Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR) has a new fire chief — Matt Vinci, who was named as the district’s interim chief after commissioners voted on July 14 to terminate the employment of Charles Krimmert.

The board’s swift decision to officially promote Vinci to the role of chief came during a board meeting on July 20, after a motion to do so by Commissioner John Simonds, which was seconded by Commissioner Pam King.

A second motion by Simonds, for the board to meet soon in an executive session to further determine the salary and terms of Vinci’s employment, was also passed later in the meeting.

In a phone call with The Beachcomber the day following the meeting, Vinci said he had been surprised by the motion to officially hire him as VIFR chief.

“I had not talked to any commissioners about the actions that took place last night,” he said. “I was focused on reporting the proud work of our staff in pulling together to serve the island.”

However, Vinci said he was proud and excited to become Vashon’s fire chief, and eager to lead the district after an almost 30-year career working in fire service in other districts of varying sizes.

“Our staff comes to work and does an outstanding job,” he said, adding that he was also eager to engage with the broader community to develop a strategic plan for the district.

“It’s going to be a very inclusive process,” he said.

Vinci was hired by commissioners after a national search for an assistant chief, and began his work with VIFR in early June. Previously, he has served in leadership roles within the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) headquarters in Washington, D.C. His career also includes 20 years of service working as a caption/Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) with the City of South Burlington, Vermont, Fire Department.

Motion made after chief’s report

Simonds’ motion to promote Vinci to serve as VIFR fire chief was made immediately following Vinci’s chief’s report at the meeting.

The lengthy report, delivered via a Powerpoint presentation by Vinci, included news of recent hires for the district’s administrative staff as well as two additional full-time firefighters for the district.

The report also detailed the district’s current financial balances, the district’s community engagement efforts in recent weeks, and a potentially life-saving water rescue by first responders that took place days prior in Quartermaster Harbor.

Following the report, Simonds first praised Vinci for his hard work in “less than ideal conditions,” and then abruptly moved that he be promoted from the position of interim chief of operations to chief of operations for the district.

The motion was seconded by Commissioner Pam King.

In a discussion period following the motion, Simonds said that Vinci had already been vetted in a national search process for his position as assistant chief, which had been conducted by the recruiting firm of Prothman Associates and had included interviews with staff and community members.

Calling the move to promote an assistant chief to chief “not unusual” for fire districts, Simonds said that Vinci was “clearly our best choice at this time to .. turn this fire district management around and provide our fire district with a fresh start.”

In the discussion period following the motion, Vinci was asked by commissioners Camille Staczek and Brigitte Shran Brown to comment on his interest in the position.

“I appreciate the opportunity to lead the organization and lead our staff,” Vinci said. “It’s a team approach — it’s really been all hands on deck, quite frankly — and I appreciate all the discussion on the accomplishments so far and the vision I have as a leader for the district. If given the opportunity to be the fire chief of the district, as I have told several people both externally and internally within the organization, I would absolutely step up to lead Vashon Island Fire & Rescue into the future.”

Later in the discussion period, board chair Candy McCullough said she felt the motion was being made too quickly and in a disorganized way, cautioning that the board had not yet held any salary negotiations with Vinci and that “if we make him our chief, he can probably tell us how much we’re going to pay him.”

Staczek and Shran Brown praised Vinci, saying they believed he would be an excellent chief for the district, but also questioned the process of hiring him prior to negotiations.

In the vote, both Schran Brown and Staczek abstained, again voicing these concerns, while McCullough voted no. With Simonds and King voting yes, the motion passed by a two to one vote, with two abstentions noted.

In public comments following the decision, islanders Alice Larson and Ron Smothermon, frequent attendees to fire board meetings, expressed dismay at the action of the board.

Larson, speaking first, said that the commissioners had never effectively communicated to the public why Chief Krimmert had been fired, and now, had hired a new chief without first conducting a search or holding salary negotiations with Vinci. (See Letters to the Editor, page 6).

[I’m] pretty disgusted with the entire board right now,” Larson said, in part. “Chief Vinci, I hate to say this, but this is what you’re inheriting. I wish you and all the community a lot of luck.”

Smothermon spoke next, saying he was in complete agreement with Larson.

In another public comment, VIFR Fire Captain and President of Firefight’s Union Local 4189 Ben Davidson spoke, not referencing the decision to hire Vinci but offering effusive praise of his decisive leadership.

“The high level of leadership Chief Vinci has already demonstrated in his short time with VIFR has proven invaluable during this difficult transition,” Davidson said, particularly lauding Vinci’s swift hires of two additional full-time firefighters.

“It was believed that it was impossible to have a hiring process and find more firefighters so quickly,” he said. “Not with Chief Vinci steering the ship. He did not accept that it was not possible, instead, he worked tirelessly to make it happen.”

Davidson also thanked Vinci for purchasing ballistic gear to protect members when responding to potentially dangerous EMS calls, saying that obtaining that gear had not been a priority of the previous administration.

Morale among district members, he said, is now higher than it has been in some time.

“We attribute this to solid leadership, a feeling that the district has our backs, and that we are all part of the same team working collaboratively to meet the mission the best we can,” he said. “We thank the commissioners for making the very difficult but right decision to remove Chief Krimmert as fire chief and move the district forward in this very positive way.”

The board’s move to terminate the district’s contract of Charles Krimmert came after an investigation conducted by the district’s attorney, Eric Quinn, and was prompted by a letter to the commissioners signed by the four fire captains of VIFR, expressing their extreme dissatisfaction with Krimmert’s leadership and requesting that he either resign from his position or be released from his service to VIFR.

The letter, the captains said, represented the “culmination of years of frustration, and ultimately the agonizing realization that we no longer have a choice as to whether or not to address our concerns [with commissioners] directly.”

The letter stated that Krimmert’s actions had created an “us versus them” relationship between the administration and front-line workers. They described his conduct as unprofessional, saying he frequently lost control of his emotions and behaved in angry and confrontational ways, and that he had been reluctant to address safety concerns the captains had brought to his attention.

In his investigation following the board’s receipt of the letter, Quinn interviewed VIFR staff members past and present, commissioners, and other islanders connected to the district, before submitting his findings to the board. Quinn’s report has not been made public.

Workplace tensions have long simmered

In 2019, the board asked Jim Walkowski, former president of the Washington Fire Chief’s Association, to evaluate the challenges facing VIFR at that time and make recommendations to improve its operations.

Walkowski’s resulting 17-page report, also written after extensive interviews with VIFR members, detailed leadership problems at all levels in the organization, including at the board level.

Among staff, Walkowski reported that “many members feel the organization has a toxic environment and behaviors supportive of a hostile workplace are not being dealt with properly.”

He detailed that “charges of arbitrary discipline, potential gender bias, the use of excessive profanity in the station, and unfair treatment of some employees and volunteers” as having led him to the conclusion that VIFR was “subject to significant risk by enabling this type of behavior.”