
(File Cell Phone Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
SALEM LAKES, Wis. — Salem Lakes Fire Rescue Division Chief Jill Torres has resigned from the department following an internal misconduct investigation, becoming the second member of the department's command staff to leave under a separation agreement in just one month. Former Assistant Fire Chief Mike Keske signed a similar separation agreement in April, meaning the department's second- and third-in-command have now both departed while under investigation.

(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
You must be logged in to view the rest of this article.
























42 Responses
Hooray, now the Village residents will be safe from incompetence in their healthcare.
Shut up stupid
Clearly you have no experience with being her patient. You wouldn’t calling me stupid.
so long Chris Farley
Thank you for your service
We do know her story it is not impressive
Her story? Enlighten us because it seems like she was in the fire service for things other than being a patient advocate. The only service she was interested in was men.
Thats what Im talking about. Using men to further your career is not impressive at all.
Thats your answer?
You cant handke the amount of dirt I have on here and it would take days.
Aw, this is sad. I worked with Jill in the hospital and she was always working hard and has a very kind heart along with being competent in her job. I know she has a lot of strength and has been through a lot in her life, so I hope the comments are not brutal towards her. We all need grace and mercy, especially in times like this. Love you Jilly Bean!
Sounds like you were lied to and the FD got the actual version of her.
Jilly Bean
Beany Jill
Well at Salem she caused so much pain to the people who worked under her that she made multiple people want to quit a career that that loved before her power trips stomped all over them.
This is another case of where being a competent staff member doesn’t make you a competent administrator because those are very different things.
This woman caused more people to hate their jobs than any other chief, manager, or supervisor I have ever had. She made multiple people cry, yelled at people until they submitted, threatened to fire people just for choosing patient care over her orders, and
Protected people who betrayed their coworkers on a daily basis. She deserves everything that has been said in these comments and she shouldn’t be able to work in the field ever again. Bye bye Torres, I hope all that candy keeps you satisfied cause something has to block out that taste of all the bullshit coming out of your mouth.
Looks like an angry lesbian.
Jill,
You had everything going for you, from the start.
All the chances that a “real” chief could give you over the years, from little practice fires to driving a million bucks around town and all the knowledge gained in between.
Why did you give it all up? For what?
You will never ever again be one of the team, regardless of what some may say to your face.
You divorced the team with your actions.
You are a failure in the eyes of so, so many who supported you along the way.
Very disappointed.
Where do you go after this ?
Are you able to take your skills elsewhere ?
I hope so
Where?
Kce is on the internet.
Search JILL TORRES
And all this will pop up!
Why can’t people just leave their personal lives, troubles and personalities at the door when then punch in at their jobs ??
Sure it’s nice to get to know your coworkers. Maybe even see them outside of work hours and exchange phone numbers. Dinners with the wives and kids or even a day out on the boat.
But once you put on your work clothes and punch a time clock for your employer, you better do the job you were hired to do and nothing more !
Do firefighters and paramedics have a lot of pressure in their jobs ? Sure. Are they constantly at the ready waiting for the bells to go off and immediately go from zero to 60 in a few seconds ? Yes. But regardless of their close proximity to each other, regardless of the trust they put in each other to do their jobs in tandem with their own, professionalism must prevail !
When you are on the clock getting paid a virtual guaranteed wage and great benefits by people (taxpayers) that are by law forced to pay you, you better do the damn job and nothing but the damn job !
Leave home at home. Leave personal feelings and relationships outside the doors.
Do the damn jobs ! Follow orders and respect your bosses.
Is that too hard to do ?
Because they have nothing better to do
Torres, get and use a gym membership and change your diet.
Mike? You too.
Chicken shit being anonymous
Sez anonymous anonymously.
Lots of drama up there by Wilmont.everyone banging each other?
Wilmot
Absolute cowards posting your bullshit anonymously
Posting anonymously allows for better communication without repercussions from unhinged individuals.
And they are out there and you know it.
Half the success of this website, IMO, are because off the freedom to post anonymously.
Free speech from a distance.
It’s a Beautiful thing isn’t it ?
I think what they are saying is pertaining to is the personal insults for no reason
This whole saga is about “personal” things.
Personalities and how they drive actions. Actions and how they drive emotions. Emotions and how they drive decisions.
The personal insults are because the person lets other personalities affect the way they lead and dole out authority.
Personal insults ?
Jill made this personal because she doesn’t know anything else.
And that is not leadership.
Wow said just like someone who this article was written about or has never had to deal with the back lash and harrassment from this person.
Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person. In my 35 yrs in fire and EMS I have never worked for a more bitter, control freak, and unprofessional leader than Jill. She violated my rights (in email) and painted negative images of me just so take the attention off of her complete incompetence and inability to be a leader. She should never be described as a leader. She was a dictator, a boss, and morale buster. But she was never a leader. I hope this article goes through the fire and EMS world like wild fire so she gets black balled like she attempted to do to so many good people. Good riddance Jill.
In my 40 plus years in construction I’ve seen many examples of foreman and superintendents who have no business being is those positions of authority.
Not necessarily the power to hire and fire but enough power to make the work place and work sites miserable. Incompetent leadership. Wrong decision making and sometimes dangerous direction for the workers.
Someone once said, “ the last person who should be the boss is the one that wants to be the boss”
I’m not talking ownership here but the people that owners need to put in charge of crews because someone has to do it. And mostly nobody wants that job.
Sometimes you end up with a narcissist as your foreman or supervisor. A person that is so two faced and convincing only the truly educated can recognize them.
These are dangerous people.
We all are good to a certain point. Recognizing what that point is and staying there is how you have successful careers and job security.
Reach your level of incompetence then back up one step. You will have a good life
Peter principle
The people in the positions before she returned to the department (This is her 2nd time being removed by the way). Were highly trained individuals that were trained by the original chief. They made everyday about bettering themselves and the department. She shoved every single one of them out and took over their jobs. But here is the best part, she had NONE of their qualifications. She begged the administrator to put her in their positions and whined to her AC boyfriend that she deserved it. She failed at all of it more spectacularly than you will ever know. The ones that did benefit from it though are the surrounding departments. Those departments saw what was happening and took on those officers. They are now all happy elsewhere and spreading their knowledge again to future first responders.
… and I have no doubt it isn’t, then these bad decisions can be attributed all the way to the top.
The administrator and the board, more specifically the board President that hired that administrator.
Let’s all remember that at the next Spring election.
People need to be held accountable.
but there is that pesky fire commission in that mix since 2015 .
the commission’s own leadership, here and there, was/maybe IS, very questionable.
This is not new. This goes back pretty far.
What I find absurd are made up positions that demote battalion chiefs by their existance.
Kudos to the good guys who put up with this and stuck around to make the village safe inspite of absurdness.
Dear Jill and Mike:
Thank you for letting your true colors shine through. You sure thought you’d be running this department- but all you did was run it into the ground a bit and lose a lot of talented people by treating them like absolute garbage. Karma truly is a wonderful thing. Not a single person left was sad to see either of you go. And now you don’t even have to hide your best friend/but more than friends relationship. Your memories and legacy here will only be a short lived stain that will be erased and outshined by the extraordinary men and women that put up with your bullshit because they actually do love their job.
Bye Felicia. Don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.
Perhaps the chief that we paid to keep twice should have seen this.
Did Al see this ?
I’m guessing he did. But with any new leadership change especially in a government and service environment protocols and documentation must be in place.
Did Al have to (re) prove everything so to protect the village from future litigation ? Maybe.
When bad people are doing what they do even the appearance of an investigation of them can’t keep them from showing their true colors.
Did people suffer as part of this process ?
Yes. But the process needed to be played out.
And here we are.
Only way to go is up