CITY OF ANN Arbor officials put out a press release when new Fire Chief Larry Collins was hired. It was short and sweet. What it didn’t include was the fact that Collins had been fired from his previous job on Sept. 4. Before heading the Brevard County Fire Department for five years, Collins, spent 30 years in the Dayton, Ohio Fire Dept. He is “retired” from his Ohio job and will collect a pension while being paid $122,000 by Ann Arbor.

Collins was fired from his Florida job due to what the county supervisor described as long-standing differences between the two over how the fire department should be staffed and its equipment needs. County commissioners expressed concerns about morale among Collins’s fire fighters, according to Florida Today.

“I wanted to go a certain way, and if your boss doesn’t see it that way, it’s better to just move on,” Collins told the newspaper. “It’s certainly his prerogative as the boss.”

The press release from Ann Arbor officials included the following:

“We are fortunate for the more than three decades of fire service Larry will bring to Ann Arbor,” said Safety Services Area Administrator and Police Chief John Seto. “Larry has experience in strategic and operational planning, organization change and development, budget and fiscal management and intergovernmental collaboration, which will be invaluable to the AAFD. I welcome him aboard and am confident his vast experience in leadership and management will benefit his team and the citizens of Ann Arbor.”             

From September 2009 to September 2014, Collins held the fire chief position for Brevard County Fire-Rescue in Brevard County, Fla. His career experience also includes 30 years of service with the Dayton Fire Department, from which he retired as director and fire chief in 2008.

Collins holds a M.S. operations management degree from the University of Arkansas, a B.S. public safety management degree from Franklin University and an A.S. fire-rescue administration degree from Sinclair Community College.  

Collins’ approximate start date at the city is mid December.

Ann Arbor has been without a fire chief since January of 2014, when former Chief Hubbard left his job after questions arose about trips he took with a female staffer at taxpayer expense.

Before he beat out 55 applicants, including four internal candidates for the AAFD job, Collins also applied to work as the Brunswick, Ohio City Manager in Nov. 2013, Vandalia, Ohio, City Manager in Feb. 2014, the Pataskala, Ohio, City Administrator in April 2014 and in Sept. of 2014 he applied to Fairfield Twp., in Ohio, to be the Township Administrator. He applied to be the Fire Chief of Ohio’s Medina County Fire Dept. in Oct. 2014.

Ann Arbor Firefighters union president Chris Taylor reportedly said “after looking at Collins’ many years of experience and his resume, he trusts the city has made the right choice and he looks forward to Collins joining the team.”

“I’d like to hope that he wants to take the department in a positive direction,” Taylor said.

“The fact that we don’t have a fire chief would be the primary issue,” Taylor said of issues facing the department right now. “The position has been created historically so we could have supervision and leadership, and with a good quality leader, that trickles all the way down through the ranks of the department.”