ELYRIA — Interim Fire Chief Joe Pronesti said he was at the Cedar Street fire station gearing up for the scheduled Audit Committee meeting at 3 p.m. Thursday when he was called to Mayor Bill Grace’s office.

When he arrived, Grace, City Councilmen Kevin Brubaker, D-at large; Forrest Bullocks, D-2nd Ward; Vic Stewart, D-at large and Ken Burkhard, D-7th Ward, were there.

This was 2:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, down the hall on the third floor of City Hall, members of the Audit Committee began arriving for their meeting. After waiting until 3, they began to wonder what was going on because neither Pronesti nor Grace, the main players in deciding whether the city should pay to have an independent audit of the Fire Department, had not yet arrived.

Councilman Brubaker was the one who finally showed up and told them what was happening.

“The management audit has been put on hold for a year,” he said.

“A deal is very close to getting done in regards to hiring eight new firefighters and capping Fire Department overtime at $175,000.”

Law Director Terry “Pete” Shilling, who was waiting for the audit meeting to start along with two other City Council members, representatives from the Fire Department and others, seemed shocked that a separate meeting had taken place. He openly questioned who attended the other meeting and asked why there was no fire union representation.

“Dean, are you OK with them working on this deal without the union?” he asked Dean Marks, local union president.

Marks said he is almost willing to do anything to get the department minimum manning up and the Broad Street station reopened.

“The hang-up about why this thing hasn’t moved forward is beyond me,” he said. “The administration moved us to three fire stations and 14 minimum manning without me, so they can certainly move in the other direction without me. I think we are back at square one. This is the same discussion we have had for three, four months. I’m still just arguing for safety. That’s my job.”

Brubaker said the agreement city and fire officials are trying to reach is the same one that caused Pronesti to say he did not want to stay in the chief’s position after talks to formalize it went nowhere. The hope, he said, is it can be solved soon and taken to City Council for approval through a supporting resolution.

Grace said in a telephone call to The Chronicle-Telegram earlier in the day that the sensitive nature of what needed to be discussed in the meeting required a little privacy. He wanted everyone to feel free to express themselves so a resolution could finally be had.

However, Pronesti said he did not leave the meeting with the sense the tide had turned.

“I didn’t get any sense we are getting anywhere,” he said. “But this is not new to me. I’ve been in all kinds of meetings since May. This is just one more meeting with a lot more people.”

With a deal of some sort in the works, does this mean Pronesti, who earlier this week informed Council he wanted to go back to captain after his interim term ends in November, will come back to lead the department? Not necessarily.

“I still want to find my captain’s helmet come Nov. 15,” he said.

While he said he is willing to try to meet all of the administration’s requirements, including the overtime cap, he said he is not willing to agree to anything that will put Fire Station No. 2 in jeopardy.

“My point is — with any safety force there are so many unknowns, and we have to have minimum staffing levels,” he said.

“We’re just not sure the $175,000 cap would work with bereavement, sick time, vacations, jury duties or any number of reasons that a firefighter needs to be out. We are definitely willing to try, but I’m not sure.”

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com. 

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