Officials with East Jefferson Fire and Rescue have found someone to take the reins of the fire department.

The district’s board of commissioners has extended a job offer to Bret Black, currently the fire chief of the Piedmont Fire Department in Piedmont, California.

Commissioners with East Jefferson Fire and Rescue approved extending a job offer to Black after a private executive session at the end of a special meeting last week.

“We’ve made a conditional offer to hire a new chief,” said Board Chairman David Johnson.

“Right now we’re doing background checks and reference checks,” he said.

The hiring process is not officially over, however, until Black accepts the job offer.

“We’re moving right along. I think sometime this week we will have a decision on a final offer,” Johnson said.

“We are meeting on Wednesday, and I’m hopeful, really hopeful, that by this week we will have a chief hired for East Jeff,” he said.

The department has been without a permanent chief since Jim Walkowski stepped down due to a family move in June to Eastern Washington. 

North Kitsap Fire & Rescue Chief Dan Smith was named interim fire chief for East Jefferson Fire Rescue in July.

Black became fire chief of the Piedmont Fire Department in September 2018, according to the East Bay Times, a newspaper that covers the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay area.

Piedmont is a semi-urban city of roughly 11,000 in Alameda County, California. It is surrounded on all sides by the city of Oakland.

Black began his firefighting career at the Skywalker Ranch fire department in 1997 before joining the Clovis Fire Department since 1999, according to the East Bay Times.