Lodi officially hires Stoddart as fire chief

Gene Stoddart had the word “interim” removed from his title when he was officially named Lodi Fire Department’s new chief during Wednesday’s city council meeting.

While he never really dreamed of being a fire chief, he has always enjoyed learning more, being better and getting involved. That, along with working hard every day, is what Stoddart said got him where he is today.

“Even knowing I’ve been doing it for six months, when you get a 5-0 vote from the city council and full support of city staff the feeling changed. I was choked up, a little numb and tingling in the fingers. I can’t explain the feeling that I had other than just I was elated,” Stoddart said.

Stoddart is confident and ready to take on the position and said he has been training for this moment the past four or five years of his career, whether he knew it or not.

“I’ve been doing things that have aligned myself to understand this job,” Stoddart said. “I am confident that I can do this job. I have many people that I can go to if I have questions on how to handle things. There is no doubt I’m going to make a mistake here and there, but I’ve never been one to let myself have a second mistake on the same thing. I give my all in everything I do and when you love your job, you just work hard.”

City staff and council members voiced confidence in Stoddart on Wednesday night.

“He has worked very hard to build a relationship and rapport with his staff. He’s been active at fire scenes and active in the community. He’s built a couple of programs with his staff to engage the community with the fire department,” City Manager Steve Schwabauer said before recommending that council approve Stoddart for the position of chief.

“You’re a good choice in my opinion,” Mayor Alan Nakanishi said.

Councilwoman JoAnne Mounce agreed.

“I so appreciate your choice Mr. Schwabauer. I think the person you’ve chosen (Stoddart) is going to do an amazing job,” she said.

Stoddart has been serving as the interim chief for the past six months following the retirement of former Fire Chief Larry Rooney in September of 2017.

“It’s kind of like any promotion I’ve had in my career,” Stoddart said describing the past six months. “There’s always an adjustment period to learn some things you really didn’t know about the position.”

While serving as interim chief, Stoddart was responsible for performing the duties of both the chief and his former position as deputy chief, which at times was a little overwhelming.

“You’re pretty much prioritizing daily on which job you’re doing for the day. Are you doing the deputy chief position or are you doing the fire chief position? So really, I’ve been doing a blended position of both for the past six months.”

The main priority for Stoddart has been to make sure the department is providing the best public service possible and ensuring that personnel have what they need to be able to serve the public.

During the past six months, Stoddart said, he’s been working to ensure a great relationship between labor and management. He said he feels fortunate to have great working relationships with the members of his department.

“I’ve grown by progressing through all the ranks of the fire department,” Stoddart said. “I know everybody in my department so well. I know so many things about them and to be able to listen to them to see what their needs are and work out any problems and come up with solutions has been really good.”

As the new fire chief, Stoddart plans to work toward finding ways to increase staffing so the department can get Engine 1 back in service.

“If we had our Engine 1 staffed and were always fully staffed, that would just buy us a little bit more time in being able to give the service our city deserves and needs,” Stoddart said.

Under his new employment agreement with the city, Stoddart will make a salary of $165,630 annually, the same as Rooney. The agreement is an at-will agreement and Stoddart can be terminated at any point without cause. However, if terminated without cause, the severance package allows for six months of severance pay.