Editor's note: This story was originally published in the Belleville News-Democrat.
Belleville Fire Chief Stephanie Mills received a long, loud round of applause from a crowded city council chambers Monday night after she was appointed to be the first woman to lead the fire department.
Mills, 55, joined the fire department in 2000 and was promoted to battalion chief in 2020.
“It’s pretty special when you work with these people side by side for so long and you get a chance to lead them and I’m excited about that,” she said in an interview after the meeting.
Mayor Patty Gregory nominated Mills to be fire chief. In an interview Saturday, Gregory said Mills is “well respected” by her colleagues.
Mills said there are three other women currently serving in the department.
When asked for her thoughts about being the first woman to lead the Belleville Fire Department, she said “It would make anyone proud to lead this department. We have a long, proud tradition. To be named chief is an honor for anybody.”
Mills’ annual salary as fire chief is $123,073.
Mills replaces LLoyd Stinson III, who resigned this summer after being on the job for less than a year. When Stinson was hired, it was a break from the tradition of promoting someone from within the fire department to be the chief.
Gregory said Stinson submitted his resignation about six weeks ago.
This was soon after the June 20 city council meeting when about 40 firefighters showed up because they were unhappy with the selection process for the proposed appointment of Timothy Walsh as deputy chief under Stinson.
Both Stinson and Walsh have served as fire chiefs in the U.S. Air Force, including Walsh’s service as the fire chief at Scott Air Force Base.
The council voted 15-1 to approve Mills’ appointment with Ward 1 Alderwoman Lillian Schneider casting the lone “no” vote.
Schneider voted against Mills’ promotion because of “the way I’ve been treated” by the fire department. She told the council that firefighters went to her house to put up a smoke detector and she questioned why they “decided they were going to do an inspection” of her house.
“Then they decided to go downstairs and bring up a 10- to 12-year-old smoke detector and put it up in my hall upstairs,” she said before vote. “Why were they even down in the basement?”
Gregory told Schneider that she didn’t think that incident involving a smoke detector had anything to do with Mills’ qualifications to be chief.
Mike Koziatek is a reporter with the Belleville News-Democrat, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
