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City Manager Ponders Safety Director Decision

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By KLINT LOWRY | The Suncoast News

Published: June 4, 2008

PORT RICHEY - The lights were off in City Manager Richard Reade's office, but he was in there, working away.

"My office has lots of natural sunlight," he said.

Leaving the lights off saves a little money. In the five months since Reade took the job of running the day-to-day operation of the city government, one of his priorities has been to find ways to save a little here, a little there, in the hopes of not having to make more painful cuts as the budget for next year is worked out.

"My goal is to maintain every job this year," Reade said. "And that they have life insurance, health insurance and dental insurance. Everything else is on the table."

READE

But now Reade finds himself with an unexpected personnel issue, as Public Safety Director Mathias Brewi turned in his resignation May 15, about a year after taking the then-newly created position that put him in charge of both the police and fire departments.

In his letter of resignation, Brewi, 61, did not cite specific reasons for his departure, although Reade said he understood the reasons to be of a personal, family nature.

"Brewi has taken a job in the security industry on the eastern side of the state, where his permanent residence and family are," Reade explained. "He's been commuting back and forth for a year now."

For his part, Brewi did not elaborate publicly on his reasons for leaving prior to his last day on the job, May 29, not even revealing the name of his new employer, according to Reade. Whatever the reasons for Brewi's abrupt departure, it is Reade's task to figure out how to replace Brewi and with whom. In the meantime, he has appointed Timothy Sirois as interim fire chief and police Lt. David Brown as interim police chief.

Reade still considers himself a bit of a newcomer to the area. Nevertheless, he is aware that, as is the case in many towns, there is a small but dedicated group of Port Richey residents who cast a critical eye on every move made at City Hall.

So Reade was bothered by an editorial in May 21 editions of The Suncoast News. The editorial wondered whether Reade's decision to name Brown interim police chief meant he was considering abandoning the public safety director setup.

It doesn't Reade said. In addition, there was nothing to read into his subsequent decision to name Sirois interim fire chief, Reade said.

"The option of just going ahead and hiring an interim public safety director is difficult," Reade said. "You've got to be certified in both professions in order to do that. I had to name somebody who was certified as a police officer and someone who was certified as a firefighter because I don't have someone who's certified in both."

In Brown and Sirois, Reade said, he had two veteran officers of their respective departments, who know both the people and procedures and were already responsible for handling much of the day-to-day operations.

There is no deadline for deciding how to proceed, Reade said, and with Sirois and Brown he feels he has two men who can handle these duties for an extended period.

In the meantime, he wants to include them in an assessment of the departments, including input from the employees in those departments.

Reade said he wants to revisit the idea of the public safety director position, which was invented little over a year ago as a cost-saving move. Before making a decision he plans to re-evaluate the economics of the safety director's position and its impact on employee morale and efficiency.

As for the possibility of disbanding or merging either or both services with outside agencies, that's not even a matter for his office, he added.

Policy issues like that are up to the City Council, Reade said. Before they would do anything like that, he suggested, they would make sure they got plenty of input from residents. He also expects that the Council would consider his recommendation. While he is open to look at every option, Reade said he is not leaning that way for now.

"I have no intention of making that recommendation," he said. "That's not the avenue I'm going."

To read profiles on the interim Port Richey police and fire chiefs visit Suncoastnews.com.

Klint Lowry can be reached

at 727-815-1067 or

klowry@suncoastnews.com

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