— by Margie Doyle —
Monday evening’s regular meeting of the Orcas Island Fire and Rescue District (OIFRD) Commissioners heralded a fresh start for the taxing district that has said hello and goodbye to three chiefs in the past four years (Mike Harris 2012, Kevin O’Brien 2012-15, Mik Preysz 2015-16).
Scott Williams was formalized as Acting Chief at the meeting with Commissioners Jim Coffin and Wes Heinmiller; Commissioner Barbara Bedell was on a planned absence from the Commission. Chad Kimple was named Acting Assistant Chief.
Coffin introduced an OIFRD organization review and chief search. He said following the meeting, “I attempted to throw out ideas and challenges to the commission in working through these decisions about the organization and chief. Should we have a chief in place before the review or should we run the chief search simultaneously with the organizational review?
“They’re obviously related but part of the same thing. The challenge is in how they fit together. Anytime there’s a change, it’s useful to look at what we’re doing right and wrong; our operational results are excellent; our financial picture is quite good. It’s time to look at what we’re doing and how we’re doing it; to see if we’re appropriately staffed and if we’re missing something or being redundant.
“The Chief search is always a challenge. We can do it two ways: the traditional way that is very time consuming, with a lot of volunteer time and community involvement. The alternative is to engage a “headhunter” organization, which can be quicker and has real experts recruiting. The downside is there may not be as much ownership in the community and you lose control.” A headhunter search may be “quite expensive,” Coffin said, “a major, major problem … with even a public entity search costing up to a quarter of the position’s salary.” (In OIFRD’s case, that amount may be close to $30,000.)
Coffin and Acting Chief Scott Williams both said they were pleased with the tone of public comments. As described by participant Leif:
“There was some mention of wasting good men with all this turnover, and some quibbling about if you put a man on indefinite administrative leave and he resigns, was he “fired” and does this change our interpretation of what is going on at OIFD.
“There also seemed to be a consensus among the five members of the public offering comment that the OIFR, reflecting the lead statements of Mr. Coffin on the agenda, needs to “look within” at the level above operations for solutions to where to go next.
“Comments from the public emphasized that having just a three-commissioner board hamstrings them by not providing enough knowledge and ideas and perspective to problem-solve, and by not allowing them to meet in smaller action committees to problem-solve and report to the larger body. As it is, if they get together to talk, by the public meetings act, it has to be in a public meeting. So it takes forever to reach any conclusions about anything.”
Following the meeting, Coffin said he has always had an interest in increasing the size of the board, but that the proposition had been “seriously considered” by the commission in past years, with his sense being that “There was a fair amount of resistance in the community to that idea.” However, now that there is revived interest in increasing the number of commissioners, he says, “We should probably seriously explore following through on the mechanism” to increase the commission size.
“We [Commissioners] can’t consult together until we’re in a meeting; that slows things down. We don’t have sidebars.”
Coffin expects to bring the matter to the next regular meeting of the OIFRD Commissioners.
In related news from the meeting,
- Scott Williams, as Acting Chief, reported that medical calls have gone well and training continues with RJ Meyers’ valuable assistance. The next Fire Academy class will graduate in May;
- Business manager Mark Horaski reported by phone that the overall budget is tracking well, with some overages, such as maintenance, somewhat expected;
- Commissioners were presented with a software development proposal to “package and maintain policies;”
- Negotiations with the Paramedics/FireFighters 3911 Local Union and the OIFRD continue, affecting four Orcas paramedic duty officers; three Orcas firefighter/EMTs; and three Lopez paramedic duty officers.
The commission needs to recognize the danger of promoting it’s best and most experienced Fireman/EMT into a personnel job he can’t handle any more than our best manager has to also be our best EMT/Fireman. The Chief of OIFRD is a hard job and requires skilled personnel management capabilities. The importance of the selection is such that maybe both a head hunter and at least a 6 person appointed interview panel would be the prudent way to go.
“There was a fair amount of resistance in the community to that idea.” –commissioner Coffin on increasing the board from 3 to 5–
When?
There has never been ‘resistance’ from the community–ever! The resistance has come from a power hungry board that refuses to accept necessary change in a desperate attempt to prevent diluting their individual power. Especially commissioner Coffin. Not only does Orcas Fire need 5 commissioners but Coffin and board chair Bedell need to GO!! Their reign has been disasterous.
Regarding the thought of expanding the OIFR Board to five elected members, the Eastsound Sewer and Water District made that change many years ago, and, as a Commissioner, I can say unequivicably that the District has been far more effective and efficient since then. With five members, two can work on a sub-committee with other staff and community volunteers without violating the WA State Open Public Meetings Act. From my many years of service on elected boards, I cannot see any reason that a five member OIFR Board would be disadvantageous.
I for one would be very happy to see the OIFR Board increased to five given the size of its budget and the broad scope of its responsibilities. The three member board’s track record regarding chief selection suggests it might benefit from having a broader discussion than is possible at present.