Brookfield Trustees on June 15 released the list of the 18 applicants who want to be fire chief and chose the six who will move on to assessment center testing.
They said they are not releasing the names of those who will be tested until all candidates are notified as to whether they made the cut.
The trustees met privately for about 2.5 hours to review summaries – provided by the Ohio Fire Chief’s Association – of all applicants.
“It was a great discussion,” said Trustee Ron Haun.
The list of applicants includes two Brookfield Fire Department full-timers, Capt. Matt Gordon and Lt. Nick Cresanto.
A handful of others who are working for Brookfield on a part-time basis or have worked in that capacity in the past also applied, and a number work for other area departments, said Trustee Dan Suttles, a retired Warren assistant fire chief.
“There were quite a few local connections,” he said.
The remaining candidates are: Thomas Cantola, Wilson Carroll III, Brian Cyphert, Sean Davis, Derek Day, Daniel Dopslaf, Jeffrey Gooch, Dennis Johnson, Stephen Langstaff, David Masirovits, Christopher Methvin, Michael Morton, Steven Sanford, David Shook, Edward Smith II and Randy Stelk.
The assessment center testing is a series of written and oral questions designed to measure a candidate’s fire scene, personnel and administrative skills. The testing has been set tentatively for June 30 at the Brookfield Fire Department. If the timeline proposed by the Ohio Fire Chief’s Association is adhered to, the trustees could hire a new chief in early August.
Haun said the search process the trustees chose is designed to “get the best candidate we could,” and he is encouraged by how things have played out so far.
“They’re all well-qualified,” he said. “I was pleased that we had 18 candidates. Three-fourths of the battle is finding people.”
“I believe it was a good cross-section,” Suttles said of the candidates.
