Mobile could have its first Black fire chief if the City Council backs Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s appointment to head up one of the city’s largest agencies.
Johnny Morris Jr., an assistant fire chief with over 30 years of experience within the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department, will be the interim chief on November 4, when current Chief Jeremy Lami retires to pursue an opportunity in the private sector.
Morris, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, has served as captain, district chief, administrative chief, and deputy chief. He’s been an assistant fire chief since 2020, while also serving as Lami’s chief of staff.
“He’s really served at every level in the department,” Stimpson said. “Chief Morris has my upmost confidence.”
The Mobile City Council will have to vote on Morris’s appointment, and that could take place as early as next Tuesday.
Retiring chief
Stimpson, during Tuesday’s council meeting, praised Lami by calling him the “best chief in the history of this city.” Lami was the agency’s 16th fire chief.
“He’s just the total package,” Stimpson said. “It’s a huge loss for this city.”
Stimpson credited Lami for ushering in the city through “unparalleled achievements” that include an ISO-1 rating, a top tier industry standard for fire departments. He was also credited by Stimpson for ushering in top level accreditations for the entire department and for the city’s ambulance service.
Stimpson noted that the ISO accreditation occurred under former Fire Chief Mark Sealy’s tenure atop the agency, in 2018. Sealy left Mobile to become the fire chief in Gulf Shores in 2020.
“It happened under Chief Sealy, but the guy doing all the work behind the scenes and staying up overnight was Jeremy Lami,” Stimpson said.
Lami said the decision to leave the agency, after a 21-year career, was a “difficult moment for me.”
“But I leave knowing that we have some tremendous people who are eager to serve these citizens each and every day,” Lami said. “That’s the biggest message that I want (to leave with) the people of this community, that I’m just one person. Everything we’ve accomplished was because of our team.”
Public Safety Director
Stimpson also announced he is appointing a new executive director of public safety to fill the vacancy left when Lawrence Battiste left the position on June 9.
Rob Lasky, who served as a special agent-in-charge of Mobile’s FBI division and in the Miami division until retiring in 2018, was named interim executive director of public safety on Monday.
Lasky is currently director of the City of Mobile’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), and has been in that role since 2021.
“His long career in law enforcement, legal background, and experience working with both (Mobile police and fire agencies) make him particularly well suited for the role of Public Safety Director,” Stimpson said in a statement. “Most importantly, I know he has the greatest level of respect for all the men and women who put their lives on the line to protect the citizens of Mobile.”
Stimpson, in a statement on Monday, indicated that Lasky will serve as OPR director while he’s Executive Director of Public Safety.
But on Tuesday, Chief of Staff James Barber said the city will appoint a new OPR director once Lasky is officially voted in by the council as the public safety director.
It’s unclear what Lasky’s salary will be if he’s serving in both positions. He’s currently earning $148,000 per years as the OPR director, the eighth-highest salary within the City of Mobile.
Asked if he was concerned about a conflict of interest in serving those two roles, Barber said that Lasky will still have to report to him under the city’s organizational chart.
“There will be a new director of OPR name, and it will be part of this transition,” Barber said. “These interim appointments need to before the City Council (first).”
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