Unofficial voter counts Tuesday night were showing clear leads for three men seeking commissioner posts with Fire District 5, Fire District 6 and East County Fire & Rescue.
And voters rousingly supported proposals to raise the number of commissioners to five for two fire districts made larger after mergers. East County’s proposition received 72.1 percent yes votes, and there were 74.2 percent yes votes for Clark County Fire & Rescue.
The most controversial race was for a commissioner post with Fire District 5, which includes Orchards, Proebstel, Glenwood and adjoining areas. The area contracts with the Vancouver Fire Department to provide fire and emergency medical responses.
Challenger Ron Gibson, a financial analyst for the Vancouver Fire Department, had collected 54.9 percent of the votes, a 10-percentage-point lead over longtime incumbent Robert M. Torrens.
Gibson and the Vancouver firefighters union, led by firefighter Mark Johnston, had raised issues about the district’s finances for its training center.
Torrens, a schoolteacher, had responded that his challengers misunderstood the district’s finances.
Torrens also said the union wanted to control the board, which could lead to problems if a conflict arose between taxpayers’ interests and those of the fire department.
In other contests:
n Casey Collins, a businessman and incumbent commissioner for Fire District 6, had garnered 71.2 percent of the votes against David Vial, who is the administrator for Fire District 5. District 6 includes a large area from Hazel Dell and to the north.
In their campaigns, the men had raised practical issues that didn’t clash, with both saying the board should stop micromanaging decisions that should be left to Fire Chief Jerry Green.
n In the race for a commissioner post with East County Fire & Rescue, Mike Berg, a captain with the Vancouver Fire Department, was leading with 61.2 percent of the votes.
Running second was Sheldon Tyler, retired executive director of the Port of Camas-Washougal.
Both candidates had supported looking into whether a merger with the Camas and Washougal fire departments would better serve the needs of the district’s residents.
n In asking for five commissioners, Clark County Fire & Rescue had noted that its merger had created a large service area and five could better keep up with its business.
The department protects the Ridgefield, La Center and Battle Ground areas.
In addition, the department and East County Fire & Rescue had said having only three commissioners would make it harder to get things figured out between public meetings.
If two commissioners worked on a topic, it would be a public meeting.
