OAKLAND — A little more than three months after the deadly Ghost Ship fire and with the investigative report still pending, the city’s first African American female fire chief Teresa Deloach Reed filed retirement papers Tuesday, days after her city pension vested, the city administrator said.
Reed, a 59-year-old Oakland resident, filed retirement paperwork Tuesday with an effective date of May 5, City Administrator Sabrina Landreth confirmed. Reed is currently earning $155,772 a year in retirement from her previous 26 years of service at San Jose Fire, where she left in 2012 as an assistant chief.
Reed’s city pension vested after five years, adding 15 percent of her $241,000 salary, or $36,150 a year to her overall retirement pay. Assistant Fire Chief Mark Hoffmann is acting fire chief. Reed did not return a call Tuesday evening.
Reed will be remembered as the head of a fire department that dealt with the city’s deadliest fire ever. On Dec. 2, 36 people attending a concert died when a large blaze consumed the Fruitvale warehouse that was being illegally used as a residential space.
Since the tragedy, Reed has brought up budget constraints as a reason for department struggles. Shortly after the fire, she acknowledged that the warehouse had never been inspected, pointing out that the building was not zoned for residential.
Her critics have complained Reed was slow to hire key fire positions. The city’s fire marshal position remained open for more than a year.
The 2014 Alameda County civil grand jury found that more than a third of commercial buildings had gone unchecked despite city code at the time requiring annual inspections. The following year, the department became the first in the state to be stripped of its California certification to perform hazardous materials inspections.
Under her watch, the fire department also botched the hills inspection program developed to protect the city from a repeat of the 1991 blaze, which killed 25 people and destroyed more than 3,000 homes, according to audits and whistleblowers.
Years of contentious meetings between the chief and hills residents came to a head in January during a Wildfire Prevention Assessment District Citizen’s Advisory Committee meeting when Reed, in a 10-minute rant, threatened to sue a homeowner and claimed the group was biased against her.
Days later, Reed went on leave, apparently to help care for a sick relative, for about a month before returning last month. She has been out on a second, unspecified leave for weeks.
Reed’s firefighter union support has also waned, with representatives complaining post-Ghost Ship about her leadership.
“We wish her the best in whatever she does and we look forward to whatever new leadership arrives,” fire union Vice President Zac Unger said.
Council members called for the city to quickly find a permanent replacement.
“My sincere hope and my goal is we get a great new chief in a timely manner,” Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan said.
“We have a lot of work to do to strengthen our fire department, grow our fire marshal (unit) and move on,” Councilman Noel Gallo said.
In a statement issued late Tuesday, Mayor Libby Schaaf said a nationwide search for a new chief will begin.
“Our goal is to ensure that the best and brightest candidates emerge from the recruitment process. As we did during the search for a police chief, in the coming months we will engage the community and fire department staff to maximize stakeholder input,” Schaaf wrote.
