’t have a story in the first place. Who is exactly going to be evaluating these candidates. Apparently the new commissioner and they boss of the new fire chief (the mayor) won’t be according to mayor. So that leaves four candidates or maybe someone else has a conflict so we will be down to three. Great process. How will it work if one of “potential” candidates get the position. The mayor will be the boss on the fire side and be the subordinate as a rescue member, that will be objective. This smells bad from the start. Good olé boy system at work.

  2. Yup! Paul knows what’s up☝?️. I thought the rescue squad didn’t want to be part of the fire dept.? One candidate quit when the last fire chief was named? That’s what I want someone who quits cause they don’t get their way. Voted out the old boys club for the old girls club

  3. Rumor is they only had 6 applicants for the job… That right there should tell you there are problems in Leadville. I hear the two Illinois candidates are “friends” of little Miss Muffet.

    • Ok so read the Mayors monthly article which was very disappointing. Apparently the only items of significance were the fire chief position and the the pool? Keep up the good work? I thought we were going to be informed of what going on in the city and the only items she could muster up were the two times reported in the newspaper. Ms. mayor can I be appointed to a committed and then told not to be involved although a state statue gives me the authority to do the opposite, be involved. I was also confused about your participation after reading your monthly update, are you involved or not couldn’t really tell. Great start!!!

  4. Yup! This whole rescue squad thing is what got the current Mayor elected. Smells really bad to me!