The four finalists vying to become Vancouver’s next fire chief were peppered with questions on Tuesday night from city leaders and residents about how each man would lead the 170-employee, $27.9 million department.
And, as Tuesday marked the first month since Fire Station 6 in central Vancouver closed, there was a common question on many of their lips: How are we going to fix this?
At an informal meeting at the Water Resources Education Center, the finalists — Vancouver Deputy Fire Chief Joe Molina; George Blackmore, assistant fire chief for the Austin, Texas, fire department; Scott Ehlers, assistant fire chief and chief of operations for Tampa, Fla., Fire Rescue; and Karry Ellis, assistant fire chief for the Columbus, Ohio, Division of Fire — were clear they don’t have a single set of answers.
“If I had the right answer, I’d be a billionaire,” Ehlers quipped. “But to be honest, it comes down to what the public is wanting for public service — about how protected they feel, and what that costs.”
He likened providing fire service to buying a car: That people need to decide if they want a Lexus with leather seats, or if they’re only willing to invest in a Toyota Corolla.
In Columbus, the fire department is still doing well, funding wise, said Ellis, who came in a day early and “put a lot of miles” on a rental car driving around town. He was taken with the community, but did express concern about the city’s funding woes.
“When you have a heart attack or a fire … you want people there in three to five minutes,” he said (Vancouver’s response times have been inching higher due to budget cuts). “You have to pay people to be in fire houses.”
Molina, who has been with the department since 2008, said he’s been a part of meetings with city leaders as the last budget was prepared, and is already on the same page with City Manager Eric Holmes’ priorities. But he did say he’d like to go over the entire department from “top to bottom” and do a “really good” business analysis of the department’s work to see where improvements can be made.
“The department’s right at what’s next,” said Molina, who has been serving as interim fire chief since Chief Don Bivins retired in December. “We’re poised for someone to come in and pick a direction.”
The three out-of-town candidates all said they were impressed with the city, which they were given a tour of Tuesday before the reception. In fact, Blackmore said the city’s climate was a major draw after “almost 40 years of Texas summers.”
He said he was worried that Vancouver engines only have three firefighters on each rig, meaning that if they have to go inside a building to fight a fire, they have to wait for a second engine to arrive, to allow for the required “two men inside, two men outside” firefighting form.
“Resources are spread a little far,” Blackmore observed, adding he’d like to continue looking at regionalizing fire services and alternative ways of delivering service.
The candidates will spend today in three sets of panel interviews, with community members, fire staff and a technical group made up of representatives from outside fire districts and others, Vancouver Human Resources Director Elizabeth Gotelli said. From there, recommendations will go to Holmes, who will pick a few or all of the finalists for site visits in each of their respective cities. An offer will likely be made by late this month or early in March. The fire chief reports to Holmes, who has direct hiring power, not the city council.
Holmes called the process “encouraging,” noting that each man has decades of experience.
“They have great prior experience, great technical experience,” he said. “They’re all from organizations that are of a similar or larger size.”
The position was listed as paying between $120,420 and $138,420 per year, plus benefits, and drew 48 applicants. The city hired a Portland headhunting firm, Waldron & Company, which sent out 1,200 e-mail messages to prospective candidates.
Andrea Damewood: 360-735-4542 or andrea.damewood@columbian.com.
