Miami-Dade mayor picks new fire chief in latest shake-up of public safety leaders

Miami-Dade County has a new fire chief after the latest shuffle of public safety leadership under Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who shifted the current chief to a new position within the department and promoted his deputy to the top spot.

Raied “Ray” Jadallah, deputy chief, takes over the 2,800-person department on Monday, Aug. 1, replacing Alan Cominsky, who will assume the newly created role of chief fire marshal within Fire Rescue.

Both gained widespread attention during the county’s response to the Champlain Towers South condominium collapse in Surfside last year, with Jadallah overseeing daily activities as head of emergency operations.

In a memo, Levine Cava linked the change to post-Surfside reforms, saying Cominsky would devote more time to overseeing county safety standards for buildings.

The changes are needed so “the County can dedicate resources to implementing these critical building safety reforms, while continuing to provide essential fire rescue and emergency response services,” Levine Cava wrote.

Jose “Pepe” Diaz, chairman of the county commission, said he was surprised Levine Cava wasn’t keeping Cominsky as chief after his accomplishments.

“I think Alan Cominsky is an incredible person and an incredible leader,” Diaz said. “I don’t know why we should do that, after all his work at Surfside.”

Erika Benitez, spokesperson for Fire Rescue, said in his new role within the department, Cominsky will be reporting directly to Freddy Ramirez, who is the county’s police director as well as Levine Cava’s chief of .safety and emergency response. She said the current fire marshal, Assistant Chief Darren Williams, will retain his other duties, while Cominsky will oversee the county’s Fire Prevention Division.

Levine Cava’s 2023 budget proposal includes $360,000 in the Fire Rescue Department to fund the new chief fire marshal position, though it’s not clear if that includes expenses beyond compensation. Cominsky, who joined the fire department in 1995, earned $279,000 last year, according to county data. Jadallah earned $216,000.

After the Surfside collapse, Jadallah led briefings for surviving residents and the families of people who were missing, explaining the details of a 24-hour rescue operation for a catastrophe that killed 98 people. After the first day of rescue efforts, no additional survivors were found.

Cominsky has been the public face of Fire Rescue since he was appointed under then-Mayor Carlos Gimenez in late 2019.

This is the latest change at the top for Miami-Dade’s public-safety administrators under Levine Cava. In February, she demoted the head of the county’s Corrections Department, Daniel Junior, to a new post at PortMiami, appointing Cassandra Jones as the new head of Miami-Dade’s jail system.

At the same time, she elevated Ramirez, then the county’s full-time police director, to an administrative role overseeing police and rescue services.

Ramirez’s replacement as director, George Perez, was in the post on an interim basis for five months before he was moved to a new post in Corrections and Ramirez was brought back as police director, this time also overseeing Fire Rescue in the newly created role of chief of safety and emergency response.

This story was originally published July 25, 2022 at 6:46 PM.