After 41 years with the department, North Little Rock Fire Chief Robert Mauldin will be retiring, effective July 1, he announced Thursday.
Mauldin, the Fire Department's chief since Feb. 1, 2009, and assistant chief before that, told Mayor Joe Smith of his decision Thursday morning in a letter, both said.
Mauldin, who will be 66 in July, said he's been considering retirement for the past year.
"After 41 years, it's going to be tough" to leave, Mauldin said Thursday afternoon. "I just think it was time. There wasn't any one thing that stood out. It was just time. [My health] is not a problem."
When asked what he'll miss most, Mauldin replied: "Gosh, just 41 years of being a fireman.
"There's a great camaraderie, it's the friends you make and the people you meet," he said. He laughed then added, "Everybody likes a fireman."
Smith said he phoned Mauldin after receiving the retirement letter and praised his service to the city as a "highly regarded leader of one of the most professional and respected fire departments in the state."
"As I told him, he's had an outstanding career," Smith said.
A decision to name an interim chief, Smith said, will "come at a later date."
Mauldin's annual salary is $95,194.32, behind only those of City Attorney/Electric Department Acting Manager Jason Carter and the mayor.
"We will do a national search [for a chief] and advertise nationally," Smith said.
When Mauldin moved up from assistant chief to chief five years ago, no outside search was conducted. The very experienced Mauldin was named by then-Mayor Patrick Hays as the next fire chief almost immediately after Joe McCall announced his retirement. McCall also had recommended Mauldin, saying at the time that he had groomed Mauldin to someday become chief.
Mauldin joined the Fire Department in March 1973. He worked as a hose man, a staff captain, in the training division and also in the fire marshal's office during his career. Mauldin also has served as a representative for firefighters as a lobbyist at the state Legislature and is a former president of the firefighters union.
"I went through the ranks," Mauldin recalled. "There's not a part of the department I haven't worked in at least for a short time."
Along the way, Mauldin earned a reputation for his willingness to get the job done and for his cooperative approach with other departments inside and outside the city, according to his peers.
"Chief Mauldin is just a great guy, easy to get along with and willing to do whatever it takes to take care of the citizenship and to work with you," said interim Fire Chief John Payne in neighboring Maumelle. "We have an automatic aid agreement with [North Little Rock's] Station 4 [8723 Maumelle Blvd.], and he helped to work through those details with the lawyers.
"He's just an overall good guy, and he's worked hard for firefighters, not only in his city but in the state," Payne added.
North Little Rock Police Chief Mike Davis said Mauldin's cooperative spirit is evident in how well he works with other city departments and why the police and fire departments work so well together.
"I've been here 28 years and known him the whole time," said Davis, who became police chief in July. "He has always been like whatever we need to make something happen, he was for that. Everybody is to work together.
"Here it works so well together," Davis said of the police and fire relationship. "People in our community don't realize that it doesn't happen like this everywhere, that police and fire don't have such a great relationship in a lot of other cities. That says a lot to me about his leadership."
North Little Rock's department operates 10 fire stations under a $13.8 million budget, with all but $1 million of that going toward personnel. The department recently added a new rescue boat and is installing computers on all fire vehicles, Mauldin said.
North Little Rock has a Class 2 fire rating issued by the Insurance Services Organization, the second-best rating awarded.
Metro on 05/09/2014