MASON CITY – The City of Mason City is pleased to announce the selection of the next Mason City Fire Chief. City Administrator Aaron Burnett has recommended the promotion of Mason City Fire Captain Jon Anderson as the next chief, and will present the appointment to the Mason City Council for their approval at their July 17th meeting.
The Fire Chief position has been vacant since late 2017. Doug Janssen has been serving as Interim Fire Chief. The City began an extensive search to fill the position, and a Civil Service list of 16 qualified candidates was certified by the Mason City Civil Service Commission in June. Last month five candidates were interviewed by City Staff and an external assessment panel conducted by Cayler Consulting. An additional sixth internal candidate from the Civil Service list was also interviewed in the past several weeks. The information from interview groups led to Mr. Burnett’s decision that Jon Anderson was the best candidate for the position.
Mr. Anderson is a Mason City native, and has been a member of the Mason City Fire Department for the past 21 years. He has served in a leadership command positions within the department for the past 15 years, and currently serves as a Fire Captain in the department. Mr. Anderson has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa.
If approved by the City Council, Mr. Anderson will assume his new position with the Mason City Fire Department on July 18, 2018. Doug Janssen will continue to perform as the Interim Fire Chief until that time.
We are excited to welcome Jon Anderson into his new position. Mr. Anderson displays a passion for the fire service, and strong leadership abilities for this vital community service. We are confident that Mr. Anderson will guide the department in a positive direction in the coming years.
11 thoughts on “Mason City’s new Fire Chief announced”
Finally someone that truly knows his job!
More of our tax dollars flushed down the drain by this city council. Twice in this past years all the money paid to these consultants left us with no results. The perfect candidate was right under their nose.
Last one took too may patients to mercy ?
We have some amazing local talent in this community. Lets support and encourage them
Congratulations Jon! You deserve this and will be an asset to the department and city you have served for so long already. Thank you for your continued service.
its about time the city got their head out of their ass and promoted from within. who better knows the department and what each man is capable of?? from within such as jon who has 21 yrs on the dept. isn’t looking for a job elsewhere but is dedicated to the city and dept. He is making it his career Now if they just promote from within at the police department things will be back to normal. I don’t look for the current chief to stick around to long, in fact he already applied elsewhere shortly after he got here, he is just using M.C. as a stepping stone to get to a bigger city., Mark my words, he will be gone within a yr
VERY good choice and didn’t have to go out of town to get him. HR wasted $$$.
I agree, he is a good guy. I sure hope he plans to move back to Mason City now that he’s the head of the department.
I loved him in Yes. He is a great singer!
Why did the city spend thousands of dollars to hire a consultant to not go with their process??? Glad to see John promoted but really speaks volumes to the incompetence of our city HR director. Perry gets paid to do what????
Buffington is an idiot. Jon will do a great job, he’s a good guy.