The search is on for a new Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority chief.
Annual pay for the position will be between $187,800 and $207,000, according to RFA documents. The RFA board hired Issaquah-based Prothman Company for $19,500 plus expenses to conduct a nationwide search. The application deadline is June 11.
“We wanted to let the market drive the salary,” said Bill Boyce, a RFA board member and president of the Kent City Council. “We want to be sure we attract the top candidates.”
The pay is similar to what Snohomish County Fire District 1 plans to pay a new chief, Boyce said. Puget Sound Fire serves about 181,000 people in the cities of Kent, SeaTac, Covington and portions of unincorporated King County. Snohomish serves about 200,000 people in the cities of Edmonds, Brier, Mountlake Terrace and parts of unincorporated Snohomish County.
Chief Jim Schneider announced in March that he would be retiring in September after coming to Kent in 2002. Schenider worked as the city of Kent fire chief before voters in 2010 approved formation of the Kent RFA, renamed Puget Sound Fire this year. The RFA merged the Kent Fire Department and Fire District 37 and later added the city of SeaTac.
Schneider earns an annual salary of $173,787, according to the RFA. Boyce said the board decided to raise the pay for the next chief because of the market rate paid by other fire departments.
The RFA board includes three members from the Kent City Council, three from the Fire District 37 Board of Commissioners, one non-voting member from the Covington City Council, and one non-voting member from the SeaTac City Council.
Porthman is expected to refer a list of about eight to 15 candidates to the board and a selection committee. The board will cut that list to a few finalists and then pick a top candidate.
“We may take the top four or five to interview to narrow it down,” Boyce said.
The board hopes to hire someone in late August to start in September.
“We haven’t hired a new fire chief in Kent in a long time,” Boyce said. “We want someone who will make Kent their home and be chief for a long time.”
It’s early in the process, so Boyce is uncertain how many applicants the opening might attract.
“I feel pretty excited that people will want to come here to work,” he said. “I expect we will get a lot of good people to apply.”
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