by
Eric Jones
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced Wednesday the appointment of former assistant police chief Eric Jones as interim commissioner for the city's Fire Department, which has been plagued with equipment problems.
The former cop has been serving the past 16 months as director of the city's Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department (BSEED).
A press release from the city said that Jones, 46, in his current post had improved the department’s efficiency and oversaw the reformation of the city’s broken permitting and business licensing offices.
He is also credited as being the city's architect of a graffiti-enforcement program, which has resulted in illegal graffiti being removed from hundreds of buildings across Detroit, the press release said.
The announcement comes just days after the mayor forced Commissioner Edsel Jenkins to retire.
Jones is the father of a Detroit firefighter.
Steve Neavling of Motor City Muckraker, who has been intensely reporting on the department's problems in the past year, writes:
While it’s unusual to reach outside of the fire ranks for the top job, it’s not a first. Mayor Dennis Archer appointed former Assistant Detroit Police Chief Charles E. Wilson as executive fire commissioner in January 2000, a position he held for a year and a half.
Jones, a 25-year veteran of the police department and former commander of the Eastern District, has been described as remarkably sharp, driven and committed. At BSEED, Jones took a hard-nosed approach to reducing blight, using ordinances to force owners to clean up graffiti and dilapidated buildings.
