When Fire Chief Eric Kerska presents his promotion recommendations to the Rochester City Council in May, the list will reflect a change to how the department’s leadership is organized.
Following the retirement of Deputy Chief Steve Belau in September, Kerska said that rather than rush to replace Belau, he wanted to take some time to evaluate the position and the organization of the department.
“I saw this as an opportunity to take a breath, step back, look, do an analysis. Is having a second deputy chief really what I want?” Kerska said. “After eight or nine months of analysis, I decided that I didn’t want a second deputy chief, I wanted something different.”