City Council approves appointment of new Fire Chief Joseph Hickey

By Neil Zolot

Joseph Hickey was appointed to a three-year term as the new Fire Chief at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, November 12. “Everything has been leading up to this,” he told The Everett Advocate about a career that started in February 1995. “Through courses and schooling I moved up in the ranks – I went through all the steps.”

As senior Deputy Chief, Hickey has been Acting Chief since February and earned the top score on a recent Assessment Test. “I anticipated getting promoted,” he said, based on the score and his seniority.

“Unlike the chief of police position in Everett, the Fire Chief position remains a civil service position. Under Massachusetts Civil Service law, communities may select a permanent fire chief either on the basis of a civil service written exam or a Sole Assessment Center process. The City of Everett utilized a Sole Assessment Center process during this most recent hiring process, as it did when it selected the last permanent chief, Chief Tony Carli,” Mayor Carlo DeMaria’s Chief of Staff, Erin Deveney, explained. “The Assessment Center was open to members of the EFD who held the rank of Deputy Chief. It was conducted on June 11, 2024. The written examination portion of the Assessment Center represented 80% of the candidates’ final scores and 20% of the final scores was based on each candidate’s Experience/Certification/Training & Education (ECT&E). Chief Hickey was the highest scoring candidate.”

As Acting Chief and as the new Chief, Hickey has and will be supervising continual updating of services and policies to keep abreast of new technology and training for use of a new fire boat to service waterfront areas near Encore Boston Harbor Casino and industrial sites by the Mystic River. He anticipates it being in service in the spring.

He is in favor of a new public service building near Encore, an issue that has been discussed at several City Council meetings. “With growth in the city and more congestion we can anticipate due to the amount of construction, I see a need,” he said.

In related action, promotions in the Police Department were confirmed for Lieutenant Sean Bagley to Captain, Lieutenant Paul Molea to Captain, Sergeant William Fox to Lieutenant, Sergeant Robert Hall to Lieutenant, Officer Nicholas Crowell to Sergeant and Officer Stephen Sabella to Sergeant. The agenda item to appoint Jamey Thompson as a patrol officer became moot after he withdrew his application.

In Public Comment, Sycamore Street resident Janice Lark expressed her thanks to the Fire and Police Departments for their action after a hazmat incident on nearby Gledhill Avenue when a man was found disposing of drug making chemicals. “They made me feel safe,” she said.

Still unresolved are two items: for the Administration to “provide the City Council with copies of any lease, rental or operating agreements in effect at the former High School by and between the City of Everett and the Broadway Boxing Club, and the City of Everett and the Eliot Family Resource Center” and provide “an update on its ongoing efforts to reclaim the former Everett High School for expanded school purposes, including the relocation of certain other non­educational uses within the facility, and the reuse and redevelopment of the former Pope John property,” as part of a plan of to spend $72 million to convert parts of the old High School to classroom space for 7th and 8th grades.

“I’m concerned about operation in a public building without a formal lease agreement,” stated City Council President Robert Van Campen. “Eliot is renting month-to-month, but that can’t run in perpetuity.”

He also said that he and Ward 4 Councillor Holly Garcia have heard from constituents that the building and area might not be suitable for multiple uses. “The concern in Ward 5 is there are too many uses in the building, not that Eliot and Broadway Boxing be put someplace else in it,” Van Campen said. “That would be a hard sell in the neighborhood. My constituents support reusing the building, but feel we’re at a breaking point in terms of use.”

“A lot of residents are reaching out to me that it would be like Grand Central Station with too many uses,” Garcia added.

The Administration will present a revised Feasibility Study to the City Council on Monday, November 25 “to pursue a proposal to move functions to different spaces within the building,” Deveney said when contacted earlier in the day. “The Feasibility Study will show how. There’s not enough space in other municipal buildings.”

She thinks the boxing club and Eliot Family Resource Center can be given dedicated and secure spaces, with the boxing club operating primarily after the school day. However, Eliot is operating in Everett voluntarily and could move to any community in their service area, which includes Chelsea, Malden and Medford. Most of their patrons are from Everett because they’re in Everett.

An item to accept a $500,000 grant from the state Transportation Department to reconstruct sidewalks and bus stops and provide other roadway improvements on Broadway between Maple and Timothy Avenues was referred to the City Council’s Committee on Government Operations, Public Safety & Public Service for study and discussion. A request will be sent to Transportation Director Jay Monty to attend.