WASHOE COUNTY NEWS RELEASE
The Washoe County Board of County Commissioners, acting as the Truckee Meadows Board of Fire Commissioners, selected a candidate to offer the position of fire chief for the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District (4 to 1, Jung dissenting) during its regularly scheduled meeting earlier today.
The chief of the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District oversees administration and operation of the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District and Sierra Fire Protection District in Washoe County. Charles Moore, who most recently served as the general manager and fire chief for Eagle River Fire Protection District in Eagle County, Colo., was selected as the top candidate.
Twenty-nine applications were received from 18 states across the country for the position. The final three candidates interviewed and were selected from a “strong field” consisting of eight final applicants as described by Jerald Freshour, director of executive placement for ESCI.
“Regionalization is the answer. I see it as we are moving forward towards regionalization by hiring and bringing the chief on board,” said Commissioner Weber. Commissioner Breternitz indicated his selection was based on the candidate’s ability to stand up a sustainable consolidated district as a framework and pursue the board’s ultimate goal of regionalization of fire services.
Candidate Moore said that he was honored to be before the commission and shared his experience as a professional firefighter for 23 years, “Fire fighting has been a passion in my life. I started as a volunteer. Whether or not they are being paid, firefighters have a commonality, and that is, that they would like to serve the community in times of need.”
The top three candidates were selected after a series of four panel interviews on Feb. 27. The panel membership included 25 individuals representing local fire professionals, community members, business leaders and local government representatives. The commission interviews stressed the importance of consolidation, including directly asking the three candidates about their experience consolidating agencies. All three candidates indicated financial sustainability was the most significant issue facing the district and that bringing service levels in line with financial resources was critical.
The board has repeatedly restated its commitment to create a sustainable regional fire service that provides services to all interested agencies. The Washoe County Board of County Commissioners, in a 4 to 1 vote on June 28 (Jung dissenting), started a year-long process to dissolve an interlocal agreement with the City of Reno in order to provide for sustainable framework for regionalization of fire services and create a sustainable fire district. In December, the board approved staff to draft a separate agreement between Truckee Meadows Fire and Sierra Fire Protection Districts for joint administration and operation.
The board determined that it needed to move forward on hiring a fire chief to facilitate the seamless transition of services back to Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District on July 1, 2012, within available resources. Throughout the last year, the board kept open the door for continued conversations with the city of Reno with little success including:
- For more than six months, the Board has requested that the city of Reno provide a detailed, sustainable budget to operate Truckee Meadows and Sierra Fire Protection Districts jointly with Reno Fire. The most recent proposal provided to the Board of Fire Commissioners showed a $2.1 million deficit for the first year of a consolidated fire service. The proposal showed increased costs to the Truckee Meadows District taxpayers while revenues are declining.
- The city of Reno has refused all proposals by the Board of Fire Commissioners for renewal of the previous automatic aid arrangement between Truckee Meadows and the city for no additional compensation, dating back to 1991. This, despite the finding of an independent study in December 2011, which showed 60 percent of the calls for service in 2010 were Truckee Meadows Fire and Sierra Fire units responding into the city of Reno versus 40 percent Reno units responding into Truckee Meadows/Sierra Fire Protection Districts (ESCI, December 2011).
The detailed transition plan for standing up the consolidated Truckee Meadows/Sierra Fire District can be found at http://www.washoecounty.us/mgrsoff/TMFire.html.
