The City of Columbia officially has a new fire chief.
During Tuesday night’s Columbia Board of Aldermen meeting, veteran CFD Capt. Jeff McKenzie, who had been serving as interim chief, was approved for the position in a 4-1 vote.
The appointment came after considerable discussion, though none of it focused on the 22-year veteran’s qualifications. Ward 1 Alderman Wendell Hammond made a motion to remove the “interim” title and name McKenzie to replace Larry Ratliff, who retired June 30, after more than three and a half decades with the CFD.
McKenzie said Wednesday that he was excited to move into his new role.
“I’m humbled,” he said. “I’m very honored to be put in that position. I look forward to the future and the things that we are going to get accomplished at the department. There are things that we hope to do for the citizens such as the fire rating. We hope to get the fire rating as low as possible. We’re working on that now. It’s just some exciting things.”
McKenzie said assuming the chief’s role would be different for him.
“For so long, I’ve been used to getting on the truck and being in the fires,” he said. “Now I have to assume this role and those guys do what they do. This took me out of operations and put me into administration. My job is to make sure they have the training and equipment to do the best job possible. I’m here to help them grow and learn and help the department move forward. If I can do that, then I will have done my job. I’m very excited about it and we’ve got some good things on the horizon. I’m very thankful to the mayor and the Board and I appreciate all of City Clerk Donna McKenzie’s help, too.”
During the meeting it took nearly an hour to formally hire McKenzie and name three captains to lead the shifts.
At issue was McKenzie’s work as a part-time firefighter in Gulfport and his ability to perform the duties of chief if he worked occasional shifts out of town.
Alderman-at-Large Edward Hough asked the Board to go into executive session to discuss concerns, but the Board voted 2-3 on the motion, leaving the discussion in regular session. Hough and Ward 4 Alderman Mike Smith voted to move the discussion into executive session, while Hammond, Ward 2 Alderman Jason Stringer and Ward 3 Alderwoman Anna Evans voted against the measure.
“I’m sure that he is our man for fire chief,” Hough said. “My concern is ‘What is his schedule going to be?’ What do you think the fire chief’s schedule needs to be?”
Hammond, who made the motion addressed the issue.
“The motion was made for him to be full-time,” he said.
Hough then asked McKenzie if he would work Monday through Friday each week.
“On Monday through Friday, there will be days that I have to be in Gulfport,” he said.
Mayor Justin McKenzie (no relation) interjected.
“Here’s where I stand on it,” he said. “If he were to work Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. if we didn’t have a fire between 8 and 5, he wouldn’t be here for a fire at 10 p.m. at night because he would be at home on his time off. If you nail him down to a schedule, he doesn’t have to come out to all of those things. He’s got a crew that’s going to handle that. If it is implied that he needs to work 40 hours per week, then we will schedule that and make sure that he makes 40 hours per week, understanding that he has a secondary job. As a full-time police officer, I had a secondary job. (Police) Chief Cooper has a secondary job. Last Board meeting, we hired the fire chief from Monticello to work part-time for the City of Columbia.”
Hough then spoke about the issue.
“This Board has always taken the issue that anyone; police, fire or whatever, could have a second job as long as it did not interfere their job here. All I’m asking is that is this Board going to say that the fire chief, police chief or city clerk or street department or whatever, is their expected time to be Monday through Friday, or can they fit their 40 hours in anytime?”
Mayor McKenzie said the police department and the fire department were the only two city departments that were on duty 24 hours per day.
“The head of those departments will need to be here sometimes on Saturday or Sunday,” he said. “If he comes in Friday night for a house fire, are you saying he needs to be in Monday at 8 a.m.? He was up all night Friday night, on his time, because he’s on a salary.”
Hough responded and reiterated his feelings.
“I want to repeat myself and say that this is nothing personal,” he said. “It’s nothing against Capt. McKenzie. I think he is a super firefighter. He has shown us a lot here in the last month. I want this Board to understand what we are asking for. Is it going to be Monday through Friday? Are you expecting your chief to be here Monday through Friday? When you’re salaried, you’ve got leeway, but it’s not scheduled.”
Mayor McKenzie said the fire chief was scheduled to work 40 hours per week like the police chief unless there was a big event. Chief McKenzie said if needed, he could leave the Coast and return to Columbia if circumstances warranted. He also told the Board his role had changed and that now his role would be to monitor the situation as fire chief.
Hough continued with his concerns.
After nearly 50 minutes of discussion, the issue was brought back to the table with Hammond’s original motion, saying that Chief McKenzie would work 40 hours per week, but not necessarily Monday through Friday.
The voted was then conducted selecting Jeff McKenzie as chief.
The Board also moved to promote lieutenants Nathan Guy, Reggie Crowther and Kenny Holloway to captains. Each will now assume the role leading one of the three CFD shifts. The new captains replace Chief McKenzie as well as Terry Hamilton and Tommy Graves, who retired in June.
Chief McKenzie said the promotions were well deserved.
“We got three captains promoted and I’m excited about that,” he said. “They are very excited about it. They’re energetic and ready to get things done. We will still have to hire a few firefighters. We’ll be looking forward to doing that. We’ll be getting them in and trained; that will be a project for the new captains.”
The next Columbia Board of Alderman meeting is set for 4 p.m. on Aug. 15 at City Hall.
