Safety and Service

There are days when James “Jamie” Banta Jr. says he can’t believe a guy from Anthony is the head of a $130 million public service agency with more than 770 employees. But he is.

Banta, 51, is our Marion County Fire Rescue chief, and everything about his past has prepared him for this role. This includes learning about hard work from his jockey father and teamwork from his football coaches at North Marion High School. 

“I was born and raised in Marion County. My parents moved here from Illinois. My father was a jockey and came here to work with Stavola Farms,” he shares. “I was born in 1973 and was an only child. I went to Anthony Elementary School, North Marion Middle School and graduated from North Marion High School in 1991.”

Banta grew up around horses so his years before high school were pretty much filled with things to do with equines, such as riding competitions. In his early teen years, he took up scuba diving.

“I spent a lot of time scuba diving. Got to go the Grand Cayman Islands, do a lot of stuff with that,” he recalls. “When I entered high school, I started playing football and excelled in it pretty well. What I liked about football and how it transitioned into my career was the team aspect. Some of those early coaches gave me a good foundation of what it means to be a team and that has transcended into my career because this job absolutely is about a team. We can’t do anything alone.” 

He notes that, near the end of his high school years, he was focusing on commercial diving. 

“I wanted to do commercial-type diving, turn scuba diving into a career, and I was set to go to a school in Houston. While I was waiting to start that, I got introduced to the fire department by a friend who was volunteering. I went to the station, rode along, and that’s when everything changed,” he shares. “Being a fireman wasn’t a lifelong passion as a kid, it wasn’t that. It was that introduction, and something clicked, and I changed my plans and never looked back.”

THE JOURNEY

Banta was hired by Ocala Fire Rescue shortly after he attended Florida State Fire College. He became a paramedic in 1996. Early in his journey, he also worked part-time for Munroe Regional Hospital, which is now AdventHealth Ocala. 

“They handled the ambulance service, and I was a paramedic and also worked part-time for UF Health ShandsCair,” he says. “I immersed myself into everything I could to further my career. In 1997, I left the city and came to work for the county as a paramedic/firefighter. Then I went from firefighter/paramedic to lieutenant to captain to division chief to deputy chief and then fire chief in 2017.

Along the way, he got his associate degree from University Medical Services through the College of Central Florida and a bachelor’s degree in public safety administration from Columbia Southern University. He is associated with professional groups such as the Florida Fire Chiefs Association and International Association of Firefighters. 

He admits that one challenge to his ascension to fire chief was the requirement for speaking in public. 

“I was very much an introvert growing up and, really, as an adult,” he shares. “One of my hesitations when I had the opportunity to apply for this job was the amount of public speaking that comes with it. I knew every aspect of the fire department but that part of it was pretty terrifying, and I contemplated not applying because of that. Like in everything, you train yourself through things, so I took an online public speaking class as one of my college classes and it taught me to navigate that.”

THE FAMILY

On one of his forays escorting patients to local emergency rooms, Banta met a registered nurse named Traci. They married in 1998 and are the parents of daughters Danielle Cook, 34, and Chelsey Christensen, 33, both nurse practitioners; and son Jacob, 24, a firefighter with MCFR. Danielle is married to MCFR firefighter Brendan Cook; Chelsey is married to MCFR firefighter Kevin Christensen. The Bantas have five granddaughters: Avery, Emmy, Lucy, Ruby and Charley. 

The chief offers high praise for Traci, noting that she “essentially raised three kids as I would focus on the department and the community, along with being a sounding board for challenges and understanding some of the more traumatic aspects of dealing with tragedies as she was also an ER nurse.”

Banta says he loves to exercise and be on
the water.

“I love fishing, saltwater, inshore, and I do some duck hunting” he says. “I also love spending time with my wife and children and grandchildren, and obviously that’s more important than fishing and anything else.”

He shares that God is an important part of his life. 

“My wife was raised Catholic. I was raised Pentecostal. Very big difference in the two types of churches,” he offers. “I would say we probably focus more on relationship less than, you know, church … as long as you have that relationship, that’s the most important thing.”

The Bantas live on 20 acres in the Sparr area, where they have six cows, some chickens, a miniature schnauzer and a wirehaired pointing griffon.

“Jamie exemplifies the true meaning of dedication, balancing the demands of his role as fire chief with an unwavering commitment to our family,” shares Traci. “As the fire chief, he leads with integrity and passion, and at home, he’s equally devoted, always putting our family’s needs first. I truly do not know how he manages all his commitments while always providing for our needs. His dedication to his profession and to us is a testament to his strength of character and love. He is our ‘real-life hero.’”

ALWAYS RAISE YOUR HAND

When asked about his career success, Banta says, “It’s an example, I think, of working, dedication and passion for something you love. And, obviously, God opening doors at the right time.”

He goes on to explain, “A lot of people ask me, ‘How did you get to where you are? How do you feel you’ve been successful in this position?’

One of the things I tell them all, always be willing to raise your hand, no matter what you’re being asked to do. And that’s something I feel like I have done my entire career.” 

He says it’s easy when somebody says, “Hey, there’s a burning building and there’s kids trapped inside, or there’s a nasty car wreck and you need to do these things to save them, that’s easy… I’m not saying that is easy to do, but as a first responder, that’s what we are here to do. It’s easy to raise your hand and say that. It’s a little harder when somebody is asking you to lead an investigation that is going to most likely result in the termination of people you care about. But always being willing to raise your hand and do whatever the organization asks you to do, and I think that that is something I’ve always done, that has helped me succeed.

MCFR has 25 career fire stations and three career EMS stations. Of the 774 employees, 635 are first responders. 

Among the challenges of his leadership role, Banta says, “is ensuring they are fully prepared to do their job. Having the physical, mental and equipment needs to meet the needs of the community safely. Ensuring every one of them goes home” after every shift. 

His direct team of deputy chiefs—Robert Graff, Drew Rogers and Robert Kruger—report to him, and then there are division chiefs. That is how they “keep an appropriate span of control.”

Of the 774 employees, 88 are dispatchers and 635 are first responders. The remainder are administrative staff. Banta oversees Public Safety Communications and MCFR personnel respond to all the medical emergencies in Marion County and its municipalities. All firefighters must become EMTs or paramedics to advance. 

“It’s not a requirement to become a paramedic, but you do end up getting capped in your promotional progression,” Banta explains. “In order to move up in the higher ranks, you have to be a paramedic.”

He adds that MCFR also has a group of “high-performance” employees who are single certified. “They are EMTs and paramedics that do not have to become firefighters,” he notes. “They don’t do the fire position, just the medical.” 

RESPONSIBILITY AND REWARD

Banta says there are a lot of rewards in
public service.

“One is being able to make a difference in people’s lives who are in desperate need of help, and another is seeing when the things we have done to make sure our people are properly prepared and equipped and trained to have the resources that they need, when it comes together, and the recent bus accident is a prime example of that,” he offers.

He was referring to the May 14 fatal bus crash that involved 53 farmworkers, eight of whom died. The bus was carrying the workers to a farm in Dunnellon and was traveling west on State Road 40. According to Florida Highway Patrol reports, Bryan Howard, 41, of Dunnellon, was traveling east when his pickup truck entered the bus’s travel lane and hit the large vehicle. The bus left the road and hit two fences, struck a tree and overturned.

Howard initially was charged with eight counts of DUI causing death and negligent vehicular homicide and later with 11 counts of DUI with serious bodily injury. He remains in the Marion County Jail.

Numerous local agencies responded to the scene, including a large contingent from MCFR.

“The ability to care for close to 50 people, many of them in critical condition, multiple of them dead, and to be able to manage that scene with the level of professionalism and success is extremely rewarding to me because it shows that as an agency, we’re doing the right thing,” Banta says. “We’re preparing our people in the right ways. And we’re hiring the right people. I think that’s a testament…that’s one of the rewards.”

And it’s not just the “big” cases that define the career of a first responder, he shares. 

“I often tell new hires there is a reward, but it comes with extreme responsibility,” he expounds. “You can literally, and I have done this, watch a newborn take their first breath into this life and, in the same day, you can be the last voice a person hears or the face they see. It’s not just running to fires and training, it’s a lot of responsibility with this job, but with that comes great rewards.” 

When asked how a first responder might deal with the challenges, he talks about resilience.

“A lot of it is, and we’re getting better at this, it’s building resilience and ensuring they are okay following those types of calls, making sure we have the resources available if they are having challenges dealing with that,” he assures. “When it comes to mental health in the fire service, building resilient firefighters and first responders, we focus a lot on ensuring that other parts of their life are strong. If your marriage is strong, if your finances are strong, if your relationships are strong, then it helps you to deal with the other aspects of this job. If one of those, or multiple of those are failing, it’s much harder to deal with the other parts of the job. We focus a lot on building, basically, your armor, trying to make you more resilient. This wasn’t recognized when many of us started. It was suck it up, be tough, and we’re way past that at this point.”

His team members say they appreciate his leadership.

“I have worked for Chief Banta in some capacity for most of my 28 years in the fire service. He has always been a leader that allowed us to grow and experience new things as we became officers ourselves,” notes Graff. “He is almost always patient and understanding, even in times when we learned things the hard way. He has always asked that we put our people and the mission first and he has led that request by example.”

THINK YOU WANT TO BE A FIREFIGHTER?

Banta says his department welcomes applicants but notes the job calls for a unique skill set.

“I view it as the best career in the world, but this job’s not for everybody,” he explains. “There’s a lot of things that are enticing to this job, you know the pay is not too bad anymore, the schedules are good and getting better. You’re helping your community; you’re serving your citizens—all those things are very enticing, but some people just aren’t meant for the job.

He recommends that people who want to pursue a career as a first responder spend some time on the job. 

“We have opportunities to do ride-alongs, we have a mentorship program,” he outlines. “We have a ton of resources to help you get from point A to point B. If anybody wants to come into this fire department, we have an avenue if that’s what they want to do.”

He is quick to caution, however, “It takes hard work, it takes dedication, it takes sacrifice.”

WHAT IS NEXT?

Banta is part of the State of Florida’s Deferred Retirement Option Plan, or DROP, which allows people to remain working while they are effectively retired, meaning they collect a pension that goes into a special fund while they continue to receive a paycheck. 

“I’m in the DROP, so my career here ends in seven years or less,” he says. “I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know you have to be out for a year, and then you can come back. I don’t perceive myself doing that. I’ll have about 35 years of public service, and I think I’ll be ready to try something different.”

He goes on to say, “What I do know is that as much as I love the fire department, it’s not who I am. I think that we see a lot of first responders, military, that when they identify as that’s who they are, then when that’s gone, they’re lost. I don’t know what the next chapter looks like, but I’ll put as much effort into that as I have the fire department.”

In the meantime, he is happy to live in Marion County and says this is great place “to grow up in, to raise a family.” OS