S. Tahoe hires veteran to lead fire department
By Kathryn Reed
A veteran firefighter is now at the helm of South Lake Tahoe Fire Department.
With his new employees sitting in front of him and his peers from other departments standing in the back of the room, Jeff Meston was given his badge from outgoing interim Fire Chief Bruce Martin.
Jeff Meston is South Tahoe’s fire chief. Photo/Kathryn Reed
Meston told Lake Tahoe News the chance to lead a department with so many young firefighters excited him enough to return to the profession. Plus, since retiring from the Novato department seven years ago he has been living in Incline Village doing consulting work. So, he is already a Tahoe guy. For now he plans to commute to South Tahoe.
South Lake Tahoe has been without a sole full-time fire chief since Lorenzo Gigliotti was asked to leave two years ago. For a while three battalion chiefs ran the department, then Police Chief Brian Uhler headed both departments and for the last nine months Bruce Martin had the job on a part-time basis.
Martin has bought a house in the area and will be a reserve deputy chief.
“I think he will take over where Chief Martin left off,” City Manager Nancy Kerry said of Meston. “He has had a very illustrious career.”
One of his board members from the Bay Area came to the badge ceremony, commenting on how to this day they still miss Meston.
While these types of ceremonies are common in the fire service, they have been lacking in South Tahoe. Some of that tradition is what Martin helped restore – along with leadership, training and morale.
Meston in his first gesture as fire chief continued that sense of tradition with a moment of silence for Mitch Underhill, a Lake Valley Fire Protection District firefighter who died Sept. 29 at age 34. All of the firefighters in attendance were wearing a black band across their badge to honor Underhill.
Meston has a master’s degree in public administration, is a chief fire officer designee with the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and a graduate of the Executive Fire Officers Program at the National Fire Academy.
He created a citizen disaster preparedness training program for business and homeowners groups that won an International Association of Fire Chiefs National Award, he has served on the state Training and Education Committee, and is a technical expert for the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company’s Heritage Program.
How many new employees does this make in 2013?
If I remember the city had to hire 2.5 people to enforce the paid parking citation program. Now a new fire chief?
The money collected from “Pi^*^ed off tourists” has to be spent or the parking citation program can’t be justified.
What’s sad is that neither the Fire Department nor the Police Department seem able to any longer promote Chiefs from within.
There’s lots of room for opinions as to why, but the most likely reason is that neither agency is any longer able to attract line level candidates who will predictably grow to be top quality administrators.
Citizens seem to think that cutting benefits and incentives is all upside and has no effect on the quality of the agencies involved. And, short term, they sometimes seem to be right – who’s going to stand up and point out that “we’re really no longer able to hire at the professional level we once were?”
But when you see an agency needing to look elsewhere for its top level promotions, you can bet that the entry level and lateral transfer hires are no longer, as a whole, at top quality. Quality for which the SLT public safety agencies were once known and respected.
A “new” chief who retired from the business seven years ago? Sheez – we’ll see.
Government in high cost housing areas apparently can’t afford to attract quality career employees. Wonder how much multiple pensions for the same job costs verses a single pension that was earned over 20-40 years or so.
Maybe you need a good veteran Fire Chief to get the department straightened out. Then maybe the department can move forward with training employees within to eventually take over the top spots.