Follow-up: Cedar Falls moves Tim Smith to Public Safety Supervisor role, angering firefighters' union

  • Source: Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
  • Published: 07/18/2019 01:56 AM

A widely-shared social media post about a public safety officer’s move to a supervisory role has poured gasoline on the flames of the city’s use of public safety officers in lieu of separate police officers and firefighters. The Monday afternoon Facebook post from Cedar Falls Firefighter’s Local #1366 said that the city “plans to remove Fire Battalion Chief Curt Hildebrand from shift in order to place Public Safety Supervisor Tim Smith in complete charge of a shift.” “Chief Hildebrand is a 20 year career firefighter with 12 years as a fire officer,” the post continues. “PSS Smith has less than 9 months professional firefighting experience.” The post received nearly 500 shares and more than 200 comments as of Wednesday, and was also brought up by resident Whitney Smith at Monday night’s Cedar Falls City Council meeting. “This is very concerning to me,” Smith said during the public comment portion of the meeting. “Mr. Smith has nine months of prior fire experience? It takes years to build up experience.”



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