Franklin's fire and police chiefs to retire days apart after decades of public service
Franklin's Fire Chief Adam Remington and Police Chief Rick Oliva are both retiring in January 2024, just a few days apart.
Remington said he and Oliva talked earlier this year about retirement being on the horizon for them both, but said it was “a little bit of a surprise as far as the timing.”
Oliva, who put in his notice about a week before Remington, called the dual retirement situation “coincidental.”
Remington’s last day is Jan. 5 while Oliva’s final day as chief is Jan. 2.
Current Assistant Fire Chief James Mayer will succeed Remington and Oliva’s seat will be filled by current Assistant Police Chief Craig Liermann.
When and why they started their careers
Oliva started as a patrol officer with the City of Milwaukee in July 1978. During his time at MPD he worked with the Gang Squad (at one time as a supervisor), shift commander for Districts 2 and 3, with the Patrol Support Division where he supervised the motorcycle, horse and harbor patrols, the dive team, K-9 unit, accident reconstruction and the planning and operations units.
Later, when promoted to captain of the Patrol Support Division, he was also put in charge of street crimes and the SWAT units. He ended his tenure with MPD in District 3 where he was commanding officer until May 2005 when he was appointed as chief for the City of Franklin.
“I wanted a career that had meaning,” Oliva said. “A career where I could make differences in people’s lives. A job that I would be able to help my community be a safer place to be. I also liked the idea that every day would be different because I get bored with routine.”
Remington started as a paid-on-call firefighter and EMT with the Franklin Fire Department in December 1995 and was promoted to full-time in 1999.
Fire service runs in his family.
“My father was a paid-on-call firefighter in Franklin when I was growing up, and I have numerous other relatives in the field,” Remington said. “And like most firefighters of my generation, tuning in to see what ‘Johnny and Roy’ were up to every week on the old TV show "Emergency!" as a kid probably had something to do with it.”
Specific incidents in careers that stand out
Remington said when looking back, the bad days can seem to stick in his head more persistently than the good ones.
"In 2018, we had a “near-miss” incident in which one of our crews became disoriented and trapped in an apartment fire with hoarding conditions, high heat, and zero visibility," he said. "They called a “mayday” and (the crew) eventually located (a window) and bailed out of (it). We had four people hurt that day ― two of them seriously ― and it was fatal for the resident. I feel like I have not completely exhaled since that day."
Oliva's work on the Gang Squad stands out to him most. He spent time counseling gang members, some of whom didn't have consistent father figures in their lives, about the negative consequences of being in a gang.
He recalled that years later, as he was approaching the downtown police district, a nicely dressed young man who was chaining his bicycle to a pole in front of Milwaukee Area Technical College approached him, extending his hand to shake it.
The young man told Oliva, "You may not remember me, but I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to me about dangers being in a gang."
"He went on to tell me he enrolled in MATC to get his GED and was planning on continuing on to college," Oliva said. "It made me feel good that I had that kind of impact on him."
Plans for retirement
Both men said they plan to travel more in their retirement.
Remington said he needs to “make up for sleepless nights and time that I have missed with my family.”
In addition to travel, Oliva plans to broaden his knowledge beyond police procedure training.
“I also always loved to learn, so I plan on taking classes or courses to broaden my scope of knowledge,” he said.
How policing and fire service have changed over the years
Both men have seen their respective professions change, in different ways.
“In most ways, the fire service is vastly improved over what it was when I started,” Remington said.
There has been a paradigm shift in Milwaukee County to “really promote and embrace a culture of safety, accountability and interoperability,” he said, such as with the Milwaukee County Shared Services automatic aid agreement. Departments agree to meet certain standards for staffing, training and operations for both fire and EMS as part of that agreement.
Remington said the agreement works well, but there are challenges and limitations.
“A wholesale consolidation of municipal fire departments within the county would be far better operationally, and considerably less costly than each municipality duplicating efforts and expenses within their own silo,” he said.
On the police side, Oliva said one of the biggest changes is society support has declined over the years, especially in the last few.
“People who were more supportive in the past have bought into the negative rhetoric towards the police coming from the historically anti-police,” Oliva said. “This cultural change in attitude toward the police has resulted in a significant decrease in the number of qualified applicants looking into a law enforcement career. This should concern everyone; it certainly concerns me.”
While successful law enforcement is “dependent on a supportive and cooperative public,” according to Oliva, what is considered good policing has not changed.
“Good police work always will be dependent on a highly motivated, trained and professional group of individuals who sacrifice many personal benefits in order to serve their community,” Oliva said.
One positive change Oliva noted is the improvement in training and standards, saying law enforcement has learned to work smarter and not harder, such as the increased use of technology.
“The use of cameras, license plate readers, computer programs, drones and other technologies have helped make departments more effective and efficient,” he said.
Their messages for the residents of Franklin
Oliva thanked Franklin’s officials and citizens for support. He said the city is full of “caring and supportive people.”
“There is a commitment here in providing the necessary resources to make and keep the city safe,” he said. “I also want the citizens of Franklin to know they have some of the best police officers and staff anywhere. They are a truly professional group of people who I have had the honor of leading. My success has been the sum of the successes of my staff.”
Remington echoed that last statement regarding the Franklin Fire Department.
“I want (the residents) to know that they have a lot of very talented and dedicated people working to keep them safe day and night,” he said.
As a lifelong resident of Franklin, Remington said he can remember when it was mostly farm fields.
“To watch the growth over the years has been interesting, and there are some really amazing and unique things going on,” he said. “Franklin’s future is very bright; however, the development also drives increasing call volume, and the city needs to ensure for the future that it is staffed to appropriately handle call volume in a safe and effective manner, and within acceptable response time standards.”
Remington said some of the best advice he ever received was something to the effect of, “if you always think you are the smartest person in the room, you are hanging out in the wrong room.”
“I have made it my mission to hire people that are smarter and more capable than I am, and they have made the department what it is,” he said. “It’s time for me to get out of their way.”
Advice the two would like to pass along to their successors
As the two leaders prepare to leave their roles, they offered words of advice to their successors.
"Never forget who your boss is," Remington said. "You serve the people, and you owe them your best."
"Use common sense and you’ll do fine," Oliva said.
Contact Erik S. Hanley at erik.hanley@jrn.com. Like his Facebook page, The Redheadliner, and follow him on X @Redheadliner.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Franklin police and fire chiefs reflect on careers before retirement
