Fire board poised to choose chief

Vashon Island Fire & Rescue commissioners will soon consider candidates for the island’s next fire chief — a search that fire professionals consulting for the district as well as multiple community leaders have suggested might be unnecessary, given the strong performance of the district’s interim chief, Ben Davidson.

But three of VIFR’s five commissioners — Jim Whitney, Candy McCullough, and Amy Drayer — say the hiring process the board initiated in January should play out to ensure the best possible leadership for the district.

“We’re now hearing from the public,” said Drayer, at a May 28 meeting attended by several prominent islanders who urged the board to hire Davidson. “I think the community has seen Ben step up and do so many things we expect and want. But I don’t know that means that we abdicate the investment we’ve made in the search firm.”

Applications closed on June 8 in a national search overseen by Prothman, a recruiting firm hired by the board of commissioners.

According to a schedule discussed at a June 25 fire board meeting, the board will meet in a closed session with a representative of Prothman on July 8 to discuss five applicants for the position and decide which will receive interviews.

As is typical in such a hire for VIFR, three panels — variously made up of commissioners, VIFR staff and volunteers and members of the public — will meet and interview the candidates on July 29, following a “meet and greet” the evening of July 28. The board will convene again on July 30, and could, at that time, make its choice for a new fire chief.

While the full slate of candidates has yet to be introduced to the public, one applicant is well-known: Davidson, a 16-year veteran of the district and lifelong islander who was appointed by the board as interim chief in late January, following former Fire Chief Matt Vinci’s departure from VIFR to become chief of another fire district in Spokane County.

Since that time, praise for Davidson’s leadership of the district has come from Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority Chief Brian Carson and Norm Golden, Puget Sound’s deputy chief in charge of community reduction. Since February, Golden has served as a consultant to VIFR, working with Davidson and helping to oversee the work of the district’s administrative staff members.

“We are very impressed with your interim fire chief,” Carson said an April 30 commissioners’ 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.”

Commissioners got the same message from local leaders who offered public comments at the board’s May 28 meeting.

These included representatives of Vashon’s emergency preparedness organizations: Dr. Jim Bristow, co-director of Vashon’s Medical Reserve Corps; MJ Witt, manager of Vashon’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT); and Sharon Danielson, a longtime representative of CERT.

All three spoke of Davidson’s fruitful collaboration with their groups.

“Our island needs the stability and longevity that a native of Vashon can provide,” said Witt, calling Davidson’s approach to his job “hands-on and heart-forward.”

“What sets Ben apart is not just his operational experience, but his spirt of partnership,” Witt said. “He builds bridges between volunteers and professionals, between agencies and citizens. We need leadership that unites us, and we already have that in Chief Davidson. Let’s make it official.”

Bristow said his “unqualified” support for Davidson was based on his experience in working with him during the COVID pandemic and beyond, and seeing the Medical Reserve Corps’ partnership with VIFR grow over the years.

Bristow said he understood the board’s need for a hiring process, but urged speed.

“We are planning a major exercise to try and understand how we set up a field treatment site in the event of a major earthquake … and for the first time, we have Medic One, VIFR, Sea Mar [Community Health Centers] and Dispatch Health all in the same room thinking about planning this. But things can’t really move ahead until we know who the chief is going to be,” he said.

Vashon Rotary President Pamela Godt also weighed in with warm words of support, addressing Davidson directly.

“We would love to have you become the chief,” she said.

Mike Kirk, a revered former island educator and longtime volunteer firefighter and EMT who has served the fire district in multiple capacities over the course of last half century, said Davidson had the “kind of spirit that went beyond professionalism” in his approach to fire service on Vashon. Kirk’s wife Patti — who also volunteered for VIFR for 33 years — concurred.

Representing the Vashon Health Care District, superintendent Tim Johnson said he had been authorized by Health Care District board members to express their gratitude for the opportunity, during Davidson’s tenure, to work more collaboratively with the district.

“The thing I came here to say on my own is that the chief you have right now — he gets the pieces that make things work,” Johnson said. “I don’t want to tell you how to do the process. I just want to let you know, for whatever my opinion means to you, you would lose a lot by bringing someone else into Ben’s role. I heartily endorse him.”

The outpouring of support from islanders led to discussion by the commissioners.

Both commissioners Candy McCullough and Jim Whitney thanked those who had spoken, but also variously characterized the the push for Davidson as “cheer-leading” and a “sales pitch” at times, saying that it would be wrong to abandon the process of hiring a new chief via a professional search that VIFR’s firefighter’s union had specifically advocated for shortly after Vinci announced his resignation.

“I believe in Ben’s capabilities, but what we’re doing, and I said this from the beginning — you do this, and you’re undermining his credibility,” Whitney said, in part. “Go through a process, vet through a process of looking at other people. This has been a sales pitch that’s been going on these last three months.”

Drayer also thanked those who had shown up to support Davidson’s candidacy, but asked for their patience in allowing the board to finish a hiring process it had begun.

However, the board’s vice-chair, Pam King, and its chair, Brigitte Shran-Brown, both suggested that the board could perhaps change course, given the kudos that Davidson had received both from Puget Sound Fire Authority consultants and members of the public.

Shran-Brown said that at the time the board had agreed on initiating the hiring process, Davidson had not been acting as the chief, and that it was possible to have a new perspective now.

“Since that time, he has been acting as chief and what the community is saying is ‘wow,’” she said. “And what we’ve been hearing from his mentors, Golden and Carson, is the same thing. Now, we have a whole different perspective … and a lot more feedback. And I’m [thinking], do we not listen to our community?”

For his part, Davidson thanked those who had spoken at the meeting, saying their support made him “humbled, touched and proud.” He also returned to Witt’s description of him as “heart-forward.”

“I’ve always liked that term — that’s how I operate, and I always have, and I’ve found that I’m really successful because my heart is in the work,” he said. “And I care about this island. I care about everybody on it. I care about this district … and all I really want to do is offer my service to keep it successful and growing in the right direction.”

Contacted by The Beachcomber for additional comment this week as the board moves toward its decision, Davidson reflected further.

“Working as interim fire chief over the past six months has been incredibly rewarding,” he said. “Having the opportunity to lead in my own way has shown not just me —but also the staff, our partner agencies, local emergency groups, and the community — what I bring to the table and why I’m a strong fit for the permanent role.”

“These past six months have been about leading with purpose, building trust, and showing what’s possible when we work together,” he added. “I’m hopeful that I’ll be successful in this process, and that those making the decision see the value of having someone who brings an islander’s perspective and understands the unique challenges Vashon faces — someone who knows this district inside and out.”