Lamar takes duties as Auburn Fire Chief

Katie Stallcup
Staff writer
Published: June 30, 2008

Lee Lamar is officially Auburn’s fire chief.

After serving as acting chief for the past seven months, Lamar’s promotion takes effect today.

“Not a tremendous amount is going to change,” Lamar said Monday.

“I doing all of the work (of the position) already. What this allows us to do is we’ll be able to advertise for my old position, deputy chief, which will be a blessing. I’d love to have some help (with day-to-day operations).”

The acting fire chief position is an opportunity to prove oneself, Lamar said. As official chief, he will look toward improving what the fire division’s already doing, he said.

“I’m fortunate I’ve got really good people to work with,” Lamar said. “They’re smart, they’re aggressive, and they want to do more. It’s identifying what more can we do, and how do we do it in an efficient way.”

People want to interact more with firefighters, so public education and fire prevention programs are on the agenda, Lamar said.

Programs such as CPR classes for city employees and other groups are in the works.

“We want to be accessible to the people who utilize our services,” he said.

The city looked at Lamar’s experience and achievements as deputy chief and acting chief, Public Safety Director Bill James said.

“We feel like Lee’s background and experience and what he’s done as deputy chief and what he has done in this acting period, we felt like he deserved an opportunity to be fire chief,” James said.

The city did not interview other applicants for the job, he said.

“(Lamar) has proved himself, and things are going very well with the fire division,” James said.

“We don’t have any huge problems or issues or things like that. At least in my mind, if you had a lot of problems in a part of any department, it would warrant maybe looking to the outside. If things are going well, then why not promote with inside and continue on with what you’re doing?

“In my mind, I didn’t feel like we needed to go and come in here and fix things because things don’t need fixing.

“And Lee has earned that opportunity to be chief…

“I look forward to continue doing what we’re doing and expand on that. I think the future’s bright.”