Chief’s offer to lead Central Pierce has Key Pen Fire looking at options for future
Key Peninsula Fire isn’t going anywhere, but its leadership might look different soon.
Chief Dustin Morrow said he has a conditional offer to lead Central Pierce Fire & Rescue.
Stan Moffett, chair of the Key Peninsula Board of Fire Commissioners, said when that becomes final “the commissioners will need to start making some decisions as far as which way we’re going to go for the district, and we’re taking a look at a number of different options.”
They might hire a new fire chief, Moffett said. Or they might contract with another agency to share their leadership. However, Moffett said there’s been no talk of a merger with another agency and that the board is not thinking about that in the foreseeable future.
“We just feel that we have an obligation and a responsibility to look at other options as far as maybe the sharing of resources with other departments,” Moffett said. “Not that we’re going away at all. The Key Peninsula Fire District will remain intact.”
In the meantime, they’re looking into a temporary interlocal agreement with Central Pierce that would let Morrow oversee the department during the transition while the agency decides what to do long-term.
“I would think if we decide to do an ILA with Central Pierce Fire & Rescue, we would continue to have Chief Morrow assist us as well as working for Central Pierce for a limited amount of time,” Moffett said. “A few months, six months, whatever it might be, for us to explore additional contracts.”
An immediate decision about an agreement with Central Pierce could happen in a few weeks, Moffett said, and a final decision about leadership for Key Peninsula is probably months away.
“What we’re looking at is Key Peninsula Fire maintaining its own identity,” Moffett said. “We’re only looking at the sharing of resources with other departments in an effort to benefit from economies of scale and make some responsible financial decisions for the citizens of the peninsula.”
The base monthly salary for the Key Peninsula position is $12,502.26. The Key Peninsula district has 28 full time firefighters, an annual budget of $10,203,058, and serves about 19,000 residents.
Job posting materials reviewed by the Central Pierce board earlier this year said the approved salary for their Fire Chief was $212,472, and that compensation was flexible.
Moffett said Key Peninsula Fire is in good financial condition, but that the fire service is getting increasingly expensive.
“We’re concerned long-term I think,” Moffett said. “Five, 10 years down the road, can we continue to ask more of our citizenship in the form of taxes? ... The bulk of the taxation falls on individual homeowners.”
A longer-term contract might be with an agency such as Central Pierce, Kitsap or Gig Harbor Fire, he said.
Asked whether it’d make more sense to partner with a neighboring agency long-term, as opposed to Central Pierce, Moffett said it probably does.
Central Pierce serves roughly 212,000 people Parkland, Midland, Spanaway, South Hill, Puyallup, Summit and Frederickson.
“I think it probably makes more sense to do something with a neighboring agency, but at this point we’re not excluding anything,” he said. “We’re going to take a look at everything in the next few weeks.”
Asked if he sees more sharing of resources among Pierce County departments going forward, Moffett said he does. Equipment is expensive. So are human resources, including top-level officers.
“It just absolutely makes sense,” he said. “You know, you’re talking about resources that are very expensive.”
For instance, he said, there’s already an agreement in the works between Key Peninsula Fire and other Pierce County agencies to share IT resources.
“I don’t have a crystal ball ... but if you ask my opinion, I think in 10 or 15 years down the road, I think some of the smaller districts will probably want to share additional resources with some of the larger districts,” Moffett said.
Merger ‘off the table’
Morrow became Key Peninsula’s chief in 2019. Prior to that he worked for Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue in Oregon, where he retired as deputy fire chief in 2016, The Gateway reported. He also worked for Oregon’s West Linn Fire Department for eight years.
Morrow said there’s been conversation about trying to make his transition to Central Pierce happen around the first of the year.
“The board just feels absolutely compelled to look at all potential options for providing the most efficient emergency services on the Key Peninsula,” he said. “... I think some of the conversation in the community is possibly a little overstated about me being the chief of two organizations.”
If there is any agreement, Morrow said, it would have “very specific book ends.”
“I know that they are going to explore everything,” he said. “The one thing that the board has been explicit about is that a merger, a total dissolving of Fire District 16 (Key Peninsula Fire), is off the table.”
Morrow, Moffett, the chair of the Central Pierce board, and retiring Central Pierce Chief Dan Olson met recently to talk about the transition.
Olson became the head of Central Pierce in 2017. Before that he was a deputy chief in Vancouver, Washington, The News Tribune reported. He also worked as the chief of the Poulsbo Fire Department and deputy chief of South Kitsap Fire and Rescue.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for both Central Pierce and to make sure that Key Peninsula has an orderly transition also,” Olson said. “... We’re very thankful to be able to have Chief Morrow come over to Central Pierce, but we also don’t want to cause loose ends or problems in the process for Key Peninsula.”
