Search For Next Fire Chief To Be Handled By City Staff

The City of Fond du Lac Police and Fire Commission spent a fair amount of time in their meeting Thursday (4/28/2022) on the process for hiring the next Fire Chief for the City of Fond du Lac.

Peter O’Leary announced his retirement in late March, with his last day April 13.

It was thought that the Police and Fire Commission would make a decision Thursday on what firm to use in the search for the next Fire Chief.

The Request For Proposal was sent to 700 firms nationwide, with 5 firms showing initial interest, but only 2 firms actually submitting proposals.

Given the fact that only two companies submitted proposals, the Commission then focused the conversation around having City staff handle the national search. If approved, that move would save valuable time, versus submitting another round of RFP’s, and also save the City and taxpayers a substantial amount of money.

The last time the PFC approved the use of a search firm came when William Lamb retired as Police Chief, and Baker Tilly was hired to execute the national search, which yielded 18 applications, and produced Aaron Goldstein, who was the Assistant Police Chief at the time.

The cost for that search was about $30,000.

Jackie Braatz is the HR Manager for the City of Fond du Lac, and told the Commission it would be her goal to follow the original timeline of having the majority of the search completed within 45 days, or June 15th.

Braatz said her in-house recruitment team would be able to use the same Social Media outlets, recruitment platforms and other key components that the search firms use, and be able to do it at a cost-savings to the City, while not compromising the quality or volume of the applicants.

The Police and Fire Commission unanimously approved the motion to continue the search for Fire Chief in-house, without the use of a vendor.