Aurora officials are considering expanding where police and fire chiefs can live as the fire department remains under interim leadership and members call for stability.

By Addison Wright
Beacon-News

AURORA, Ill. — The Aurora City Council has delayed deciding whether to loosen residency requirements for the city’s police and fire chiefs.

The delay comes as the Aurora Fire Department continues to operate with an interim fire chief after former chief David McCabe retired in November 2025, and an attempt to appoint a new chief in April was put off.

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Police and fire chiefs are currently required to live in Aurora or move to the city within a year of taking on the job.

The proposed ordinance would allow Aurora’s police and fire chiefs to live in any municipality within 15 miles of Aurora.

Aurora Ald . Carl Franco, 5th Ward, who is behind the proposed ordinance, said the measure could help fill the fire chief vacancy by removing some barriers. The ordinance was set for a final City Council vote last week.

“This way, we can get the best and the brightest candidates, even if they don’t live in the city because they could have good reasons why they don’t live here for all that time,” Franco said.

But Ald. Ted Mesiacos, 3rd Ward, asked Aug. 25 for the measure to be moved back to the City Council Rules, Administration and Procedure committee for further review.

The proposed residency requirement ordinance now sits with that committee, which is set to meet at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Aurora City Hall.

Aurora Mayor John Laesch said the proposed ordinance “makes zero sense” to him and that City Council members still care about having some residency requirements for the city’s public safety officials due to the nature of the job.

“Public safety was the area where we needed to have some level of residency,” he said.

Laesch said he is in no rush to find a permanent fire chief.

“We have an interim fire chief who has been running the show effectively,” he said. “There’s no urgency to revisit the appointment process at this time.”

The city adjusted residency requirements for some city department heads last July, despite some concern from aldermen. The requirements no longer apply to department heads who are required to have a professional license or are required to have specialized training or knowledge.

City officials argued at the time that the change would allow the city to be more competitive and have more flexibility to hire candidates.

Franco said he wants to loosen the residency requirements for police and fire chiefs for similar reasons.

The proposed ordinance, he said, would allow the city to expand its candidate searches while still ensuring the police and fire chiefs are living close to Aurora for emergency response, oversight and leadership functions.

Some Aurora Fire Department officials would like to speed up the candidate search for a permanent fire chief, Franco said.

“This is unprecedented,” he said of the time that Aurora has not had a permanent fire chief in place. “The fire department is not happy about it at all.”

Aurora Fire Department Capt. Dick Dahleen made a plea for the fire chief position to be filled during the public comment period of the City Council Public Health, Safety and Transportation Committee Meeting on Aug. 25 . Franco chairs the committee.

Dahleen said Aurora’s interim fire chief Kevin Nickel has taken on a “tremendous amount of responsibility” to perform both the deputy chief and chief responsibilities since McCabe retired.

“Those responsibilities do not stop simply because the position is vacant,” he said during the committee meeting.

Dahleen said the fire department has a young workforce and several large upcoming projects that require leadership. These projects include the budget process, the relocation of the fire department’s headquarters, recruitment and retention, long-term planning, transitioning to new radio and dispatch systems and an upcoming review conducted by the Insurance Services Office, he said.

“We need stability,” he said. “We need direction and we need a leadership structure … filling the deputy chief position would provide much needed executive level support, help distribute the workload, strengthen succession planning and allow Chief Nickel to focus more fully on leading the entire fire department.”

Laesch said Friday that “things are absolutely fine in the status that they’re in” and that there is no timeline or updates on filling the fire chief position.

Laesch attempted to appoint Mark Bozik, the village of Roselle’s former fire chief and a resident of North Aurora, as fire chief in April, but that appointment was pulled from the City Council agenda less than 12 hours before the meeting.

Aldermen did not discuss or vote on it, although Aurora firefighters, department leadership and retired leaders still showed up in force at the council chambers because of the issue.

Laesch said at the time he made the decision to delay the appointment after aldermen expressed concerns about his pick. Some people at the time, such as former Aurora Fire Chief Gary Krienitz, took issue with hiring a chief from outside of the Aurora Fire Department.

Laesch said Thursday that he has not spoken to Bozik since early this summer.

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