Tim Steller's column: New Tucson fire chief latest insider pick for top city jobs

You may have heard of this sequence of events before:

1. An executive in Tucson’s city government retires or resigns.

2. The city does not hold an open hiring process or national search.

3. An insider eyed for the job by the city government is hired.

This is more or less the process that occurred when former Tucson Police Chief Chris Magnus resigned in 2021 to take a Biden administration job and was replaced by Chad Kasmar, the current police chief.

It’s more or less what happened when City Manager Mike Ortega retired in 2024 and was replaced by Tim Thomure, the current city manager.

And it’s what happened over the last week when Tucson Fire Department Chief Chuck Ryan retired and was replaced by Sharon McDonough, the current director of the Public Safety Communications Department and a former assistant fire chief.

In each of these cases, the insiders replaced outsiders who were hired in an open, competitive process. Magnus came from Richmond, California, beating out a TPD candidate and others; Ortega came from Cochise County and was hired over Oro Valley’s town manager; and Ryan came from Fairfax County, Va., and was hired over other candidates.

The city didn’t interview any other candidates in any of these three hires. Tucson Fire has a deputy chief and two assistant chiefs who weren’t interviewed.

The series of events surrounding Ryan’s departure was intriguing. From talking to a variety of sources on background I’ve been able to piece together a general sense of what happened.

When Ryan arrived in Tucson in 2019, he entered a naturally fraught situation as an outsider going into a department dominated by career insiders and the Tucson Firefighters Association, the union representing more than 600 firefighters.

Under his leadership of the department, the union and city management negotiated a controversial change in shift schedules in 2020. This angered some people. Ryan also traveled a lot to out-of-state conferences. This too angered people.

Over time, other frustrations with Ryan built up, and some in the union began talking of a no-confidence vote. No such vote had been scheduled when Ryan summarily retired March 17, giving Thomure the option to hire a replacement.

To make a long story short, the insiders got tired of the outsider and managed to push him out. If that’s the case, it’s not good.

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Now, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to hire inside, or homegrown, candidates. Thomure, for example, came to Tucson to take over the water utility but, when he was promoted into the city manager’s office, was put in charge of a variety of city departments as he was groomed to replace Ortega.

Kasmar and McDonough were also put in charge of a variety of different service areas before ending up as chiefs of their respective departments. When I asked Mayor Regina Romero about why open processes weren’t used in these recent hires, she sent a statement:

“The City of Tucson offers opportunities to eminently qualified candidates ready to serve Tucsonans. Chief McDonough is such a candidate. With over 30 years of experience in Fire, Public Safety Communications and leading the transformation of 911, she is an outstanding choice.”

I talked to one long-time council member, Karin Uhlich, who served previously on the council from 2005 to 2017, who has no problem with hiring internal candidates, if the situation is right. And right now, given the national state of turmoil, it’s right, she said.

“The intent isn’t to circumvent open process,” Uhlich said. “It’s to ensure we don’t have leadership vacuums and that we leverage the experience and leadership of our existing team.”

“In times of turmoil, that would lead me to lean toward known leadership that has established trust with employees and the community,” she added.

Council Member Paul Cunningham regretted Ryan’s departure but said he’s comfortable with McDonough.

“Things fell into place and it made a lot of sense,” he said. “She’s up to the job, and she has a good relationship with the fire union.”

Clayton Black, president of the Tucson Firefighters Association, declined to comment on what led up to Ryan’s departure. But he said it’s generally better to have fire chiefs from inside than from outside.

“It just seems like when we have somebody from the inside, they understand the city,” Black said. “They understand the challenges. They have a sense of respect from the body already.”

McDonough, he said, “has been out in the field with us running calls. We all know her.”

McDonough will formally serve as interim chief until the City Council ratifies her as permanent chief. That ratification isn’t in question, politically speaking. Then she can only serve as chief for two years because she had previously put in for retirement.

I can see why her elevation is comforting to the people already here. But comforting the powerful factions within the city bureaucracy isn’t a good long-term practice.

At any given time, in any given department, we may need leaders who shake up the status quo instead of fitting into it.