The cities of East Lansing and Lansing could temporarily share a fire chief, depending on the outcome of a current East Lansing City Council discussion and a final decision on the Lansing end.
East Lansing and Lansing city officials recently announced they had entered into discussions toying with the idea of taking on East Lansing Fire Chief Randall Talifarro as Lansing’s interim to temporarily replace current Lansing Fire Chief Tom Cochran.
Cochran plans to retire from his position in Jan. 2012.
The change, if agreed upon by both cities, would require Talifarro to perform all duties of fire chief on an as-needed basis. A draft of the agreement states the Lansing duties likely would take up between 40 and 60 percent of the fire chief’s work week.
Under the draft agreement, Talifarro would remain an employee of the city of East Lansing, but the city of Lansing would compensate the city for his time on a monthly basis.
The idea was raised in part because of a current study between six regional municipalities examining the potential of shared fired services.
In a Nov. 18 press release, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero said a temporary shared chief would be beneficial for Lansing because of the current uncertainty in where future fire services will be as the study continues.
“Since the regional fire study is just beginning, it makes sense for us to hold off on making any permanent decisions regarding a new Lansing fire chief,” Bernero said in the press release.
At the meeting, East Lansing interim City Manager George Lahanas said he was comfortable with the draft agreement and thought Talifarro would be up to the task.
“We feel very comfortable proposing and recommending this at this point,” Lahanas said.
Councilmember Don Power said it was a high compliment to the expertise of East Lansing’s fire chief that he could be in charge of the fire services
“I would be supportive of this, but I’m also cautious,” Power said. “I can share my chief, but I don’t want to share my department.”
Gerald Rodabaugh, president of the local 1609 Firefighters Union, said Talifarro’s current position was a difficult job to begin with, and expressed concerns that he might not be able to complete all the tasks he completes currently if he splits his time between both cities.
“The task is much bigger much broader than most people think,” Rodabaugh said. “We’re immensely concerned with things going on here … we don’t want to fall behind.”
Though Talifarro said he still has a few concerns, he said he felt capable of taking on the task of splitting his time between both cities.
“I’m not without apprehension (and) I’m not without concerns … we don’t have all the answers to all these things,” Talifarro said. “There’s an expectation that there will be some type of equal division.”
The matter will be taken up again by the council at its next meeting.
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