By James Wagner
The Pasadena Star-News
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County hasn’t been in this bind in more than two decades.
Chief P. Michael Freeman steadily led the county’s Fire Department through dozens of raging wildfires since 1988 and now, a tight budget crunch.
But Freeman announced his retirement Tuesday after 21 years at the helm, leaving county leaders with the task of finding a replacement.
“He’s an incredible leader, and I don’t know if we can find anyone to fill the bill,” said Supervisor Gloria Molina.
In a letter to the Board of Supervisors, Freeman said he plans to retire in March 2010 from the department, one of the largest emergency service agencies in the world, with 3,000 firefighters.
Freeman said he was retiring to spend more time with family and on personal interests.
“I feel good that it wasn’t a defining moment that has prompted me to leave,” he said. “I’m not going with any hard feelings, or mad at anyone or anyone mad at me.”
Freeman and his wife, Cathy, are expecting a grandchild in January. He also said he plans to spend more time at his parish, St. Bruno’s Catholic Church in Whittier, where he is a deacon.
He also said he is leaving after the brunt of wildfire season ends in January, which gives the county more than three months to find a replacement.
Freeman said his departure had nothing to do with the Station Fire, the county’s largest fire, which burned over 160,000 acres earlier this year and claimed the lives of two L.A. County firefighters.
“Every one of these fires takes a little out of firefighters,” Molina said. “He was really upset a few months ago.”
Concerns have been raised about the firefighting efforts led by the U.S. Forest Service. Officials reportedly underestimated the size of the blaze, and some helicopters weren’t called into action early.
Freeman, who grew up in Monterey Park and Arcadia but now lives in Whittier, is a well-informed, passionate and straightforward leader, officials said.
“Even though he is the chief of the largest fire deptartment in the county, he treats the other chiefs as his peers,” said Pasadena Fire Chief Dennis Downs, who has worked with Freeman for over five years. “He’s always been really open and really forthright.”
Freeman was hired in 1988 as an outsider, something that worried some county leaders at first. He spent 25 years working his up through the Dallas Fire Department, ending up as the chief of emergency operations.
“Everyone was a tad bit nervous about it,” said Supervisor Don Knabe. “But he took care of that in the first 30 days.”
Freeman, 64, is the second-longest serving chief since Spence Turner, who served for 27 years from 1925 to 1952. A 2005 law allowed Freeman to stay at his post beyond the mandatory retirement age of 60 for county firefighters.
To find a replacement, the county will first look inside the department for candidates, supervisors said.
Beyond that, Knabe said he would like to consider former Los Angeles County firefighters who are now with other departments across the country.
And, county leaders don’t rule out a national search. The Fire Department, long seen as a leader in firefighting tactics, is often thrown into the national spotlight during fire season. That’s part of the job that county leaders want a future chief to handle.
“It’s really important that our chief be nationally recognized as well,” Knabe said.
William T. Fujioka, the county’s chief executive, said he wouldn’t comment until the county has finalized a plan to find a replacement.
Among the many challenges the future chief will face are aging fire stations across the county, Freeman said.
The biggest challenge, however, is how to manage a tightening budget thanks to lower tax revenues, county leaders said.
“It’ll be a struggle,” Knabe said.
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