Fire Chief Update

skold… we’re learning more tonight about the recent retirement of colorado springs fire chief chris riley… as well as the process to replace him. krdo newschannel 13’s bart bedsole joins us live in the studio with the newest information. james and heather, as you know the retirement of chief riley was both sudden… and expensive… those terms confirmed in records we obtained this week. chief riley and mayor john suthers agreed that riley would retire march 1st … and his final day would be march 4th. typically, employees who retire aren’t entitled to any severance… but riley was allowed to take about 80- thousand dollars with him… which is half his annual salary. the agreement also prevents him from suing the city… or saying anything negative about the city or its elected officials. neither the agreement nor any other email records between city leaders ever suggest why exactly riley left the city so suddenly. obviously, fire season is in full swing… and the potential for a catastrophic event is high right now… which begs the question… “should the public be concerned… without a permanent chief in place to handle this type of disaster?”. today, the interim chief, ted collas … told us ‘not at all’. ted collas – interim fire chief – if i were to say that the colorado springs fire department is in good hands, that would sound perhaps a little self-grandizing. but when i say that we’re in very good hands, i mean the 475 employees that fulfull our mission every day, they have a very good handle on our daily operations. the fire chief position was expected to be posted today … although at last check, it was not listed on the city’s website. no money will be spent on a third party search firm. instead, a committee appointed by the mayor will narrow down the list of candidates… interview them… and then the mayor and council will vote on a finalist… a process that will likely take several months. heather, james, the interim chief, ted collas… says he does plan to apply for it… and he expects a lot of applications to come from across the country. snow