Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday promised 127 graduating Chicago Fire Department firefighters and paramedics that he is committed to investing in their department, which he said is integral to his mission to invest in all Chicago neighborhoods.
In his first graduation ceremony as mayor, Johnson told the graduates that leaders in “my administration are also here to support you and to lift you up in your service.”
“I’m committed to investing in our communities. I’m committed to investing in the work that you do as a critical part of that work, which includes investing in every single neighborhood, but also giving you the tools that you need and the resources that you need to do your jobs, committed to those investments,” Johnson said.
Johnson used more measured language Monday at the Arie Crown Theater in McCormick Place than he did a week earlier, when he defended Chicago’s reputation during a police officer graduation ceremony, saying: “If you don’t live in the city of Chicago, you don’t have a right to talk about the city of Chicago.”
Monday’s ceremony combined two graduating classes of firefighter-EMTs and fire-paramedics.
Among the 108 EMTs, 10 are Black people and 27 are Hispanic people, according to CFD. Six of them are women. Seventeen have experience as police officers, and six are veterans.
Nineteen graduates were fire-paramedics. That class included two women, two Black people and one Hispanic person. One of them had worked as a police officer.
Johnson oversees a fire department that has reeled from two deaths of members in the last year. Johnson will also need to work with a firefighters union that has gone without a contract since 2021, and a new union president, Pat Cleary, who promised to be more aggressive with city leadership.
At Monday’s ceremony, Johnson said the graduates are “here out of a deep love and dedication to the city of Chicago and the neighborhoods that raised you.”
“You are here because you are equipped with a healing touch, empathy, compassion and bravery,” he said. “That’s what’s required to be a part of such a vital public service. It humbles me to be in a room filled with people who have the resilience to help the people of Chicago in their darkest moments.
“The role you have taken on will help my administration build a better, stronger, safer Chicago,” Johnson said.
The mayor also urged the department members to take care of themselves and each other.
Johnson said the CFD member’s service was needed “to continue to make sure that the city of Chicago truly remains the greatest city in the entire world,” Johnson said.
CFD Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt thanked Johnson for supporting the department.
“He’s been with us every step of the way, through our tragedies and losses, and reaching out to us, if you didn’t know,” Nance-Holt told the graduates.
