Confirmation of Fire Chief – Anthony Perez – Annual Salary of $160,000.00
What the county recorded
Staff recommendation
Approve
DispositionApproved
Approved to appoint Mr. Anthony Perez as Fire Chief by roll call vote.
The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Jul 11, 2023
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Jul 11, 2023
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
This case, across meetings
PS-23-1004 in full →Heard once. PS-23-1004 appears on no other agenda in the archive.
- Jul 11, 2023BoardR45▶Approvedthis item
What was said
Machine transcription of 10m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 100% of 42 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
And now confirmation of Fire Chief R forty five, Anthony Perez.
Hello.
Uh Thank you, Board. I stand here for your consideration. Chief Perez is our next fire chief. But first I want to thank Chief Casson for his dedicated service to Pasco County, and I would like him to stand to be recognized.
Second, I'd like to thank the dozens of staff and HR individuals who helped go through an extensive process in our search for an ex uh fire chief. And third, I would like to thank all the high-speed fire rescue service personnel who deliver life-saving service every day in Pasco County to our residents. Will any of our uh Fire rescue service personnel who are here stand and be recognized?
Mm-hmm. So I stand here to share six attributes that make Tony Perez the perfect selection at this time to be our next Pasco County Fire Chief. One, his commitment to family and community. Chip Perez is not just a dedicated fire service personnel, but also a committed family man and active community member. Residing in Pasco County with his wife and children, Chi Perez's strong family values, active involvement in the community underscore his commitment to serving and protecting the people and
the place he calls home. Experience and leadership. Chief Tony Perez brings a wealth of experience to Pasco County Fire Rescue. Having served in various roles in the fire service for over 26 years, his journey to firefighter to Chief of Operations and Personnel Chief at Tampa Fire Rescue has equipped him with a deep understanding of fire service operations and administration. His leadership style emphasizes transparency and trust building, and he has been instrumental in driving organizational change
and empowering fire service personnel. Commitment to continuous learning. Chief Press's commitment to maintaining a diverse skill set of fire service designations and certification certifications. certificates demonstrates his dedication to continu continuous learning. His commitment keeps him at the forefront of fire service and sets a strong example for future officers, reinforcing the importance of ongoing professional Developer. Community
engagement four.
As a resident of Pasco County, Chief Perez and his wife Jenny and their family are actively involved in this community. Their local connection will undoubtedly enhance his ability to understand and respond to the unique needs of our community, fostering a strong relationship between the fire service and the residents it serves. A unique background. Chief Perez's unique background, which includes a career in professional baseball before transitioning to fire service, speaks
to his adaptability and determination. These qualities, coupled with his extensive experience in fire service, make him an excellent fit for the role of fire chief of Pasco County. And maybe this can help our softball team that's already top tier go a little bit further. I just want to know if we can play golf.
Sixth and last, his vision for Pasco County Fire. Chief Perez's vision for Pasco County Fire Rescue. is building a legacy by laying a solid foundation and bridging gaps that we that currently exist. His focus on the betterment of the community and its residents aligns perfectly with our mission, and we look forward to seeing the positive impact of his leadership. He will lead from the ground up, and I cannot be more proud to be to bring this servant leader forward for your
confirmation.
Thank you.
Good morning, good morning everyone. Thank you. They
go first
and then you
follow. Okay. They go first? Okay. All right, no problem. No problem.
I'll take off. I'll take off. Not the bad candy is
I just want to thank each and every one of you for giving me this opportunity. It's an honor and a blessing to be able to stand here before each and every one of you. Um Give it the opportunity. I look forward to working with each and every one of you with local four four two O with the staff that's behind me moving this department forward and going in a direction it needs to go to great things. Not good, but great, working together with each and every one of you. I do want to thank my family, Jenny, my sister that are in
attendance, all my friends and family from Tampa Fire Rescue, as well as my neighbors that live on our block, they're here in support and we are in unity And excited to see what moves forward here in Pasco County Fire Rescue and I just wanna thank eep each and every one of you.
And Mr. Perez? Yes. I want to say you came from a group of strong candidates who are out there. Uh for these guys, you nanosely get behind you as well as they did. Uh from what I hear out in the group, everybody's thrilled that you're the pick. Um I know you're gonna do a great job. I want to say from nineteen years ago when I first started it, we started working on trying to improve the fire with a EMS people weren't only getting a little bit of pay, we try to get them more pay. We work on insurance stuff, we're working on the buildings to make it safe for our firefighters every step of the way. We're going to work on building
conditions. COVID slowed us down a little bit, but I will tell you this board here and my previous boards as well, we are 100% behind the leadership of the fire department as well as the fire fire department to make it the best it can possibly be to be the best in the nation. So I love your enthusiasm. Yeah, we're looking forward to working with you.
Amen. Amen. I appreciate that. And thank you, Commissioner. Also want to thank Commissioner Oakley Administrator Karbala and assistant County Administrator JJ Murphy for that process. And um I look forward. I look really truly look forward to enjoying the journey together.
Mr. Commissioner.
Along with uh uh approving his confirmation, I'll make that a motion and then along with that I welcome you to Pasco County and I know that you're gonna help us get to be that Premier County. You've got a great team to work with and I know with your leadership and with all the experience we have in Pasco County, we have great firefighters here and they'll do a great job. I know that. So uh welcome aboard.
Amen. Thank you. Thank you. And one last thing. I'm coming back home for where it all started from. Oh, we know that. That's right. And w which is a blessing. Not that not many uh individuals have that opportunity, so I'm excited, my family's excited, my friends are excited to come back and finish right where I started in the fire service, Pasco County. Yeah, I wanted Commissioner Starkey
Well, I wanted to make sure that everybody knew that this is where he started as a fire service.
Yes ma'am.
And he's already a Pasco resident. And so um And as uh as most people know, Jenny um worked here uh and helped us um helped us as we work to improve our county and build our county. So it's a it's a very committed family to Pasco County and I'm very excited for what the future holds and we welcome you here and I second the motion. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank
you. Uh Commissioner Weightman. Thank you. Chief, Chief Cassen, Chief Perez, thank you. I've no you know freshman board member worked with you Chief Casson for very short period of time but enjoyed it and congratulations on your retirement and Chief Perez we're we're working on Old Pasco Row for you. So Amen. Amen. All right. All right. So into the Perez family, congratulations to you all. You'll be in uh my prayers and your department our prayers for much success and just JJ and uh excited to to uh work
through this net next chapter together. So congratulations. Appreciate
it. Thank you, Commissioner. All right,
and Commissioner Bradford?
So I guess that's why I congratulate you. You got an outstanding job.
You can tell who's a first responder. I'm uh come from a first responder background. And uh it does uh it does my heart good that uh you're able to leave on such a high note. And uh somebody What can I say? I'm gonna hang over for the ride and see what you got. I got a feeling you got a lot to give. And uh we wanna be as supportive as we can. And uh welcome to the team. Thank you.
And I just wanna add one more thing. As you know, it's it's real really neat that we have people that have been in the county left the county and come back to the county. And and that happened the library chief that we we just hired as well.
Yeah.
I'm hopeful as we go forward in the discussion coming right up after this one here is about how we could work on the fire MSPU uh MSDU to to raise the payout firefighters to help Make them uh Co very competitive to Hillsborough and et cetera. But also maybe even bring some of the guys back and I think with your leadership we're gonna we're gonna make that happen. Amen. Alright, I'll call the rule.
Okay. District one, Commissioner Oakley. Aye. District two, Commissioner Weightman. Aye. District three, Commissioner Starkey. Aye. District four, Commissioner Bradford.
District 5, Chairman Mariano. Aye.
Congratulations. Thank you very much. Thank you.
I'll say I'll say one thing. Chief President has a pack of stadium, doesn't he?