Some Richmond firefighters want the chief replaced

 

At the regular Richmond fire department board meeting on January 12, 2005, a group of fourteen firefighters submitted a letter to the board requesting the dismissal of Fire Chief Dave Rudolph and paramedic Erin Arnold.

After the letter was read the board immediately went into a closed session conference for over one hour. Fire district Rich Curran said that the purpose of the session was “potential litigation and personnel.” After that session fire district attorney Rich Curran announced that no action would be taken immediately. Curran said that the board felt the issue demanded more investigation by the board. Curran said that the issue is related to the Emergency Medical Services program held at McHenry County College.

Mike Bloom who spoke for the firefighters told the board that the letter was a “vote of no confidence” in the fire chief.

Assistant Fire Chief Matt Amore refused to sign the letter. He told the board that he objected to the inference by Bloom that the letter represented the opinion of all firefighters on the staff. “The letter is not true,” said Amore. “I strongly disagree.”

Board Secretary Tom VanDaele told the audience that his door  “is always open” to discussions with the firefighters. VanDaele said the board will contact Emergency Medical Services before any decision is made.

Rudolph and Arnold had no comments. Firefighters who signed the letter had no comments.

In other business, Chief Rudolph reported that the department made a total of 480 calls in 2004. Of these 271 were EMS and 109 were fire calls, 63% were daytime and 37% were night calls.