ELYRIA — A day after acting Fire Chief Bob Dempsey proposed relieving the Fire Department of its first responder duties, he’s no longer the acting chief.

“We have leadership problems there in Chief (John) Zielinski’s absence,” Mayor Bill Grace said. “We needed a change.”

Elyria fire Capt. Joseph Pronesti was promoted over Dempsey to lead the department while Zielinski is on extended family medical leave.

Mayor Bill Grace said the change was made in a tense, closed-doors meeting that lasted about a half-hour.

Dempsey, who remains the city fire marshal, declined to comment other than to say he may consult a lawyer on whether the city acted properly.

The decision came after Dempsey sent a letter to Grace saying the Fire Department would stop dispatching to medical calls, cut overtime for special emergency response teams, terminate the hazardous materials response team, end animal rescues and propose new laws requiring all new homes to be equipped with automatic sprinkler systems.

Grace called the letter “irrational and inappropriate coming from someone who was acting chief for the day.”

Dempsey said in the letter that the policy changes were necessary because manpower cuts and the closing of Fire Station 2 on Broad Street have crippled firefighters’ ability to protect the city.

Grace said Thursday that Dempsey didn’t show good judgment and overreacted to cuts made in the department’s budget.

Promoting Pronesti to replace him will not affect Dempsey’s wages or benefits, Grace said. He also said he does not know whether Dempsey’s sudden policy change announcement will result in disciplinary action.

Pronesti, who has been a firefighter since 1989, scored highest in February on a qualifying exam to become a chief.

He said he always wanted to serve in the Elyria Fire Department and made it his long-term goal to rise to the top of the ranks.

“I was hoping this day would come, but not like this, not under these circumstances,” he said after Thursday’s meeting between Grace and Dempsey. “It’s a shock. It’s a shock to Assistant Chief Dempsey, and it’s a shock to me.”

Pronesti said he doesn’t think Dempsey will harbor a grudge about the changes.

“Assistant Chief Dempsey is a very dedicated man. He’s done a lot of great things for this city and will continue to do so,” he said.

But Pronesti said he does not support Dempsey’s proposal to discontinue the first responder program, which dispatches firefighters to emergency medical situations.

The program has saved lives and is too valuable to residents to give up, he said.

Herb de la Porte, vice president of LifeCare, said the first responder program is crucial because many times firefighters arrive at an emergency before paramedics.

He said firefighters are trained to perform CPR on victims who aren’t breathing — and that makes the difference between life and death in about 50 calls per year in Elyria and Lorain.

Dean Marks, president of the Elyria firefighters union, also said he believes the first responder program should continue.

He said firefighters are hired to save lives, whether it’s from fire, a fall down a cliff or a heart attack.

Marks said he looks forward to working with Pronesti, and his promotion Thursday appears to fall in line with Civil Service Commission rules.

“I’ll work with the chief — whomever that happens to be — to get back to where we need to be,” he said. “The unfortunate thing is that we keep making these switches instead of looking at the real issues.”

The personnel change doesn’t fix the fact that Elyria residents pay the price every time the firefighters’ budget is cut, Marks said.

Pronesti said his first item of business as interim chief will be to sit down with the assistant chiefs and talk about realistic cost-savings measures.

“We’ve been stretched thin. Our budget is not where it should be. We have to look at everything and find out where we stand and where we can save money,” he said.

Grace said that despite the disagreement with Dempsey, there might have to be some changes made to the way the hazardous materials team operates.

He also said he’ll explore partnering with other departments in the county to fund and run the water rescue team, county fire investigators and county technical rescue team.

The Fire Department is going to have to double its efforts to economize in the next few years, Grace said.

“Organizations who do things the way they did them 30 years ago don’t survive,” he said. “The Fire Department has to change, too.”

A third party will probably be hired to evaluate the department and develop a long-range plan, Pronesti said.

“When I was growing up, Elyria was the best department between Cleveland and Toledo,” he said. “I saw this department in its greatness. I want to bring it back to the level it was at 25 or 30 years ago.”

At 38 years old, Pronesti isn’t the youngest Elyria firefighter to become chief. He said the city’s first chief, Wallace Bates, was in his late 20s when the full-time department was formed in 1906.

Contact Jason Hawk at 329-7148 or jhawk@chroniclet.com.

 

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