By MARGIE DOYLE
Editor
Fire Commissioner Jim Coffin predicted that the Commissioners would “take some heat” for their decision last month to employ Buddy Wright, a member of the Orcas Island Fire Department for 11 years (first as a volunteer, and since 2007, as a part-time employee of the Department) as Battalion Chief/ Operations and Training, at $90,000 per year, plus a full benefit package.
It seems he was right.
A petition is being circulated by Kate Pruett that reads, “A petition from the general public to the Fire Department Commissioners:
We, the undersigned, hereby protest the $7,500 per month (plus benefits) salary for Battalion Chief. Approving this position for that amount of money is outrageous. You, the commissioners, are accountable to us, the citizens you were elected to represent. As taxpayers, we insist that you greatly reduce the salary for battalion chief for Orcas Island.”
Pruett said, “I kept waiting for somebody else to start a petition. I think it’s abominable to be paying that much. It got my motivation going.” Copies of the petition are located at various Eastsound businesses.
A second petition from past and present volunteers/employees of the Orcas Fire Department to the Fire Department Commissioners and the Fire Chief is also being circulated.
Wright’s duties, as described by Coffin, are to develop and organize department training, department operations and department planning.
Wright began with the Orcas Fire Department 11 years ago as a volunteer firefighter, and is now in the EMT class, one of nine firefighters being cross-trained.
Wright has attended several Washington State Fire Marshall classes in North Bend, in such matters as HazMat (hazardous materials) and multi-company operations. He states that he has been present at “virtually every fire in the last seven years.”
Harris defended the decision to hire Wright as Battalion Chief/Training and Operations Manager as “fulfilling the strategic plan,” and completing a job he would have paid a consultant $30,000 to do in refining the department’s online training program. Harris also praised Wright, saying “Buddy helped me more than anyone else to ‘knit the district…together,'” Harris said that many of the EMTs and firefighters “didn’t even know each other,” and that Wright “collapsed the organization chart so that the EMTs and firefighters had the same officers, and were cross-trained,” so that all new volunteers would be both firefighters and EMTS.
Coffin praised Wright’s “unique skill set” and the ability he has demonstrated as a quick study, saying, “Buddy is passionate about fire service and quality of training.”
Fire Dept Commissioners are elected officials who serve as the “legislative” branch of the Fire District, with the Chief serving as the District’s Executive Officer. Coffin’s term expires in 2013, Commissioner Harvey Olsan’s term expires in 2011 and Commissioner Clyde Duke’s term expires 2009.
When asked if Wright’s position was a preface to his being appointed Fire Chief when Harris’ contract expires in December 2009, Coffin said “It is too early to speculate… I haven’t considered [Harris’] replacement.”
However, Commissioner Clyde Duke said that Wright’s position is, in essence, an Assistant Chief position. The budget narrative states in explanation of the Battalion Chief/Training Officer position assigned to Wright, “This position represents our attempt to provide for a smooth transition when Chief Harris retires in 2009.”
Wright is the owner of Cold Spring Pumps, and has recently hired Ray Stanton as manager for the day-to-day operations of his business. Wright still works there one day a week.
Others have protested the fact that the job of Battalion Chief wasn’t a posted position.
Commissioner Clyde Duke explained, “We’d been looking internally for an Assistant Chief, starting with those who we have in the department. Everything was communicated and as inclusive as possible; it was open to everyone in the department.
‘What do we have internally?’ we asked. In the commission, we talked about every individual.”
However, several EMT/firefighter volunteers told the Sounder that they had not been notified of the job opening and were unaware that the Commission was considering the Assistant Chief position. They asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions.
Commissioner Jim Coffin said emphatically, “We would not have done better posting the job.”
Harvey Olsan said: “Wright ‘grew’ the position. It was worth it to compete with what he was making in his own business and come full time. We didn’t even think about posting it.”
In 2004, when Mike Harris was hired, at $75,000 without benefits, (his retirement package from a previous fire chief position provided superior benefits to the ones offered by the Orcas Island Fire Dept.)
At the same time, the Fire Department Commissioners offered Kevin O’Brien, then acting Battalion Chief, a new post of assistant fire chief and training officer. At the time, the Sounder reported Harris as saying that the Fire Commissioners knew that hiring O’Brien [as assistant chief] would create budget problems, but the Fire Commissioners were “willing to try to make it work.”
But O’Brien declined to accept the position.
The 2008 Orcas Fire Department budget narrative states the Employee and Administration category of the budget, where all wages are detailed, shows a 12 percent increase of over $75,000 from the year before, due to “the predicted and needed change to provide the one year old Battalion Chief position to go full time… and the need to fund the overtime for the Fire/Medics [for] not only… annual leave but also sick leave.”
Duke said last week that various jobs and responsibilities within the department have been shuffled since 2005, and that “moving money more into management has been discussed for the last year and a half.”
