City council on Monday got one step closer to filling significant leadership roles within Austin’s police and fire departments.

However, some firefighters have questioned why the two processes are being handled differently.

With the fire department, council has decided to turn to an interim chief, who can serve no more than 30 days in the role and who the city hopes will provide a good outside analysis of what’s working — and not working — at the station. On Monday, by a 5-2 vote, council approved Detroit Lakes, Minn., pipe fitter and longtime fire service worker David Schliek for the position.

But the city has taken a different approach in replacing former police chief Paul Philipp, who retired Sunday. Instead of turning toward an interim chief, council is allowing two current officers — Det. Brian Krueger and Lt. John Mueller — to fill the position long enough to find the new chief.

Finding a new chief could take two to four months, and the city on Monday voted for that process — as well as the related chore of finding a new captain to replace the departed Curt Rude — to go forward.

Firefighter Troy Tigner, who attended Monday night’s meeting, was first to ask the question of why the city was going the two different ways. Councilman John Martin reiterated the question, and noted that council had discussed the pitfalls of having someone both fill a chief position temporarily and possibly apply for it long-term — one of the reasons to go the interim route.

“But now … that’s what we’re doing” at the police department, Martin said, referencing the fact that both Krueger and Mueller may express interest in taking over the position permanently.

Mayor Tom Stiehm — who previously said he wants a “fire department that runs like our police department” — has maintained that it’s simply a matter of different departments with different situations.

The police department, he said, has been running smoothly and continuity would be a good thing. The fire department, on the other hand, has had conflict within its walls, the mayor said, including a long labor dispute and a rocky relationship with former chief Dan Wilson — making an outside interim chief a good fit.

“They’re two different departments, and we’re addressing the differences at the two departments,” Stiehm said.

Chris Grunewald, an Austin firefighter and the department’s local union president, said regardless of the situations at the two departments, the city should still have shown more confidence in commander Brian Lovik, who has filled in for Wilson since his retirement.

Lovik, Grunewald said, has been doing a good job and is more than capable of filling in for a longer period of time — without an interim chief ever entering the fold, Grunewald added.

But the firefighter said that’s not a knock on Schliek, but rather an endorsement of the commander.

“We really back Brian,” Grunewald said. “Just as (police) officers back their guys. We’d just as soon go the same route as the police department.”