GILROY
– As fire chiefs go, it turns out Jeff Clet was a big fish in a
small pond. On Tuesday, a neighboring city 20 times bigger than
Gilroy decided he is capable of doing the job there, too.
GILROY – As fire chiefs go, it turns out Jeff Clet was a big fish in a small pond. On Tuesday, a neighboring city 20 times bigger than Gilroy decided he is capable of doing the job there, too.
In a closed session Tuesday morning, the San Jose City Council and city manager offered Clet the job of chief of the San Jose Fire Department, and he accepted. He is expected to begin there in mid-March.
Clet had many reasons to go; besides a boost in prestige and a notable pay raise – from $156,178 to $175,000 – he will return to the fire department where he worked for 21 years and of which his father, Vince, was chief from 1978 to 1984. San Jose also is where Clet grew up and attended high school and college. Former SJFD colleagues encouraged him to apply for the post in the fall, he said.
“I thought long and hard about it and feel like it’s the right thing for me and my family,” Clet said Tuesday afternoon.
Gilroy officials, meanwhile, are sad to lose their fire chief, whom they held in high esteem.
“Obviously, San Jose knows what we already knew, which is that he is a great asset as a chief,” Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro said. “I just wish Jeff and his family the best.”
“I think the city of Gilroy’s loss is San Jose’s gain,” Gilroy City Administrator Jay Baksa said. “From my conversations with Jeff, I think this was the only job that was going to take him away from Gilroy. … These types of opportunities are very rare.”
Baksa said the search for a new fire chief will probably take six to nine months.
“It’s not an easy task,” he said.
If Baksa looks within the fire department for a new or acting chief, the top three candidates, in descending order of rank and seniority, would be division chiefs Dave Bozzo, Phil King and Charles Hurley.
Clet and his wife have lived in Gilroy for 16 years, and their son and daughter grew up here. Nevertheless, they will probably move to San Jose later this year, after their daughter – their youngest – leaves for college.
“I think I have to do that to do that position,” Clet said of his new job.
It was exactly two years ago today that Clet started work as Gilroy’s fire chief, coming from the SJFD as a battalion chief. Despite the rise in rank, he took a pay cut from $130,000 to $120,600. Raises, merit bonuses and holiday pay – Clet works on holidays – subsequently increased his income, according to Gilroy human resources officials.
San Jose City Manager Del Borgsdorf picked Clet out of a field of 24 applicants. A panel of seven city officials and 11 community members interviewed five finalists, including Acting SJFD Chief Dale Foster, retired Houston Fire Chief Chris Connealy and Clet.
“(Clet’s) mix of skills, knowledge, vision and experience clearly resonated with all of the panelists who interviewed him,” Borgsdorf said.
One of Borgsdorf’s staff members called Clet at home Friday evening to tell him he had been nominated for the job. On Monday, Clet passed the news on to Baksa, all city department heads and the rest of the Gilroy Fire Department via e-mail. The San Jose City Council confirmed Clet’s appointment at its Tuesday meeting.
Both of Clet’s parents, who now live in Wilton, outside Sacramento, were staying at his house for a wedding this weekend. They came to a press conference Tuesday to celebrate the news with him.
“I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time,” Vince Clet said afterward. “I’m very proud.”
While Jeff grew up around his father’s firefighter friends, Vince said he didn’t necessarily groom his son for the profession.
“I was always hopeful that he would be (a firefighter), but I never really pushed him,” Vince said. “I just pointed out that public life was a way of life rather than a job, and fire service was a special family.”
Clet said he expects to be tested as fire chief to a million people, but he plans to stick it out until he retires.
“I kind of felt like, when I came to Gilroy, I was going to stay here until I retired,” Clet said. “(This new job) is going to be more than enough challenge for the rest of my career.”
In a prepared statement, Clet said, “I feel a deep sense of pride in returning to lead the department that I spent more than 21 years of my life serving. The fire personnel of the San Jose Fire Department have a well-earned reputation for excellence, and I feel a strong obligation to assist the department in maintaining and strengthening that reputation as we meet the challenges ahead.
“I owe a lot to that city,” Clet said of San Jose, adding that Tuesday’s announcement felt like a homecoming. Nevertheless, he said, “I still care a lot about Gilroy.
“I feel like we’ve made a lot of progress in the last two years,” he said. “We’ve put a great team in place, and I think they’ll be able to keep the ball rolling.”
While in Gilroy, Clet developed and implemented that city’s first paramedic program, as well as a unique two-person rescue ambulance program that allowed the city to staff a third fire station in the northwestern quadrant even though the city couldn’t afford a fire company there. Partnering with the police department, he implemented a joint public safety dispatch and fire records management system.
Clet also established a Supplemental Transport Ambulance Resource (STAR) program, which allows city emergency responders to take critical-care patients to a hospital in a special rescue truck when the standard American Medical Response ambulance is delayed or cannot respond.
