Commissioners of Vashon Island Fire & Rescue voted on Monday night to extend an offer to William McLaughlin to become Vashon’s next fire chief.

McLaughlin will bring close to 40 years of experience in fire service work, including multiple leadership positions, to his work on Vashon.

According to Christina Bosch, Vashon Fire’s director of human relations and finance, McLaughlin accepted the conditional offer on Tuesday morning, pending contract negotiations.

“I’m very excited and it’s an incredible honor to be appointed to the position,” McLauglin said, in a brief phone interview on Tuesday. “I think very highly of the community and the fire district and I’m looking forward to helping transition it forward and continue the excellent service it now provides.”

McLaughlin added that he hopes to soon communicate more fully with islanders about his goals and vision for the district’s future.

The board’s vote came in a special board meeting after a hiring process overseen by Prothman, a recruitment firm engaged by commissioners following former fire chief Matt Vinci’s departure in January to work as a fire chief in eastern Spokane County.

The months-long search culminated on July 28 with in-person interviews of four candidates by three panels, variously made up of 20 islanders including fire commissioners, fire district staff and volunteers, and community leaders including longtime fire district volunteer and educator Mike Kirk, Vashon Health Care District Superintendent Tim Johnson, Vashon Senior Center Executive Director Maria Glanz, and disaster preparedness leader MJ Witt, among others.

The roster of candidates notably included Ben Davidson, a lifelong islander who has served as Vashon Fire’s interim chief since Vinci’s departure.

In announcing their decision to offer the position to McLaughlin, commissioners Brigitte Schran-Brown, Candy McCullough, Pam King and Amy Drayer all said that there had been strong consensus and support for McLaughlin’s hire by panel members immediately following the interviews.

“[McLaughlin’s] deep background and nationally recognized leadership in wildland fire response and prevention, mutual aid coordination, small island fire service, volunteer leadership, engagement and political acumen — paired with a powerful commitment to and proven results in mentorship and leadership development — will serve our department and our community well,” said Drayer.

Community input

An open house for community members to meet the candidates, held prior to the interviews on July 27, was attended by approximately 40 islanders including several VIFR staff members.

At the public forum, McLaughlin introduced himself by detailing his current work leading Wildland Urban Interface programs at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland — a job he took in January following his retirement as the fire chief of the Ketchum Fire Department, in Idaho. In Ketchum, among other accomplishments, McLaughin led a successful 2024 voter measure to consolidate his and other nearby fire departments into a newly created Ketchum Fire District.

He said he had begun his federal job in Maryland one week before the presidential administration changed, and since that time the workforce at the National Fire Academy had experienced staffing cuts, leading to additional responsibilities for him. Describing his current work, he said, “It’s not as stable as I would like.”

His interest in serving as Vashon’s fire chief, he said, sprang from experiences living in both Friday Harbor and Bellingham, Washington, for almost 20 years.

McLaughlin served San Juan Fire District 3, in Friday Harbor, from 1992-2006 — first as a training captain and deputy chief, and then as the district’s chief for five years. He was chief of Whatcom Fire District 4, in Bellingham, from 2007-2011, before going on to other chief positions in both Colorado and Idaho.

“I’ve always wanted to come back and have been planning to retire back here,” he said at the forum, extolling the temperate climate of the Pacific Northwest. “I love island living — I raised my kids up in Friday Harbor, and I have missed that lifestyle. This community reminds me a lot of what we had there, and I would love to get back and be part of your community as well.”

Other candidates vying for the position included Christopher Beswick and Alton “Brian” Culp, both current Washingtonians who respectively have held or currently hold positions as fire chiefs, and Davidson, who has risen through Vashon Fire’s ranks since becoming a volunteer firefighter and EMT in 2008.

Before Davidson’s appointment as interim chief, he served as the district’s deputy chief beginning in 2024; division chief of training and community risk deduction from 2023-2024; acting captain and duty shift captain from 2019-2023; a leader of Local 4189 union from 2012-2022 and firefighter and EMT from 2010-2023.

In his remarks at the candidate’s open house, Davidson described Vashon Fire as being on an upward trajectory. His candidacy for chief, he said, was “about keeping a good thing going and continuing to lead the way” both for the wider community and disaster-preparedness volunteers who have long served the island.

Over the course of his tenure as interim chief, Davidson received high praise for his leadership of the district, both from fire service professionals advising the district and members of the public.

At a fire board meeting held in April, both Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority Chief Brian Carson, and Norm Golden, a Puget Sound Fire deputy chief currently serving as a consultant to Vashon Fire, spoke about Davidson’s performance as interim chief.

“We are very impressed with your interim fire chief,” Carson said at the meeting. “We think you have a good one, so much so that I’m not necessarily sure that you need to be looking for something better than what you have.”

And at VIFR’s board meeting in May, a group of island leaders representing Vashon Rotary, the Vashon Health Care District, and VashonBePrepared groups including the Medical Reserve Corp and Community Emergency Response Team also gave public comments urging the board to hire Davidson as chief.

Board explains decision

The board’s decision on Monday came after a brief executive session and an ensuing motion by Drayer to extend an offer to McLaughlin. Commissioner Jim Whitney was absent from the meeting.

In a discussion following the motion, each of the commissioners in attendance at the meeting — Drayer, Pam King, Brigitte Schran-Brown and Candy McCullough — said that the decision had not been made as a referendum on Davidson’s performance as interim chief. Rather, it was made in overwhelming consensus with members of the hiring panels.

McLaughlin, they said, would provide the district not only with strong leadership but also a pathway for additional mentorship for Davidson that could lead to his eventual hire as fire chief following McLaughlin’s tenure.

“I think we all believe it will be good for this district to have a very experienced chief to mentor Ben for the next few years to prepare him for the role in the future,” McCullough said.

Calling Davidson’s work as interim chief “exemplary,” Drayer characterized McLaughlin’s hire as “an opportunity to build on that work and further elevate [Vashon Fire] through the addition of another extraordinarily qualified individual to the team.”

“This is a moment of growth and momentum for Vashon Island Fire & Rescue,” she added. “I’m incredibly proud of the process and the professionalism of the staff throughout [it], and the promise of what’s to come under Chief McLaughlin’s leadership.”

Schran-Brown also expressed confidence in McLaughlin’s qualifications and skills, saying she looked forward to working with him. But in the final vote to offer McLaughlin the position as Vashon’s chief, Schran-Brown cast the board’s sole “no” vote, saying that although she believed McLaughlin “will be terrific,” that her vote should reflect that of the greater community.

“As an elected official, I also need to listen to the community, and the community made it very clear that their choice was Ben Davidson [because] he has done an outstanding job of representing this community,” Schran-Brown said, adding that she, too, shared that opinion.

Drayer disagreed with Schran-Brown’s statement, saying that she wanted to be clear that the board’s decision wasn’t about “not about listening to the community,” but rather, was reached in a rigorous process that included the voices of panel members. Her role as a fire commissioner required that kind of process, she said.

“It’s vitally important to me that we provide the right leadership to underpin the stability of the department,” she said.

Davidson, in response to a request for comment, reacted to the board’s decision on Tuesday morning,

“I am disappointed by the board’s decision, but thankful to the outpouring of support from the community,” he said. “In addition to the great work accomplished by my team, I am proud of the partnerships and positive relationships I have fostered during my time as interim fire chief and am hopeful they will continue moving forward.”

Of Davidson, McLaughlin said that he looked forward to working closely with him on Vashon.

“I want to honor the work he has done for the district over many years, and I hope that he will be in a position to lead the department in the future,” McLaughlin said.