by Toby Cooper
Sounder contributor
Despite the three newly elected members offering promises of a “new beginning,” Orcas Island’s fire commissioners did not discuss the 2024 budget amendments and a new levy format at its Dec. 18 meeting.
The commissioners, including the incoming commissioners who campaigned broadly on the promise of transparency and a do-over of the levy, had placed the 2024 budget needs at the top of their agenda. With the fire department already operating on an austerity budget that threatens the community with service reductions, there is little time to waste.
Accordingly, Chair Brian Ehrmantraut posted an ambitious 22-item agenda for Dec. 18, the core of which was addressing budget concerns for 2024. However, by the end of the three-hour meeting, little more than the consent agenda — approval of minutes and reports — had been discussed, and the budget-related topics never saw the light of day.
Chief Holly VanSchaick included in her report the announcement that three full-time employees — Finance Manager Audra McLain, Volunteer Coordinator Jim “Mac” McCorison, and veteran Safety Officer/Firefighter/EMT Bob Nutt — were resigning effective immediately. All three resignation letters cited personal differences with new Commissioner Randy Gaylord.
To a community weary of what the non-partisan League of Women Voters has called “turmoil” surrounding the commission and the department it oversees, news of resignations falls hard. Finger-pointing at individual commissioners, for whatever reason, falls even harder. As Interim Chief Noel Monin of San Juan Fire and Rescue told the Sounder last month, “Personality management is crisis management.”
McLain, who came to the finance job from the world of technology start-ups, had only six months tenure with OIFR. She denies any prior knowledge of the other two resignations.
“They are devoted public servants who came to the same conclusion,” she said.
Chief VanSchaick likewise refutes any notion of coordination.
According to McLain, Commissioner Gaylord began to shift away from solving problems and toward “combative” behavior at her initial meetings.
“It wasn’t a direction I was interested in taking,” she said. “There was no sign of the openness and collaboration that was the hallmark of their campaigns. Life’s just too short.”
McCorison spoke similarly of a “confrontational style,” especially in connection with Gaylord’s emphasis on public records requests, which focused on personnel matters and what McCorison called “political skullduggery” leading to a “toxic work environment.”
As a long-time veteran of volunteer and staff positions, McCorison said he did not have it within himself “to survive it all again.” Like McLain, he finds that, “Life is just too short.”
Gaylord, who previously served for 28 years as San Juan County’s Prosecuting Attorney, was taken aback by the trio of personality-driven resignation letters, but still feels a deep sense of mission in his new position.
“I am frustrated by the baseless accusations, but at the same time I am following the legal requirements placed upon us as elected officials,” he said.
Gaylord believes his pursuit of internal communications, contracts and records can be misunderstood but is justified by the need for the board to “understand the liabilities and obligations we face.” He feels confident that his actions will result in a “stronger and more predictable organization.”
He denies having hidden agendas or plans to make personnel changes.
Chief VanSchaick was frustrated by the conflict but saw potential reconciliation if the underlying impasse turns out to be more about style than substance.
McCorison said, “If the board shows us convincingly that they can listen and if the folks in the community can speak to their vision in an organized way — something other than social media — if that would happen, I could see myself coming back in.”
