{"id":487386,"date":"2026-10-06T23:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/487386\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T23:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:04:08","slug":"longtime-san-diego-lifeguards-chief-is-out-replaced-by-top-fire-official-on-interim-basis-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/487386\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime San Diego lifeguards chief is out, replaced by top fire official on interim basis \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>San Diego\u2019s longtime lifeguard chief, James Gartland, was removed from his job Monday and replaced by Deputy Chief Dan Eddy, the city\u2019s deputy fire chief of emergency operations.<\/p>\n<p>A city spokesperson confirmed Tuesday that Gartland no longer works for the city, and also confirmed the appointment of Eddy as an interim replacement.<\/p>\n<p>But the spokesperson, Nicole Darling, said no additional comment was possible because the situation is a personnel matter.<\/p>\n<p>Connor Robbins, leader of the city\u2019s lifeguards union, also declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe lack enough information to comment at this time,\u201d Robbins said by phone Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>Gartland has been lifeguards chief since 2018. He began his city lifeguard career 31 years ago, serving as marine safety captain before being promoted to chief.<\/p>\n<p>His departure comes three weeks after city lifeguards inked a new three-year labor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sandiegouniontribune.com\/2026\/09\/15\/san-diego-police-lifeguards-get-large-pay-raises-despite-city-budget-crisis\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">contract<\/a> that includes no pay hikes during this fiscal year or next, but a 9.5% increase in July 2028.<\/p>\n<p>Gartland is a graduate of San Diego State University, where he received a degree in business administration\/accounting.<\/p>\n<p>Eddy has been a city firefighter since 2000. He has previously been a battalion chief, deputy operations chief and assistant fire chief.<\/p>\n<p>Because the city\u2019s Fire-Rescue Department includes both firefighters and lifeguards, it\u2019s not unusual for a top fire official to serve as interim leader of the lifeguard division.<\/p>\n<p>In Eddy\u2019s current position, he oversees all emergency operations and special operations, including lifeguard functions like urban search and rescue.<\/p>\n<p>The city has about 110 full-time lifeguards and about 200 seasonal lifeguards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego\u2019s longtime lifeguard chief, James Gartland, was removed from his job Monday and replaced by Deputy Chief&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,23,205,100,13,74,76,75,1696],"class_list":["post-487386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-local-politics","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}