READING, Pa. \u2014 Inside city hall, a major transition for Reading was officially underway Monday night.<\/p>\n
City Council confirmed Robert Leonard II as the city\u2019s next fire chief, at a salary of $120,000 a year, replacing longtime Chief James Stoudt, who retired last month after more than three decades with the department.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know people that work here, and they’ve told me some of the great things that happen in the City of Reading Fire Department,\u201d Leonard said.<\/p>\n
69 News sat down with Leonard, a firefighter from Maryland with more than 25 years of experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the age of 16, I became a volunteer, and then at 20, I was hired by Prince George’s County Fire and EMS,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Most recently, Leonard was assistant fire chief in Prince George\u2019s County, Maryland.<\/p>\n
He said Reading stood out right away.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife went to Penn State Berks, so I would come through Reading all the time, and the city was very intriguing,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cWhen I saw the opportunity\u2026I hopped right on it, and I applied.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Eddie Moran said it was Leonard\u2019s experience and leadership that made the difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cExperience in academy leadership, EMS, paramedic, firefighter \u2014 in fact, he was recognized as firefighter of the year not long ago \u2014 that was really exciting,\u201d Moran said.<\/p>\n
Still, not everyone on council agreed with how the process unfolded.<\/p>\n
Some raised concerns about how information was shared ahead of the vote and whether more internal candidates should have been considered.<\/p>\n
Leonard was recommended by Moran and interviewed by council.<\/p>\n
But in the end, council voted unanimously to approve Leonard, even giving him a round of applause as he stepped forward.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Raymond Baker said he welcomes Leonard to the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you involve yourself in this community, and you make yourself a part of it and get to know the people and commit yourself to this community 100%, they will embrace you,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n
Leonard thanked Moran and council for the opportunity to serve the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI really look forward to working with you guys very closely,\u201d Leonard said. \u201cI had the opportunity to meet everybody today, and everybody welcomed me with open arms. I’m just ready to get to work and continue to the traditions of Reading City Fire Department.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leonard already has goals as he takes the reins of leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would love to enhance safety and recruitment,\u201d he said. \u201cThat’s my two big things I would like to hit on this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moran said he has scheduled a press conference on March 24 to introduce Leonard to the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2014 Inside city hall, a major transition for Reading was officially underway Monday night. City Council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[11615,736,128,1095,130,129,6426,66861],"class_list":["post-146652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-fire-chief","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-council","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-reading-fire-department","tag-robert-leonard-ii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}