The city of Niagara Falls has two big positions to fill.

Fire Chief Thomas Colangelo stepped down last month, and Police Superintendent Bryan DalPorto told city officials this week that he will resign as of January 1.

City Administrator Nick Melson said he is nearing a decision on an internal candidate for the fire department, and he will look at a pool of internal candidates for the police job as well.

"I'm confident that we have the right candidates in house, and we have multiple candidates to choose from, and whoever we decide to run the department moving forward, I think it will be a good decision," Melson said.

While he says there is a strong stable of candidates locally, he concedes the city does not have the money to do a national search.

Furthermore, Melson said there is no financial incentive for patrol captains or battalion chiefs to take the job.

"While on paper, you'll see the base salary is about $10,000 - $15,000 different, the overtime benefits, the things that go along with doing the job that you're not eligible for as a police chief or fire chief make it so it's about a $50,000 pay cut to actually run the department," Melson said.

He added that it's not a good time to address changing the pay scale for the positions after recently asking public safety unions to make concessions as the city tightened its budget.

City Councilman Ezra Scott agrees.

He adds that some potential candidates might get scared away by next year's election which could also make this a one-year appointment.

"What we're gonna have to find is somebody that's interested with being in the position that's not really secure but really passionate and really looking for the best interests of the city of Niagara Falls," Scott said.

DalPorto and Colangelo will both remain with their respective departments.

Melson says the city hopes to have both positions filled by January 1.