By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
SEAL ROCK – The Seal Rock Fire District board wants to offer the part-time consultant who has been helping the district since October a two-year contract to be its fire chief.
If Will Ewing accepts, his first job might may be trying to replace two of the district’s four firefighters who submitted resignations last week to take jobs elsewhere.
Ewing, a former fire chief in Toledo and Detroit, Ore., has been working on a consulting contract for the district since October after a new board majority fired the previous chief, Tom Sakaris.
The board had been working on a job description and other details to advertise for a new chief. But during a meeting Thursday, board member Paul Rimola said that the district was facing too many issues to take 3-6 months to hire a new chief and get him up to speed.
“The last thing I want to do is dump these problems on a new chief,” Rimola said.
Those problems include ending an intergovernmental agreement to share personnel with Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue in Waldport and replacing it with a broader “memo of understanding,” recruiting volunteers, and revamping district operations and sorting out finances.
A new chief and board are also now faced with the loss of half of its professional staff. Last week, firefighter Charles Stay gave notice to leave in mid-March to join COCF&R in a temporary position, and firefighter Jared Sternzenegger is resigning to go to work for LifeFlight in Newport.
The board and Ewing have not been consistently clear on replacing staff, saying both that it would do so if the district budget allows but also telling COCF&R and the public it would start relying more on volunteers for responses.
Board member Mike Burt said be believes Ewing would be interested in a two-year contract. On Saturday, Ewing told YachatsNews he would be – but needed to have more discussions with the board.
Ewing said he could help “change the culture” of the department from one with paid staff and no volunteers into one that respects the roles and contributions of both.
“I think I would be a pretty good fit … but I don’t want to do this forever,” Ewing said. “If I can do it and help, then fine.”
Backlash to hiring?
Ewing, 65, has a long tenure in fire service – but a more recent controversial past. After 19 years as fire chief in Toledo, he was fired in 2017 by an interim city manager for being insubordinate, threatening and breaking city policy. He has filed a wrongful dismissal suit in federal court against that manager, who was also fired a year later, and the city.
From December 2018 to January this year, Ewing was on a part-time contract to serve as chief of the all-volunteer department in the Santiam Canyon communities of Idanha and Detroit. He resigned Jan. 5 after mounting issues in that department and its board’s concern over Ewing’s domestic violence arrest last September.
Ewing was arrested in September on domestic violence charges after a fight with his wife. He pleaded guilty in November to a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree assault and agreed to a variety of conditions, including abstaining from drugs or alcohol, not having contact with his wife, and participating in a weekly domestic violence education program.
S.D. “Skip” Smith, who was appointed to the board in January, said Thursday that the board should be prepared for some public backlash if it offered Ewing the job.
That drew a strong statement from Rimola who blamed previous criticism of Ewing on Facebook “trolls” and a “campaign of misinformation.” Rimola read a court victim’s statement from Tina Ewing written in October saying that she started their fight, that he believed Will Ewing would have been found innocent had he decided to go to trial, and that Ewing is now trying to protect his wife.
“I see where he’s coming from,” Rimola said. “I’m done with it.”
But in a Feb. 10 court report after five weeks of domestic violence classes, a counselor wrote that Ewing is not accepting accountability or responsibility for his actions.
Fritz resigns board seat
The Seal Rock board was also hit with another resignation last week.
Former board chair Tina Fritz resigned Wednesday, saying two board members had disregarded policies and procedures by issuing a news release not authorized by the full board and sending a letter of complaint to the Central Coast board without full board approval. Since July, Fritz had clashed repeatedly with Rimola, Burt and former board chair Al Anton, who died suddenly in December, especially over contracting with Ewing to be interim chief. The consulting contract with Ewing also led to the resignation of board member Dustin Joll in October.
“I personally feel like their own agenda to be a volunteer service only is getting in the way of growth, and placing our staff and citizens in harm’s way,” she said in her four-sentence notice.
On Thursday, the board decided to seek applications until March 30 and select a new member in April. It would be the third appointed member.
Sorting out cooperation issues
There is also other turmoil surrounding the Seal Rock board and their counterparts at Central Coast.
The new Seal Rock board believes the 2-year-old intergovernmental agreement with Central Coast is lopsided because it has half the number of call as COCF&R and its firefighters are not visible enough in the district.
In January, Seal Rock firefighters were ordered to stay at its Bayshore station and respond separately to more serious COCF&R calls and to decline responding to minor issues. That now means Waldport-based firefighters are oftentimes responding alone or that Seal Rock firefighters arrive at emergencies several minutes behind them.
In February the Central Oregon Coast board agreed that responding alone is unsafe, and voted to hire two firefighters on temporary contracts so engines are fully staffed every day.
In approving the hires, COCF&R board members said they had to worry about their own staffing levels first and should not have to rely on Seal Rock.
Simultaneously, the two districts are also seeing if they can work out Seal Rock’s concerns with the intergovernmental agreement. Each district selected two board members to discuss differences and after two meetings – without the chiefs present – are working on a four-page “memorandum of understanding” that outlines areas of concern and possible cooperation.
But even that is wrapped up in board issues.
Rimola and Seal Rock board chair Karl Kowalski sent a letter Feb. 21 to COCF&R board chair Buster Pankey and board member Kathryn Menefee complaining what they termed were “the character assassination” directed at it and Ewing by COCF&R chief Jamie Mason during a Jan. 6 meeting. That was a special meeting by the COCF&R board to discuss information on property for a new station in executive (closed) session and staffing issues in open session.
A video of the meeting was put on Facebook by a group collecting signatures to force a recall election of Menefee and board member Todd Holt.
Seal Rock board members saw it and were upset by what they termed were comments by Mason that COCF&R could annex the densely populated Bayshore and Sandpiper communities that are part of the Seal Rock district. Mason also mentioned that Seal Rock’s staffing could eventually fall short enough to not meet requirement of a countywide mutual aid agreement.
In fact, Mason – who lives in Bayshore – said only in a very short comment that some of his neighbors had approached him to express concerns about the Seal Rock department and ask about annexation.
It was Holt who repeatedly said during that meeting that Central Coast “needed to be prepared to take over Seal Rock if it’s failing.”
And it was Menefee and board members Kevin Battles and Reda Eckerman who discussed whether the board needed to send out a news release to alert Seal Rock residents to staffing issues in that department. They later agreed to hold off on that, and instead begin conversations with the Seal Rock board to discuss issues.
In Thursday’s meeting, Rimola read a statement accusing Mason of trying to take over the Seal Rock district and disputing potential mutual aid issues. He said three members of the Central Coast board have apologized for their Jan. 6 comments “and will be asking the full board about their thoughts on this inflammatory video.”
Mason told YachatsNews on Friday that he had no intention of getting involved in Bayshore or Seal Rock issues, and echoed comments from the COCF&R board last month that it was time each district focused on their own problems.
“I really don’t want to continue this divisive back-and-forth,” said Mason, adding that Seal Rock can manage its own department “and we’ll help them when they need it.”
Rimola also asked the Seal Rock board Thursday if they wanted to continue negotiating with Pankey and Menefee on the memo of understanding. Board members said they should.
“We’re aiming for something simpler (than the intergovernmental agreement),” Rimola said. “We agreed that Seal Rock is Seal Rock and Central Coast is Central Coast.”
- Quinton Smith, a longtime Oregon journalist, is the founder and editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com