San Diegan Top Choice for Chief : Services: James E. Sewell named to take over beleaguered county Fire Department. Supervisors will vote next week.

A San Diego deputy fire chief was named Tuesday to take over the beleaguered Ventura County Fire Department, where the last chief retired amid criticism that the agency costs too much.

James E. Sewell, a 24-year veteran of the San Diego Fire Department, is top choice to replace retired Chief George Lund next month, said Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg. The Board of Supervisors is set to vote on the choice next week.

Sewell, 45, said he was not aware that a Ventura County audit in October said his new department is top-heavy with managers, too free with overtime pay and lax with sick leave.

Nor, Sewell said, was he told that Lund left in March the day after the supervisors refused to give the 443-member Ventura County Fire Department any of the money that Proposition 172 allots for emergency agencies.

But Sewell said: “Regardless of what they’ve been through. . .I want the folks in the department and the folks on the board and the folks in the community to be proud of the department. If they’re not, that’s something I’ll have to address.”

Sewell’s colleagues say he is well-prepared for the job.

“He has not only a lot of insight, but he has a lot of energy and he believes in doing quality work and supporting his people,” said Deputy Chief Monica Higgins, San Diego’s fire marshal. “That philosophy can go a long way, especially in this type of environment when budgets are tight.”

Sewell helped his department plug into a $34-million computer-aided dispatch system linking San Diego’s police and fire departments, Higgins said.

He also improved public relations in the fire marshal’s office, she said. Sewell extended hours at the front desk and staffed it full-time with inspectors who could check building contractors’ plans on demand, streamlining the application process, she said. He also computerized the process for figuring how many sprinklers are needed in new buildings, she said.

Last year, Sewell wrote a bid to have San Diego firefighters provide citywide paramedic services--a campaign that lost to a private ambulance company only because of city politics, said Fire Chief Robert Osby. About one third of the city’s fire stations provide paramedic service.

“He did an absolutely outstanding job in coordinating the material and making the presentation, and the outcome was a political decision rather than a business decision,” Osby said Tuesday.

Sewell also has the respect of the San Diego firefighters union president, who cited his professionalism and hard work.

“He’s got a very strong work ethic, and he’s a very motivated individual,” said Ron Saathoffpresident of International Firefighters Union (AFL-CIO) Local 145. “I really don’t know Chief Sewell personally, but he’s a guy who’s always strived to do the best job he can and continue his education, with the ultimate goal of being fire chief some day. I think that’s been a career goal of his from the earliest days in the Fire Department.”

If Sewell has a failing, it is that he can appear overly serious, Chief Osby said.

“If I had to come up with something and say there’s improvement needed, I’d say, ‘Hey, lighten up, guy,’ ” Osby said.

“He’s all business, and if you don’t understand him and the way he is, you’d say maybe he doesn’t have the warmth and the glow and the wonderful, approachable personality you’d want anyone to have,” Osby said. “But once you know him, you know that’s not true.”

As head of San Diego’s 42 fire stations and overseer of the department’s operations division, Sewell said he has seen plenty of brush fires and bare-bones budgets like those he expects to face in Ventura County.

“I’m aware that every government agency in the state has financial difficulties,” he said. “San Diego has those, San Diego County has those, and I’m sure Ventura County--unless they’ve struck gold or something--they’ve got those problems too.”

Sewell was chosen from a pool of 17 candidates that a headhunting firm plucked out of many more applicants for the job, Wittenberg said. The supervisors identified about six top candidates from the pool, and five--including Sewell--were interviewed by Wittenberg and Supervisors Maggie Kildee and Vicky Howard.

The Ventura County Fire Department provides fire protection to unincorporated areas as well as the cities of Camarillo, Moorpark, Ojai, Port Hueneme, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks.

Profile of James E. Sewell

Annual salary as Ventura County Fire Chief: $89,492.

Annual salary as San Diego Deputy Fire Chief, $83,000.

Age: 45.

Residence: El Cajon.

Education: National University, San Diego--master’s degree in management, 1992; bachelor’s degree in business administration, 1981; San Diego Community College District, associate’s degree in fire science, 1969.

Career highlights: Sewell served 17 months with the Chula Vista Fire Department before joining the San Diego department in 1970. Rising to the rank of captain by 1980 and deputy chief by 1986, he has worked as an arson investigator, incident commander and fire marshal. Today he oversees 990 employees and 42 San Diego fire stations and manages the $68-million annual budget for the department’s operations division.

Family: Married, children aged 21 and 23.

Hobbies: Camping, travel.

Birthplace: Kansas City, Kan.