Crime & Safety

Mayor Taps Assistant Chief Ralph Terrazas to Head Los Angeles Fire Department

Terrazas, a 30-year veteran of the LAFD, was chosen after a months-long nationwide search for a person to lead a department with more than 3,200 sworn firefighters and nearly 300 civilian employees.

Originally posted at 3:29 p.m. July 15, 2014. Edited with new details.

By ELIZABETH HSING-HUEI CHOU
City News Service

Los Angeles Fire Department Assistant Chief Ralph Terrazas was chosen today by Mayor Eric Garcetti to become the department's next chief.

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Terrazas, a 30-year veteran of the LAFD, was chosen after a months-long nationwide search for a person to lead a department with more than 3,200 sworn personnel and nearly 300 civilian employees. Garcetti said Terrazas would be a "field general" who has not only tactical and administrative skills, but the talent to navigate "choppy political waters."

If confirmed by the City Council, Terrazas, 54, would oversee a plan to revamp the way the department is managed; the development of FIRESTAT, which would use data to look at trends for calls from throughout the city and determine how to deploy firefighters and reduce response times; and a new recruitment process that is being created with Rand Corp.

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Terrazas, who would be the department's first Latino chief, said he wanted to work to overhaul the department and restore its reputation, saying the agency will be "technologically driven."

"The challenges are significant, I understand that," Terrazas said, adding that he plans to be with the department for the "long haul."

Terrazas established the department's Professional Standards Division, and the mayor said he was instrumental in securing the passage of Proposition F, a $532 million bond to finance the construction of 19 fire stations.

Pending approval from the council, Terrazas would likely take over as chief in August. His salary would be $292,424 a year, according to the mayor's office.

Former Fire Chief Brian Cummings announced his retirement last October, several months after the mayor asked all city department heads to re-apply for their jobs.

Cummings, whose tenure was marred by questions about the department's response times, had been with the department since February 1980 and was appointed chief in September 2011 by former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

James Featherstone, the general manager of the Emergency Management Department at the time, was named Cummings' temporary replacement, and he was vying for the full-time post.

Garcetti thanked Featherstone for his service, saying he stepped up when called upon. The mayor said he was now passing the baton to someone who can finish the improvements Featherstone started, with an emphasis on improving response times and diversity among the ranks.

Featherstone will return to the Emergency Management Department.

Frank Lima, president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, the union representing LAFD firefighters, noted that the union has sometimes disagreed with Terrazas on major policy issues. But he added, "We trust that he will now realize the critical importance of working hand-in-hand with our rank-and-file firefighters, paramedics, dispatchers and inspectors in the field in order for out department to rebuild and for him to be a successful fire chief."

Lima said the that over the past five years, the LAFD "has been decimated, having lost nearly 600 firefighters and paramedics to retirement and attrition while only recently hiring our first new class of 58 firefighters." He said it will be imperative for Terrazas to stand up and fight for rank-and- file LAFD members.

"If he does, he will be successful and we will stand with him every step of the way," Lima said.


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