{"id":308410,"date":"2019-09-20T06:06:55","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T20:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=308410"},"modified":"2019-09-20T06:06:55","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T20:06:55","slug":"mendiola-is-new-dfems-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/mendiola-is-new-dfems-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Mendiola is\u00a0new DFEMS chief"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dennis James C. Mendiola has been named the new commissioner of the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services.<\/p>\n

He will replace assistant fire chief Juan A. Pua, who has been the acting DFEMS commissioner since May.<\/p>\n

A former resident deputy commissioner serving the Rota DFEMS, Mendiola is also a retired captain in the U.S. Army, a former chairman of the Luta Soil and Water Conservation, and a son of Rota. <\/p>\n

This means he will bring years of emergency management, environmental awareness, and military experience to DFEMS, according to Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, who announced Mendiola\u2019s appointment yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cDennis is a young, driven, and accomplished public servant who has demonstrated leadership in every position he has held, whether it be in DFEMS, in the Army, or volunteering his time within the community on Rota. He is an advocate for protecting lives during emergencies and community service,\u201d said Torres. \u201cLt. Gov. [Arnold I.] Palacios and I are confident that he will serve the Commonwealth admirably.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torres added that Mendiola\u2019s appointment is part of the administration\u2019s priority to include residents from Rota and Tinian in the Cabinet. \u201cHis experience and ability to work with our firefighters on all three islands will bring efficiency and innovation for the department,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n

Mendiola said he intends to continue the work that DFEMS has done in terms of protecting the community during emergencies and to increase efficiency and to promote innovation in its services.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026It is my goal to ensure that our firefighters and emergency medical technicians promote our department\u2019s mission of saving lives and protecting property,\u201d Mendiola said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dennis Mendiola<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He also thanked Torres and Palacios for including individuals from Rota and Tinian in the Cabinet. \u201cThis \u2018One Marianas\u2019 mindset is an important priority. \u2026For Corrections Commissioner [Wally] Villagomez from Tinian and myself from Rota to serve the Commonwealth really reflects bringing everyone from the Marianas together to make lives better for every single person who calls these islands home,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Mendiola looks forward to creating partnerships between the government and the community that he said will be a critical component to the effectiveness of DFEMS\u2019 services.<\/p>\n

\u201cCollaboration with both government agencies and community organizations will be important in our work as firefighters and EMTs. My goal is to work with others and to really hone in on this \u2018One Marianas\u2019 mindset that benefits the people of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. Working together will lead to collective success for our department and our government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mendiola received his bachelor\u2019s degree in Public Administration with a minor in Military Science from the University of Guam. He is currently working on his master\u2019s degree in Public Administration with a capstone in Human Resources from the American Military University.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mendiola\u2019s service in the U.S. Army encompasses training and certification in weapons of mass destruction, confined space operation, and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear operations, along with numerous tours to several countries. He was commissioned as an air defense officer and was detailed to the chemical corps. He was medically discharged in 2015. (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dennis James C. Mendiola has been named the new commissioner of the Department of Fire…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":308411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[4234],"class_list":["post-308410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-dfems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}