From The Register-Mail: The fire chief in Galesburg, Ill., doubts any local, in-house fire personnel are certified to independently review firefighters seeking a promotion, which he says leaves the department with a glaring void in a promotional process that already has started.



A Schaumburg company was slated to perform the review and work alongside the city’s Police and Fire Commission in assessing the 20 candidates seeking promotion to captain and battalion chief until the city council rejected, 4-3, the $15,500 bid during Monday’s meeting. The vote leaves the city scrambling to find someone to perform the service, after the council in June agreed to include the additional hiring safeguard in the department’s labor contract.



Fire Chief Tom Simkins now fears the city could be in breach of contract if it cannot find someone to perform the review and also have the state certification to legally administer it. The department’s new assessment review is tentatively scheduled to start in mid-February.

The Illinois Fire Marshal’s office lists only 54 people in the state who are certified to perform the review, which complements the written test by having outside experts assess candidates’ analysis of simulated fire situations. Certifying a firefighter, who needs at least 10 years of full-time experience to be eligible, also is difficult.

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