Fire Chief May Be Next To Go: Ferak Column

JOLIET, IL - Last year, the city of Joliet had two major leadership shakeups, one was the ouster of City Manager David Hales, who lasted less than a year on the job. The other big change came in August when Police Chief Brian Benton, then 49, stepped down after five years at the helm.

Hales, as I've editorialized in the past, was a giant disappointment for Joliet, considering he negotiated a base salary of $215,000, plus got a $250 per month vehicle allowance, for being in charge of the state's third largest city. He had spent the previous eight years as city manager in Bloomington. Joliet's City Council made the right decision, even though it was controversial, in negotiating a separation agreement to part ways with Hales, back in October.

As for Benton, by all accounts, he had been a quality Joliet police officer who provided the city with many years of good service, starting in 1990. However, I thought it was evident that Benton did not have leadership ability to oversee a police force in a city of 150,000. He was weak and indecisive. Joliet's Police Department had acrimony and was sliding backwards under his watch.

Nowadays, it seems the Joliet Police Department is in capable hands with new Police Chief Al Roechner in charge and four new deputy chiefs in position: Darrell Gavin, Mike Batis, John Perona and Marc Reid.

At City Hall, corporation counsel Marty Shanahan has eased into the role as city manager and things seem to be running smoothly now that Hales was shown the door.

With both the Police Department and City Hall's administration on more solid footing as the new year starts, I think it's time for the city to turn up the heat on the leadership at the Joliet Fire Department, namely Fire Chief Joe Formhals.

Because Hales, as city manager, was such an inept leader, Formhals was not held accountable for last year's budgetary disaster that happened under his watch.

In 2018, Joliet's Fire Department racked up slightly more than $3 million in overtime costs, far more than the city had budgeted, according to city records.

Most of this costly and unnecessary overtime pay went to firefighters/paramedics for working extra shifts because their fellow firefighter/paramedics were calling in sick for work, often on weekends and long holiday weekends.

At the start of 2018, Hales and Formhals jointly proposed that the city council purchase two smaller fire engines known as quints. These purchases would have reduced the fire department's manpower needed to operate the rigs, thus cutting the city's overtime expenses.

Several members of Joliet's firefighter unions protested the measure. They complained that the city's overtime woes would be solved if the city hired several new firefighters.

Hales and Formhals ditched their proposal of purchasing the quints. They went ahead and hired an additional 15 new firefighter/paramedics last year.

Then, in the end, the fire department's overtime problems didn't improve. Firefighters kept calling in sick for work, prompting others to pull extra 24-hour shifts to make sure Joliet's 10 fire stations were all fully staffed at levels satisfactory to the Joliet fire unions, Local 44 and Local 2369.

Formhals didn't raise much of a fuss about the bloated overtime expenses in his department. But the Joliet taxpayers got hosed.

These funds could have been far better spent buying new city vehicles or constructing new water and sewer lines across the city, among other things.

But now that Shanahan is at the helm at City Hall, it appears the Joliet Fire Department, most notably Formhals, will be held to more scrutiny in 2019.

Last month as the city council reviewed Joliet's proposed operating budget, Shanahan spoke up and announced he was now recommending the Joliet Fire Department's overtime budget for 2019 be slashed to $1.5 million.

At the time, the recommendation before the council asked for $2.3 million.

However, Shanahan said he realized the fire department is now "fully staffed," with around 210 firefighters/paramedics on the payroll. As a result, Shanahan researched the annual overtime costs for the last three times in recent history when the fire department was fully staffed. Then, he divided those totals and ended up with his $1.5 million overtime budget for 2019.

Now that the $1.5 million overtime budget is set in stone, the city needs to hold Formhals accountable for keeping his department's personnel costs in line.

Back in 2017, Formhals was the city's 18th best paid employee, making $165,671 in a management-exempt position. Formhals pulls down a huge municipal salary to be a leader; he isn't driving the ambulances or spraying water on structure fires anymore. A 1982 Joliet West graduate, Formhals began his career in 1992 and rose through the ranks, being selected as fire chief in 2008.

In my opinion, Formhals' job should be on the line if the fire department's overtime costs are out of whack after the first quarter of 2019.

After all, what's the purpose of paying a fire chief a salary of roughly $165,000, if he can't control costs, if he isn't an effective problem-solver, and he isn't much of a leader?

Top image: Joliet Fire Chief Joe Formhals via city of Joliet Fire Department