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Avalon Fire Department Chief Steve Hoefs announced his plans to retire after 25 years with the city’s fire agency, according to City Manager Ben Harvey.
The city manager made the news public during the Monday, April 1, Avalon City Council meeting.
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Avalon Fire Department Chief Steve Hoefs announced his plans to retire after 25 years with the city’s fire agency, according to City Manager Ben Harvey.
The city manager made the news public during the Monday, April 1, Avalon City Council meeting.
There was a closed session of the council earlier that night to discuss the release of an unspecified city employee.
Following the closed session, City Clerk Denise Radde said that the council took no action and that there was nothing to report.
It is not known if the closed session was related to Hoefs retirement.
During the city manager’s report to the council Harvey said that Hoefs had announced his intention to retire as of June 30.
Harvey said the council had accepted Hoefs’ retirement. He said he and Hoefs were working on a separation agreement with Hoefs.
Hoefs had criticized city officials in March and February.
Last month, at the March 4 council meeting, Hoefs and a group of supporters came to the council to protest a proposal to eliminate the assistant chief’s position from the Avalon Fire Department.
That proposal was removed at the advice of two lawyers.
At that meeting, Hoefs criticized the staff report written by Harvey that Hoefs said was inaccurate, misleading and painted a picture of the Fire Department that was not appropriate.
Harvey’s staff report recommended eliminating the assistant fire chief position, redistributing personnel through an already vacant firefighter position and establishing an on-call rotation for fire captains to serve as incident commanders.
The report said that the assistant chief’s position was created in January 2011 to offset the duties assumed by then-City Manger/Fire Chief Hoefs. Chief Hoefs announced his resignation as part-time city manager in March 2013.
Instead of eliminating the assistant fire chief position, Hoefs made a counter-proposal to hire three paramedics. He suggested eliminating to already vacant city staff positions to cover the cost
At the time, Hoefs said he had a target on his back. He accused the council of talking about him in closed session. A performance review of the fire chief was originally listed on the council’s March 4 closed session agenda, but that item was not discussed.
At a February council meeting, Hoefs questioned the accuracy of the then-projected $1.6 million deficit. (That projection has since been reduced.) Hoefs said the Fire Department was being asked to decrease services based on numbers that he believed were inaccurate.
Harvey said Chief Hoefs was exercising his First Amendment rights. Harvey also said he did not agree with everything that Hoefs said but did not provide specific examples.
For approximately four years, Hoefs shared the job of running Avalon with Chief Administrative Officer Charlie Wagner for a year. Last year, after Hoefs announced his resignation from the city manager post, he said he had mixed emotions about his decision to step down.
However, during the four years he had the position, he was not willing to give up his career with the fire service. He said essentially the same thing when he became city manager, which followed the retirement of his predecessor.
