At the request of Mayor London Breed, the San Francisco Fire Commission is reopening its selection process for a new chief, after the firefighters union raised concerns that the number of in-house candidates with long firefighting experience was insufficient.
According to Fire Commission President Ken Cleveland, the Human Resources Department forwarded 36 candidates to the commission, along with their answers to eight pages of questions on everything from management and budget issues to emergency medical and high rise fire procedures.
“They were divided into good, better and best,” Cleveland said. “We looked at them all and initially selected 11 to interview.”
But no sooner did word of the 11 semifinalists get out than firefighters began raising questions about why experienced SFFD assistant chiefs and battalion chiefs failed to make the cut.