WESTMINSTER : San Marino Chief to Head Fire Dept.
The city has hired John T. DeMonaco Jr. as its new fire chief.
DeMonaco, 46, chief of the San Marino Fire Department, will start Aug. 2.
DeMonaco inherits a department in the midst of reorganization because of city spending cuts.
The City Council adopted a 1993-94 budget calling for the elimination of a firetruck and a reduction in Fire Department personnel from 74 to 68.
The new chief also faces the task of rebuilding the department’s image, tarnished after the ouster of former Fire Chief D’Wayne Scott. The city fired Scott in February for alleged incompetence, criticizing him for failing to send firetrucks to Los Angeles during the April, 1992, rioting and for chronic absenteeism. Since Scott’s termination, Fire Marshal Donald Herr has served as acting chief.
“My goals are to work with the city and reorganize the department in view of new budget cuts and to continue to deliver quality service to the city’s residents,” DeMonaco said.
“I think the cuts that were made are manageable,” he said.
Before assuming the head post at San Marino in 1989, DeMonaco worked as a firefighter in Placentia and Hawthorne.
He resides in Chino Hills with his wife, JoAnn, and son, John III.
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