Acting Fire Chief Proposes Assistant Chief Position and Expanded Inspections; Councilors Raise Cost Concerns

Acting Fire Chief Patrick Delaney urged the City Council to add an assistant fire chief to the Lawrence Fire Department budget to strengthen inspection capacity and provide functional supervision across five divisions, while councilors questioned whether an additional management post is the best use of limited funds.

Delaney described new and growing workload requirements in the fire prevention bureau, including a December 2022 mandate for “periodic inspections” of non‑one‑ and two‑family buildings—about 5,000 structures that must be risk‑rated and inspected. “Periodic inspections allows us to do that, and it truly sees what we have. It's kinda like taking a snapshot of what we have in the city,” Delaney said, citing the need to close permits, perform wrap‑around reviews of projects and reach vulnerable populations.

The chief said fire prevention currently has a small team and that the National Fire Protection Association recommends roughly 10% of department staffing be assigned to prevention work. He said the new…