Seven candidates for C.R. post will attend evening open house

CEDAR RAPIDS - The public will get a chance this week to meet the seven candidates who want to be the city's next fire chief.

An open house for the seven will be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday in the ballroom at the Kirkwood Center for Continuing Education, 7725 Kirkwood Blvd. SW. The open house will follow interviews at City Hall.

The city's Civil Service Commission earlier certified the candidates as qualified for the job and ranked them in the following order based on resumes, answers to a questionnaire and teleconference interviews:

Scott Goodwin, division chief, Santa Fe Springs, Calif.; Stephen Reid, president/CEO of Stephen M. Reid and Associates, a Washington, D.C. consulting firm, and past deputy chief of emergency medical services in Washington, D.C.; Carl Austerman, who most recently was deputy fire chief, Glendale, Ariz.; Paul Hewitt, combat battalion chief, Salt Lake City, Utah; and three Cedar Rapids Fire Department commanders - Gregory Smith, Cedar Rapids battalion chief; Brian Giachino, district fire chief; and Mark English, assistant fire chief.

The new chief, who will be the department's twelfth leader, will take over for Fire Chief Steve Havlik. He is retiring March 1.