CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland fire Chief c will retire in mid-May after nearly seven years as the department’s leader and 33 years as a city firefighter.
The department will host a retirement event for Calvillo on May 5 at the Western Reserve Fire Museum, at which point he’s expected to announce his final day of employment with the city, according to a fire department spokesman.
Former Mayor Frank Jackson named Calvillo to the department’s top job in 2015, initially as an interim appointment, later made permanent. As chief, Calvillo oversees roughly 700 employees and a $100 million budget.
The city’s firefighters and their union, Cleveland Firefighters Association, IAFF Local 93, have had a tenuous relationship with Calvillo over the years.
The union called for his ouster in 2019 for violating a charter provision that bars civil service employees from participating in political campaigns. Calvillo acknowledged during a 2017 deposition that he helped circulate petitions for Jackson’s re-election that year.
The union sued in 2019, asking the court to compel Jackson to fire Calvillo for violating the rules. The lawsuit was dismissed in January, after the Eighth District Court of Appeals determined the union did not have proper standing to bring the case.
Mayor Justin Bibb’s administration is already on the hunt for a new police chief, but it does not appear as if the open fire chief position has been posted yet.
In other staffing moves within Bibb’s administration, interim Economic Development Director David Ebersole is set to leave his post next week. He was hired by the city in 2008.
And Ricardo Leon — whom Bibb in January named as his senior equity strategist — appears to have bowed out before ever assuming the position. The Cuyahoga Land Bank last week announced it had hired Leon as its chief operating officer instead.
Leon was previously the executive director of the Metro West community development corporation.
The equity strategist position was meant to be one of four senior strategists within the mayor’s office focused on various issues. Chief Strategy Officer Bradford Davy said Bibb’s administration hasn’t decided whether it will seek to fill the position with someone other than Leon. Bibb got pushback from City Council during budget hearings about what some members saw as high staffing costs within the mayor’s office.
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