This morning Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio announced that Thomas Forward, 50, currently the assistant chief of administration and a member of the Tampa Fire Department since 1983, will become the next fire chief in Tampa, replacing Dennis Jones.
City officials say that Forward has held a number of positions within the department over his 17 year career, including special operations chief, training chief and personnel chief.
Jones will serve until this Saturday. Forward is the "acting chief", pending confirmation by the Tampa City Council, and also the fact that he must move into the city, as is required by law in Tampa to do. He becomes Tampa second ever black fire chief, and hopefully his tenure will last longer than the first, Aria Ray Green, who was hired by Mayor Iorio back in 2004, and then subsequently terminated in October 2004.
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2010.