Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue employee Erich Knudson read a series of statements to the district’s board Tuesday night in support of hiring interim chief Jamie Mason as fire chief.
By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Persuaded by a strong and emotional outpouring of firefighter support, the board of the Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue District decided Tuesday night to forgo a larger search for a new fire chief and interview interim chief Jamie Mason for the job.
This follows the departure of former chief Gary Woodson, who was the subject of a personnel investigation and put on administrative leave in mid-December. The board then negotiated a so-far undisclosed severance agreement this month with Woodson, who had been chief for almost four years.
During a special workshop meeting Tuesday night, a majority of the five-member board seemed prepared to again use the Special Districts Association of Oregon to help it recruit a new chief until the newest board member, Peter Carlich, strongly disagreed, and advocated hiring Mason.
Carlich criticized the SDAO’s work four years ago that led to the hiring of Woodson, and said Mason “has been doing the work of the chief, as we all know” since joining the Waldport-area district a year ago from North Lincoln Fire & Rescue.
As other board members began to push back and cite the need for a wider search, they were cut short by Erich Knudson, who has three roles at the district as a part-time facilities engineer, a volunteer association official, and its public information officer.
Although the board said they were not going to take public comments at the meeting, Knudsen read statements of support for Mason from four current and former firefighters and volunteers, the Seal Rock Fire Department, and himself. His wife, Wendy Rush Knudson, who is the office administrator, and Jeshiah “Shi” Bucher, representing the firefighters union, firefighter Lt. Joe Bartling, and chaplain Rick Booth, all read statements praising Mason and his work.
Each of the statements also portrayed a damning picture of the fire district under Woodson, and questioned why the board did not step in earlier to stop a deteriorating situation.
Woodson, 60, became chief in March 2017, after working two years at the Department of Corrections. He was the fire chief for the city of Pendleton for four years before abruptly departing in April 2014 – for reasons undisclosed so far — after a meeting with the city manager.
Woodson and the district are the subject of a $1.1 million federal civil rights and wrongful dismissal lawsuit by former fire Capt. Nestor Alves, who was forced out in 2018. A 2019 investigation by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries largely upheld allegations Alves made to them.
Criticism of Woodson, praise for Mason
District employees and volunteers criticized Woodson being available less than half of a workday, letting equipment fall into disrepair, lapsed training, ignoring the long-promised substation in Tidewater, all of which led to poor morale that depleted their ranks.
“This district is very broken, there’s lots and lots of work that needs to be done to make it 100 percent stable and prepare the district for the inevitable growth,” Erich Knudson told the board, urging them to not repeat past mistakes of using SDAO to find a new chief, and that Mason had effectively been running the district the past year because of Woodson’s chronic absences.
Bucher’s statement from the firefighter’s union said Mason had its “unwavering support,” that the assistant chief had been running the district because of the “lack of leadership from the chief’s desk” and that he had “all the good qualities you’d expect from a good chief.”
Firefighter/paramedic Cody Johnson said going through another hiring process “seems like a waste of time and taxpayers’ dollars when there is someone willing and able to step up to the challenge who is already a spearhead within the station, and has shown their potential time and again.”
“Although he operates as an assistant chief, I know that no one will deny the fact he was the glue that helped hold everything together and the oil that kept things running smoothly under an otherwise very absentee Chief Woodson,” Johnson said in his statement.
Chaplain Rick Booth, who has been with the district for seven years, told the board he was on the interview committee four years ago when the SDAO sent it three chief finalists. He said Woodson was that committee’s third choice and urged the board this time to “don’t hire someone coming here to retire.”
He praised Mason for reinvigorating volunteers, resuming regular training, and responding to fire calls in the middle of the night.
“He shows up at 2 a.m. He doesn’t have to be there, but he is,” Booth said.
Board agrees, finally
After hearing the statements, Carlich said it would be wrong for the board to ignore the support for Mason from district employees and volunteers.
“When was the last time you’ve seen this outpouring of support and not criticism?” he asked.
Other members said they still needed to go through an interview process with Mason to make sure the board and chief have the same goals for the district. They eventually asked Mason to apply for the job – which he said he could do by the end of the week – so they could begin background checks and schedule an interview.
“If something comes up, then we can move on to someone else,” said board member Kevin Battles. “We all need to feel confident with him at the helm.”
Mason, 40, has a varied background in firefighting.
He started as a volunteer in the Willamette Valley community of Jefferson, then worked 8½ years as an Air Force firefighter on bases in Germany and Idaho. He was a trainer for the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training for three years before joining North Lincoln Fire & Rescue, where he worked eight years.
Mason said he was eager to apply for the chief’s job and appreciated the support from firefighters.
“I was humbled by it,” he told YachatsNews after the meeting. “I didn’t expect that.”
For a video of the district board meeting, go here