Fountain Valley Begins Search for New Fire Chief

With former Fire Chief Bill Walker's departure last month for Alhambra, Fountain Valley is hoping to have a new chief in place by the end of the year at the latest, City Manager Ray Kromer said Tuesday.

Then again, at least one plan that could potentially end up on the table would mean that the city wouldn't get a new fire chief after all, but rather share a fire chief with neighboring Huntington Beach. The departments collaborate regularly responding to incidents in the two cities' many bordering areas.

Walker served as fire chief for four years, and has been replaced on an interim basis by former Laguna Beach Fire Chief Mike Macey. Macey's services are costing the city about $85 an hour, Kromer said. In addition, Tony Coppolino was promoted from captain to battalion chief following the retirement of Joe Vasile in June. Should the department decide to hire its own new chief, Kromer said, the net could be cast as narrow as within the department or as wide as the entire state.

"I don't know where we're going to go," he said. "if we partner with Huntington Beach, one of the discussions would be that we'd use the chief of Huntington Beach to run our dept. If we don't do that and we open it up, it could be anyone in the state of California."