Salley, Robinson gain permanent status

By Chris Sykes, Staff Writer
The East Orange City Council voted to remove the word “acting” from the titles of Fire Chief Charles Salley and Police Chief William Robinson during Monday night’s meeting.
The vote to approve Salley as the permanent fire chief was unanimous. The vote to approve Robinson, however, was 9-1 with 5th Ward Councilwoman Alicia Holman being the lone dissenter.
Council Chairwoman Quilla Talmadge said Robinson was deserving of receiving full status.
“Chief Robinson has done a terrific job since he took over. He earned the job based on that,” said Talmadge.
Holman said she voted against Robinson’s permanent appointment because there was a lack of eligible candidates from which the administration and the council could choose. It was a concern Talmadge understood. She said the council and the administration of Mayor Robert Bowser need to work together to make sure the city has “more of our men in place” who are eligible to step into leadership positions as they become available.
“You have to have people in place in case somebody leaves,” Talmadge said. “Right now we don’t have any deputy chiefs at all in the Police Department. If Chief Robinson decided he wanted to leave, we wouldn’t have anybody at all ready to take over. We have to be prepared just in case.”
As for Salley, Talmadge said the department has needed a permanent chief. His work also factored into the decision.
“Chief Salley has been there a lot of years and he earned it,” Talmadge said. “We didn’t have a fire chief over there for a long time for a lot of reasons and he’s done well and is doing a good job. I expect him to continue doing a good job.”
Bowser attended the meeting as he waited the council’s vote. He said he is glad both men were given permanent status. Along with leading their personnel, both men will handle administrative duties as the city continues without police and fire directors.
“Both the police chief and fire chief have been ‘acting’ for almost a year. It’s fitting that here are two gentlemen who worked up through the ranks, who are deserving of the position and have been in the position, showing they can do the job that we expect them to do,” Bowser said.
Holman expressed her concern with the availability of candidates for the police chief’s position.
“I don’t feel as though there was an open and fair process when it came to appointing the police chief because the test that is normally used to determine who is eligible to serve as chief was waived,” Holman said. “We only had one deputy chief eligible to take the exam but the city had the power to open it to whomever they want. Since we only had one deputy chief and three captains eligible to take the test, my recommendation was to open up the process as much as possible so that we could have had the widest pool of potential candidates possible to choose from. That didn’t happen.”
When it came to Salley, Holman said she was happy to cast her ‘yes’ vote for him. She said she believed he did a “stellar” job as the acting fire chief and was confident Salley can keep the Fire Department functioning at a high level.
“He’s gone out after grants and is seeking grants to save the city money; we’ve just got a new fire truck thanks to his persistence. The city doesn’t pay anything for it the first year; we’re leasing it and at the end of five years it will belong to us instead of us having to shell out the $300,000 or $400,000 that it costs for a truck.”