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New Fire Chief for Tampa

4 comments

THE CITY OF TAMPA, FLORIDA, announced Tuesday that Assistant Chief Tom Forward has been chosen to replace Fire Chief Dennis Jones whose retirement from the department is effective this Saturday.

tampa a forward

left: Chief-designate Tom Forward
right:  Chief Dennis Jones  (TFR photos)

Chief Forward, 50, has been with the department for 26 years and has worked in every division of the FD.  He will temporarily be serving as acting chief until he is able to move within the city limits from his current home in Lutz.

Chief Jones’ final day on Saturday also marks his 32nd anniversary with the department.  He has been the Fire Chief since October 2004.

The Tampa Fire Rescue Department has about 670 uniformed and civilian employees.

The Tampa Tribune has the full story HERE.
The St. Petersburg Times has MORE.
Tampa Fire Rescue WEBSITE.

Posted by on May 5, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, labor • Tagged: , ,
  • http://sogcityoracle.blogspot.com/2010/05/our-mayor-has-moved-forward.html Jon Rector

    A hearty congratulations to Tom Forward.

  • http://sogcityoracle.blogspot.com/2010/05/our-mayor-has-moved-forward.html Jon Rector

    A hearty congratulations to Tom Forward.

  • Tampa Resident

    What is funny and nobody wants to standup and say something about it, is, he stands there giving a speech about how Tampa Fire Department is a well oiled machine and how Chief Jones has done a great jobs in what he has done for the department. I did some research and spoke to some firefighter about what they had to do to move up in rank. The firefighters told me that they take a written test and a hands on practical test to be promoted to a higher position and then the are placed on a list by how they have scored and then the Fire Chief will promote down that list from the highest best score on down, which is very fare because these guys study real hard for these promotional test. Was also told that the moral on the Department since this new Chief has come in and started make some promotion has really gone down around the fire stations because of the way he has gone about promoting. Well apparently Chief Forward doesn't promoted done the list by the best scores and skipped guys who did very well on the test and have excellent evaluation. He skipped them because, allegedly he said that the Fire Department needs more “DIVERSITY” and that is why he promoted an African American firefighter. So these firefighter don't have to study hard to get a good score and try to get on top of which ever list they are on? How is this far to people who study hard to get ahead in life, when you do something like this. This is a college educated person who has a BA and Masters Degree, I'm sure he took ethics with one of those degrees.

    He also, allegedly said, that he is going to start hire to make the Department more diversified. Why not just hire new firefighter on, who does the best in whatever kind of hiring process the Fire department does. Wether they are brown, black, white, purple, whatever color they are should have nothing to do with getting hire. It should be by whom is the best candidate. I'm a tax paying citizen here in the City limits and I expect for tax dollars to pay for the best fire and police personnel.

  • Tampa Resident

    What is funny and nobody wants to standup and say something about it, is, he stands there giving a speech about how Tampa Fire Department is a well oiled machine and how Chief Jones has done a great jobs in what he has done for the department. I did some research and spoke to some firefighter about what they had to do to move up in rank. The firefighters told me that they take a written test and a hands on practical test to be promoted to a higher position and then the are placed on a list by how they have scored and then the Fire Chief will promote down that list from the highest best score on down, which is very fare because these guys study real hard for these promotional test. Was also told that the moral on the Department since this new Chief has come in and started make some promotion has really gone down around the fire stations because of the way he has gone about promoting. Well apparently Chief Forward doesn't promoted done the list by the best scores and skipped guys who did very well on the test and have excellent evaluation. He skipped them because, allegedly he said that the Fire Department needs more “DIVERSITY” and that is why he promoted an African American firefighter. So these firefighter don't have to study hard to get a good score and try to get on top of which ever list they are on? How is this far to people who study hard to get ahead in life, when you do something like this. This is a college educated person who has a BA and Masters Degree, I'm sure he took ethics with one of those degrees.

    He also, allegedly said, that he is going to start hire to make the Department more diversified. Why not just hire new firefighter on, who does the best in whatever kind of hiring process the Fire department does. Wether they are brown, black, white, purple, whatever color they are should have nothing to do with getting hire. It should be by whom is the best candidate. I'm a tax paying citizen here in the City limits and I expect for tax dollars to pay for the best fire and police personnel.