After 36 Years of Service, CA Fire Chief Retires
By By Rick Hurd
Source East Bay Times
Mar. 30 -- Perhaps it was fitting that on his last day-long shift as the chief of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District, Jeff Carman was the first one on the scene at a fire.
"The thing that I'll take," he said as me mulled his retirement after 36 years fighting fires and overseeing those who do, "is that no two days were ever the same." Thus, the challenge of settling into a lifestyle in which many of the days are alike. Carman celebrated his final official day Friday as the district's fire chief, a position he's held since October 2013.
Lewis Broschard will take over Monday after being appointed by the district's Fire Board of Directors. But as those days unfold, those who remain at ConFire -- a district that will open its 26th station in May and covers 804 square miles in and around the 19 cities in Contra Costa County -- settle into into the realization that in a very real way, their days won't ever be the same.
"He was very involved in every aspect of the operation," Assistant Fire Chief Aaron McAlister said. "He was never a corner office guy. He worked very deliberately with everyone. There were a lot of times he went to the kitchen tables in the stations and tell the guys, 'Tell me what's going on, tell me what's you need.' It's inspiring."
It's also expected to be lasting.
Broschard said upon the change that he expects a smooth transition and that he leadership values won't change. That said, he acknowledged that the shoes he fills never have been bigger. Carman leaves behind a list of achievements that are staggering.
To wit: * He created the ambulance transport "alliance" between ambulance companies and the district in 2016 that improved response times and response-compliance from 90 percent to 97 percent effeciency). Carman called this model -- one of the most efficient in the country -- "probably my proudest accomplishment. That program was really fun to put together, and there's no telling how many lives it has saved.
* He led the department out of the Great Recession of 2008, re-opening shuttered stations and fire companies. That period of recovery also included the opening of three new divisions: Emergency Medical Services, Training and Safety, and Communications.
* He brought about initiatives such as fire apparatus and operational safety programs and enhanced annual medical exams. There were down times, too. The revelation that the chief of the district's EMS team was given a job with access to narcotics even though his bosses knew he previously had been in drug-related trouble, was a troubling and embarrassing one.
That former EMS chief is fighting embezzlement and drug possession charges. "I have had the great good fortune to work with the very best people imaginable," Carman said Thursday through spokesman Steve Hill. "But, they are also human and are going to face challenges and experience weaknesses. People make mistakes, and when they do, we hold them accountable. But, we also monitor their performance and when warranted we give them another chance. Any leader of any organization anywhere is going to face employee-related trials, but thankfully, these situations have been minimal and far outweighed by the hundreds of district personnel performing to the highest possible standards."
Carman's standards also were incredibly high. "This has become a cutting edge, benchmark organization," said McAlister, who came to the district in 2016 after running the Fire Departments in Dixon and Winters.
"There's three things you oversee in the job. The people, the equipment and the facilities. Chief Carman always knew what was going on in those three areas every day. ... It inspired me to be a better leader." Now, the challenge for Carman becomes leaving it behind. He'll spend his days in Redding with his wife, Susanne, "the rock of our family," he said, where he says he will take the lessons of 3 1/2 decades and apply them to a new phase of his life.
"As I reminisce, I realize how it's been about the people," he said. "It's taken everybody to be able to do the things (the district) has done, and the relationships that I've formed, you hope they last a lifetime."
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