After 10 years as head of the Tulsa Fire Department, Chief Allen LaCroix announced Monday he is retiring. LaCroix was a firefighter for 27 years before taking over as Chief.
In 2010, LaCroix was faced with a tough decision, as the City of Tulsa's shrinking budget called for him to lay off 147 firefighters.
"My proudest accomplishment would be keeping firefighters working when it looked like we were going to have to lay off 140, 150 firefighters," LaCroix said.
In lieu of layoffs, an agreement was reached with the Tulsa Firefighters Local 176 union for all firefighters to take a pay cut.
"We simply could not have performed the job that we need to do if we had to lay 130 firefighters off," LaCroix said.
"I do think he had some instances there where members weren't very happy with the position he took," Chad Miller, President of the Tulsa Firefighters Local 276 union, said.
"It was hard," LaCroix said. "But when the check book's empty, the check book's empty. And you've got to make a decision."
Looking back on his career, LaCroix said he has one big regret.
"I would certainly say the e-mail issue with Terry was a mistake. And it was a mistake on my part, not Terry's."
In September 2011, LaCroix was placed on administrative leave during an internal investigation into claims he gave preferential treatment to the son of the Mayor's Chief of Staff, Terry Simonson. A thread of e-mails released to the public showed LaCroix allowed Ryan Simonson into a testing group to get into the fire academy, despite not earning a spot in the test group when he went through the process all other applicants went through.
"It was a minor bump in the journey," LaCroix said. "And it was a mistake on my part, but hiring is such a difficult process. He didn't receive any benefits as a result of that."
Ryan Simonson withdrew his application, his father resigned as Chief of Staff, and it ended up being a black eye on LaCroix's tenure as chief.
But Miller says people shouldn't forget how firefighters checked in on 60,000 Tulsans during the devastating ice storm of 2007.
"That was under his guidance as a fire chief," Miller said. "And I would hope people would look at that as much as they would the instance with Simonson."
Miller also said, overall, TFD is in better shape than it was 10 years ago when LaCroix took over. And LaCroix takes pride in agreeing.
"We have a department that's second to none, and we've been progressive in our skill sets, that they have the tools they need to get the job done, and our training is above what you would find in most other departments in the country," he said.
Mayor Dewey Bartlett released this statement about LaCroix's service:
“Chief Allen LaCroix has been an outstanding public servant and has seen this city through many historic events, including the 2007 ice storm, last year's record blizzards and the economic downturn when I first took office,” Mayor Dewey Bartlett said. “During the economic downturn, Chief LaCroix was instrumental in the reorganization of the Tulsa Fire Department saving the jobs of 147 firefighters and ensuring that the level of service to citizens never changed. Chief LaCroix’s guidance, advice and experience will be missed at the City of Tulsa and I am so very grateful for his service to this community.”
LaCroix's last day as chief will be June 30, 2012. Mayor Dewey Bartlett will appoint LaCoix's replacement. Tulsa's city charter requires that person to be promoted from within the department.
