JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan on Thursday announced new leadership appointments for the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department (JFRD).
Deegan said the 11 new appointments will make the leadership team at JFRD more diverse and reflect the demographics of the city.
“When I became mayor, I promised to bring more diversity to our city workforce, build the bench of our next generation of leaders and deliver the best service possible for our citizens. Keeping those promises is what today’s announcement is all about,” Deegan said.
The JFRD executive team will now be 38% Black, 50% white 6% Asian and 6% Hispanic, Deegan said.
JFRD Chief Keith Powers will remain in his position after he and six others on the leadership team were reappointed. Powers applauded the new appointments.
“I want to thank Mayor Deegan for continuing to support JFRD’s commitment to diversity and ensuring that our department looks like the community we serve,” Powers said. “There’s a lot of times when we show up on runs, the person that we’re there for may not relate to me, but they’ll relate to somebody on that crew and then we have the ability to give them the proper care and treatment that they deserve.”
Deegan also said the city has to put in place a succession plan to create a pipeline that brings diverse talent to the top of the department. Deegan said several members of the JFRD leadership team are set to retire over the next couple of years so the city wanted to make sure the next wave of leaders is prepared to take the reins. The program incorporates educational opportunities, including reimbursement for college degrees and the city covering the cost of necessary certification courses.
“These changes will ensure that we continue to have the very best fire department in the country for years to come,” Deegan said.
The Jacksonville Brotherhood of Firefighters (JBOF), a Black firefighters association, said in a statement to News4JAX that it appreciates Mayor Deegan’s initiative and efforts to make JFRD administrative staff reflective of the community but added that it is troubling that “most of these newly created positions are lacking authority and decision making power to initiate changes in current cultural related policies.”
“These positions, although titled to give the illusion of authority as presently presented are nothing more than superficial racial coding giving the appearance of progress within the Department when in actuality are nothing more than appeasement. JFRD has oncoming cultural issues that will only be addressed by policy changes and true cultural diversity policies. This is the first time that an incoming administration did not appoint new leadership of their own supporters and kept a former Mayors administration in place. Where is the change going to happen that was promised during the campaign if the former team remains in place with their unfair cultural policies remaining? If this isn’t a continuation of the good old boy network that she campaigned against then what message does this send to the citizens?” JBOF said in a statement.
Mayor Deegan announced the following re-appointments, who will continue serving in their current leadership capacity.
- Chief Keith Powers will continue serving as our Fire Chief.
- Steve Riska is being reappointed as Division Chief of Operations.
- Jake Blanton is being reappointed as Division Chief of Rescue.
- Daniel Guthrie is being reappointed as Deputy Division Chief of Rescue.
- Kevin Jones is being reappointed as Division Chief of Fire Prevention.
- Andre Ayoub will continue as the Division Chief of Emergency Preparedness after being confirmed earlier this year.
She also introduced the following new appointments:
- Willie King will serve as the new Deputy Fire Chief.
- Chris Scott will be the new Deputy Division Chief of Operations.
- Teresa Kinstle will be the new Division Chief of Training.
- Austin Gambill will be the new Deputy Division Chief of Training.
- Renaldo Horn will be the new Chief of Recruiting.
- Allen Mason will be the new Deputy Division Chief of Fire Prevention.
- Percy Golden, Jr. will be the new Deputy Division Chief of Emergency Preparedness.
- Mike Lesniak will be the new Division Chief of Administrative Services.
- Terrance Holmes will be the new Deputy Division Chief of Administrative Services.
- Berlinda Tookes will serve as the new Assistant Chief of EEO/Ethics.