Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR) commissioners have voted to immediately increase minimum staffing for full-time career firefighters/emergency medical technicians (EMTs) to four per shift, up from VIFR’s current level of three per shift — a move that could necessitate hiring up to six new full-time firefighters in the near future.

The motion to increase minimum staffing was made by the board’s vice-chair, Camille Staczek.

The decision occurred at a commissioner’s meeting, held on Zoom on March 30, with commissioners Staczek, Pam King and John Simonds voting in favor of the motion. Candy McCollough, who was elected as chair of the board earlier in the meeting, cast the only no vote.

Prior to the passage of the motion, Staczek and King presented a report that maintained that the district’s current staffing model did not fulfill VIFR’s mission statement to “continually exceed our community’s expectations to protect life, property and the environment,” among other stipulations.

King and Staczek had recently been appointed to serve as the sole members of a staffing committee for the board. Their report noted that in this capacity, they had gathered information from career staff, captains, union representatives, support personnel, a training instructor and Fire Chief Charles Krimmert.

The report cited numerous factors, outside of the district’s control, that were in play in their call for increased minimum staffing.

These include unreliable ferry service, the closure of the West Seattle Bridge, the lack of private ambulance service to facilitate transfers at the Fauntleroy ferry terminal, and occupancy and staffing issues at local hospitals which have caused delays in the admission of patients.

These problems, they said, have resulted in hours-long response times, leaving the fire station empty of responders for concurrent calls.

The report also cited declining numbers of volunteers and part-time paid firefighters in the district and said that current minimum staffing levels have not been able to be achieved without incurring significant overtime costs.

The move to shift to four-person crews would not entirely solve the problem, they said.

“Based on conversations with frontline career staff, five frontline career staff are needed daily to reduce the liability to the district; six would be the best-case scenario on a daily basis,” the report said. “We understand that effort is required to meet these goals, but believe that the safety of the community, and the reducing the level of liability to the district is well worth the effort.”

Simonds, a newly elected commissioner, strongly supported the measure, saying he would like to go even further to address the problem of the district being “dangerously understaffed.”

Firefighters Ben Davison, who is president of the firefighters local 4189, and Captain Brodie Smith, a 22-year veteran of the force and vice-president of the union, also weighed in at the March 30 meeting, amplifying the concerns of union members. These included the need for more protective gear, including ballistic vests as well as additional sets of bunker gear to decrease cancer risks, said Davidson.

The motion did not include operational details on how to implement the increase in staffing to four per shift, leaving that to be worked out in bargaining between Chief Krimmert and the firefighter’s union.

VIFR’s budget currently calls for 13 full-time firefighters/EMTs, including shift captains. However, there are now only nine such staff members on deck, due to recent retirements by longtime veterans of the district, Jason Everett and Daron Buxton. Additionally, in October, the district terminated the employment of another full-time firefighter who did not comply with Gov. Jay Inslee’s vaccination mandate.

Two new full-time hires, culled from the ranks of part-time paid firefighters, are currently in training and will join the force in July — but their arrival will coincide with the retirement of another firefighter, Tom Bruskotter. That will leave only 11 full-timers on deck in July.

Union weighs in with letter

Vashon’s local firefighter’s union also submitted a four-page letter to Commissioners Camille Staczek and Pam King, which was shared with the entire board at the March 30 meeting.

During the meeting, Davidson said he had given an earlier version of the same report to Krimmert months ago. Krimmert, in response, said that he did not recall receiving it.

The memo called VIFR’s current level of protection and service to the community “substandard and dangerous,” and said it had already resulted in sixty 24-hour overtime shifts this year, leading to staff fatigue and burnout.

“We have become complacent and entirely too comfortable with our current response model, which by design sets us up for failure when responding to concurrent or major incidents,” the report said.

An effort to use volunteers and part-time firefighter/EMTs to address staffing shortages had proven to be “inconsistent, unreliable and undependable,” it said, pointing to more than 50 recent unanswered incidents of “Zone 1 callbacks.”

This term refers to times when all first responders on duty are engaged in calls, and no personnel remains on duty at the station to answer additional calls. In this circumstance, a call is issued to volunteers and off-duty paid personnel, asking them to come to the station.

The report also described Krimmert’s personal response to Zone 1 callbacks as “inconsistent and unreliable.”

In the letter, the union said it had reviewed VIFR’s 2022 budget and identified that money was “not being adequately directed toward meeting the primary duty of VIFR, which was to provide fire and emergency medical service to Vashon residents in their time of need every minute of every day.”

“The very idea that our plan is to be in defensive fire operations while waiting for other responders to arrive is irresponsible at best, reprehensible at worst,” it said.

The letter, in its entirety, was forwarded to The Beachcomber shortly before the March 30 meeting, by Commissioner Simonds.

Discussion of the motion, prior to its passage, was heated

McCullough, as well as Krimmert and district secretary/finance Manager Rebecca Nason, strongly warned that hiring more firefighters at this time could damage the district financially and even drive it into bankruptcy.

Nason said that the cost of hiring five new firefighters, including their salaries, benefits and cost-of-living increases each year, would span out over the course of seven years to bring staff costs to 81% of the district’s total budget.

“We will be in a dangerous position,” Nason said.

For her part, McCullough said she believed it was irresponsible for the board to make a motion that was based on what she called “opinions.”

“I’ve [told the union] to show me the business case,” she said. “I don’t think it is unrealistic to get there, but we have to see where the money is and how we’re going to fund it, not for just this year or next year, but for five years or ten years.”

McCullough, at another point in the meeting, said that since Krimmert’s hire in 2017, the district had already increased staffing, but adding four to six more staff positions at this time would lead to serious financial issues.

“I was on this board when we almost went bankrupt, and we’re paving the way for that,” McCollough said.

Krimmert also urged commissioners to consider the repercussions of hiring four to six new full-time positions.

In the event that they did so, he would be the person who had to tell island taxpayers that they needed to pay more for district services, he said.

“You better start figuring out what is the logic to present to the public to get more money,” he said. “The public is tax burdened right now. And as we see our assessed values climb that means our tax rate drops and we see less money.”

Krimmert, instead, proposed that the platoon size of the current staff be restructured. Instead of the district operating with four platoons of firefighters, numbering three firefighters each, VIFR could switch to a system of having three platoons, with four firefighters each.

This change would immediately fulfill the proposal to have four full-time firefighters on staff at all times, he said, with no additional hires.

Union representatives Smith and Davidson immediately responded to this suggestion.

Smith, whose job includes scheduling firefighters, said that Krimmert had previously proposed that model, which the union considered to be flawed.

In a phone call after the meeting, Davidson said that the plan to switch to a three-platoon system while maintaining four-person minimum staffing would require union members to work mandatory overtime hours — a nonstarter in collective bargaining.

Board to consider two applicants for empty seat

At the March 30 meeting, McCullough also announced that two applicants had applied to fill the commissioner seat vacated by Andy Johnson, who resigned in January.

They are recently retired assistant chief assistant Bob Larson, and former commissioner Bridget Schran-Brown. Both will be interviewed by the board at a public meeting, tentatively scheduled for April 12, pending the availability of the candidates.