Crime & Safety

Council Hires New Fire Chief for Albany

The newly appointed Fire Chief for Albany, Lance Calkins, said he felt "very welcomed" in Albany and looks forward to moving to the "close-knit community" after serving 24 years in the Stockton Fire Department.

Albany's search for a new fire chief ended Monday night when the City Council appointed Lance Calkins, deputy fire chief of Stockton, to take over the job effective Aug. 2.

Calkins, 48, told Patch he was very impressed with the "good professional staff" at Albany City Hall and is looking forward to the new job.

"I felt very, very welcomed," he said of the interview and evaluation process during the city's recruitment period. "Each step of the way was a very positive one for me."

Another appealing element of coming to Albany is the chance to participate in a change of leadership at City Hall, he said. City Manager Beth Pollard is retiring Aug. 23, and Charlie Adams, the Finance & Administrative Services Director, is leaving Aug. 9.

"There's a new management team that's starting, and a lot of room to grow," Calkins said.

Calkins, who was born and raised in Stockton and has served with the Stockton Fire Department for 24 years, will fill the vacancy created by the May 31 retirement of Ed Tubbs, who served half time as Albany's fire chief and half time as Piedmont's fire chief under an agreement between the two cities. Piedmont opted not to continue with the arrangement, and Albany decided to recruit a full-time chief to replace him.

Calkins said he recognizes that he'll be moving to a considerably smaller department than Stockton but that basic challenges such as firefighting, emergency response, training, fire prevention and public education remain the same. (Stockton's population stood at 296,344 as of Jan. 1 this year, compared to Albany's 18,430.)

He's also moving to a financially healthier city. In Albany, city staff recently got a raise and the newly approved city budget found the city in relatively better shape than before, while Stockton has filed for bankruptcy – the largest U.S. city to do – and is hampered further by political discord at City Hall.

Among Calkins' priorities for his new assignment is to increase Albany's connections with nearby fire departments, to "network regionally and form good strong partnerships and become team players with the surrounding areas so that we'd function as one big regional team if needed," he said.

He said he foresees opportunities to build the ability for mutual response, such as more inter-agency drills. Disasters like the Oakland hills fire showed the need for better communication and coordination among responding agencies, he said. "We've come a long way since then, but we still have a long way to go," he said.

He also hopes to enhance the department's ability to inform the public about emergency preparedness and provide timely notifications when an emergency occurs, he said.

As for moving, Calkins said he hopes to find a home in Albany if he can. "I really like the close-knit community involvement," he said.

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