Choosing years of leadership over test scores, City Manager Mark Palesh has appointed a former Auburn firefighter to head the city's fire department.

Charles Michael Hammon, who goes by Mike and had left for a Western New York fire department, will return and become chief, with an annual salary of $73,600.

The Batavia Fire Department captain will head the department starting Wednesday. An employee in the Batavia Bureau of Personnel said his start date was Nov. 15, 1999. As of Monday afternoon, she hadn't received notice so he was still an employee. His salary is $62,285.

Hammon left the AFD to work as a deputy chief in Batavia. Later, he was downgraded to captain because of budget cuts. He served as a lieutenant and training officer for the AFD from May 1987 to November 1999.

Messages left on his mobile phone were not returned Monday.

Hammon will serve as provisional chief until he takes the promotional exam in November, at which point he must earn a top three score to remain chief permanently.

This situation led to a conundrum for Palesh. The fire chief, like all Auburn department heads, has to live within city limits, so the manager had the difficult task of finding someone willing to move their family only to face the possibility of losing the job in seven months.

Last fall, Mayor Timothy Lattimore and then Interim City Manager Michael Long tried to bring Hammon aboard as either chief or public safety commissioner, but ran into complications from the Auburn Civil Service Commission.

Long told Palesh about Hammon, who then interviewed him.

Palesh said he didn't look at the exam scores alone. Besides the civil service tests, he posed essay questions to gauge the candidates' reactions to a variety of situations.

Per civil service guidelines, he first interviewed the two internal candidates who passed the exam and showed interest in the job. He faced a dilemma because both candidates were captains with limited experience leading a department.

“Should I turn over the 70 people in the department to people who haven't had that seasoning yet,” Palesh asked.

The firefighters union pressured the civil commission to lower requirements for the fire chief exam so assistant chiefs and captains could take the test no matter how long they have worked at the department, Palesh said..

“To turn a 70-officer department over to someone with only months of command experience would have jeopardized the safety of the department and the citizens of Auburn,” he said.

The manager also approved of Hammon's ideas on how to make the department more efficient. The city wants to look at issues such as how to avoid overtime when one person gets sick, how old and worn the equipment is, the possibility of regionalizing the department with surrounding towns and villages, and upgrading the emergency medical technicians to paramedic status.

Lattimore previously hinted at exploring launching an ambulance service from the department. However, the city is contracted with TLC's ambulance service until 2008.

“Residents are happy with the fire department's service, they just want it cheaper,” Palesh said.

Staff writer Jessica Soule can be reached at 253-5311, ext 267 or jessica.soule@lee.net