Vancouver Fire Chief Bivins to retire

After 11 years at the head of the Vancouver Fire Department, Chief Don Bivins will retire at the end of the year, he said in an e-mail to City Manager Pat McDonnell on Monday.

“In my 35 years in the fire service, I have never had the privilege of working with a better, more competent and professional organization than the city of Vancouver and the Vancouver Fire Department,” he wrote.

He said that it is easy to focus on the department’s current woes — which include the loss of 18 firefighter positions and the impending closure of Fire Station 6 in Burton — as the reason for his departure. But Bivins, 54, said he’s been planning for retirement for several years now. His wife is no longer working and his daughter is off to college.

“Everybody works for this eventuality,” said the chief shortly after sending in his retirement notice. “It’s time to move on to another phase of life.”

Bivins, who got his start as a firefighter for King County Fire District 40, near Renton, said his fondest memory was opening two new fire stations and installing rescue units when he took the helm in Vancouver. That the department is shrinking now is difficult to see, but he said he recognizes the gravity of the city’s financial situation.

“Everybody is having to suck it up,” Bivins said with characteristic frankness. “I don’t like seeing the fire department shrink, but I don’t have a solution for it either.”

Leaving will allow a new chief to work through the entire several-year process of creating a fire authority or district with other area departments, which Clark County, Vancouver and other local cities have just begun discussing, he said.

But the thing Bivins said he’ll take with him is the working relationships he had with his staff and with other city administrators. He called his firefighters “consummate professionals,” who do the most they possibly can with a staffing level that’s well below federal and state standards.

“Your fire department is filled with the most professional and dedicated people I have had the pleasure to work with,” he wrote to McDonnell. “They do so much with so little, I only wish the entire community could see them through my eyes.”

In an e-mail, McDonnell said, “Chief Bivins is a very special person on my management team. His steady and determined leadership with a calm professional attitude will be deeply missed.”

Bivins will remain in his $134,964 a year job through the end of the year. He spent 16 years in Vancouver, and another nine years with Fire District 4 and Fire District 5. Under the city’s retirement incentive of $1,000 per year of service, he will get $25,000, which recognizes his time with all three local districts. His state pension is 2 percent of his salary per year of service, or 70 percent of his current pay.

He is also looking for a job in the private sector: “I’m too young to quit working totally,” he said. Bivins said he’s had conversations, but no papers or official offers have been signed.

The fire chief is joining a host of other top city administrators who have said they will retire this year or next, including former Assistant City Manager Betsy Williams, who will leave at the end of 2010, and former Transportation Manager Thayer Rorabaugh, who will serve as the city’s transportation policy director until his Dec. 31, 2011, departure. Media Services Director Donna Mason will also leave at the end of this year.

“With the staff that we have and the longevity we have, it’s not surprising,” Bivins said of the exodus. “I have every confidence that the city will continue to grow with fresh blood.”

Andrea Damewood: 360-735-4542 or andrea.damewood@columbian.com.