Mark English to be new Cedar Rapids fire chief

UPDATE: Longtime Cedar Rapids firefighter Mark English has “the leadership skills, the background with the department and the experience”  to be the city's next fire chief, City Manager Jeff Pomeranz said today.

Pomeranz announced he'll recommend the City Council promote English, 46, to replace Stephen Reid, who resigned in February. He'll make the official recommendation Tuesday, and assuming the council approves English will be sworn in Wednesday.

“I'm honored, to be able to lead flood recovery and just be able to work with the great people we have in the Cedar Rapids Fire Department and help achive even greater things,” English said. “The first thing is just to help us establish a level of normalcy within the office, now that we have a chief that's going to be here a long time, which is my hope.”

English served as interim fire chief after Reid's sudden departure after just nine months in the post. He was also interim chief in the period between the March 2010 retirement of Steve Havlik and Reid's arrival two months later.

Havlik was among seven finalists for the chief's job two years ago.

“The process was essentially the same as the last time,” he said. “I think I was able to do a better job communicating.”

Reid, a former top official in the Washington, D.C., department, abruptly returned to his Maryland fire consulting business citing frustrations over what he termed Pomeranz' and the council's lack of support for firefighter training and reimbursement for their college tuition. Pomeranz said Reid asked more than the city, still recovering from the June 2008 flood, could yet afford.

I felt most comfortable (with English) of all the candidates,” said Pomeranz, who selected from among a list of qualified candidates provided by the city civil service commission. He cited English's “leadership style and his abliity to lead the fire department into the future.”

That includes siting and construction of a new central fire station to replace the one lost to the flood. English is project manager for the new station, and helped select a site for it between First and Second avenues and Seventh and Eighth streets SE.  But at least one City Council member is raising objections to the site owner's asking price, and negotiations continue.

“That's our goal, to be able to use that site, because our data tells us that's the best site,” said English.

English, who grew up in Anamosa, graduated with honors from Upper Iowa University with a bachelor's degree in public administration with an emphasis in fire science. He joined the fire department in 1986. He and his wife Jordanna have two children, a married daughter and a son who will be a high school senior this fall.

“Mark English has served the citizens of Cedar Rapids with distinction during his 25 year career with the Fire Department,” Pomeranz said in a statement issued this morning. “He demonstrated outstanding leadership skills during the flood of 2008 and as the interim fire chief in the last few months. I am confident in his abilities to lead the department as it rebuilds flood-damaged fire stations and continues its excellent emergency response, education and prevention programs.”

English, 46, would fill the vacancy left in February when  Stephen Reid abruptly resigned without notice after just nine months in the post. Reid said he left because Pomeranz and City Council were not supporting the  department's needs for training, equipment and college tuition reimbursement for firefighters. Reid also wanted to hire more firefighters.

Reid replaced Steve Havlik,  chief for 12 years and with the department for nearly 30 years.

English has been the vice-Chair of the Linn County Emergency Management Commission for several years and was the first task force leader of the Cedar Rapids division of the state rescue team and response team to weapons of mass destruction incidents. He has led flood recovery efforts for the fire department as project manager for the new fire station projects.

Pending City Council approval of the Pomeranz's recommendation,  English will be sworn into his news duties on July 27 at 1 p.m. at the Central Fire Station, 1010 First St. NW.

The Cedar Rapids Fire Department serves a population of approximately 126,326 citizens in a 71.8 square mile area. The Fire Department is currently working out of eight permanent fire stations and two temporary fire stations with 150 full-time employees. Firefighters responded to 9,562 incidents in 2010.