Mountain Vista Fire District on the northwest side will be searching for a new leader after its governing board approved a settlement Wednesday for the current chief to resign.
Union President Gary Watson had presented board members with a 30-0 vote of no confidence by firefighters on Monday. Wednesday’s special meeting was held to determine the district’s course of action regarding Chief Ed Wilkerson.
In the letter Watson submitted for the board’s review, he cited safety risks due to understaffing as the firefighters’ major concern.
Within minutes of the start of Wednesday’s meeting, board members went into executive session to discuss the proposed settlement. Less than 15 minutes later, they reconvened and unanimously accepted the settlement of $125,000 and six months of insurance benefits in exchange for Wilkerson to step down.
Although Wilkerson wasn’t present at the meeting, he was waiting in the parking lot to sign the settlement. The district’s attorney, Eric Hawkins, took the document out to Wilkerson and returned it to the board before the meeting adjourned. Wilkerson left after signing the document.
“These firefighters started this on their own before bringing it to me with a vote of 27-0,” Watson said. “We reached out to a labor lawyer ... and by the time we presented it to the board, we were at 30-0.”
Sixteen firefighters lined the back of the meeting room waiting to hear the board’s decision. Expressions of relief were visible on many of their faces after the settlement was approved, but for the most part, the group refrained from reacting to the news.
“One of the concerns is that in the three years he’s been here and the year that the district has been operational on its own, we don’t feel that he’s addressed the manpower shortage,” Watson said.
Mountain Vista’s district was formed in 2008 by a merger of three fire districts. It covers about 19 square miles, primarily north of West Ina Road, east of North Thornydale Road, just west of Oracle Road and extending north to West Naranja Drive. It serves nearly 38,000 residents.
In July 2014, Mountain Vista began operating on its own with 33 firefighters and three chiefs, including Wilkerson.
However, the staffing of 11 team members per shift doesn’t meet the National Fire Protection Association’s guidelines of 15 to 17 firefighters to a crew, Watson said.
Usually agencies with lower staffing will partner with larger agencies to provide backup support. Mountain Vista has a written mutual-aid agreement with Golder Ranch Fire District, but no agreement is in place with Rural/Metro or Northwest Fire District, Watson said.
“The chief never built any agreements,” Watson said. “He’d blame it on politics or other agencies not working with him.”
Wilkerson acknowledged the staffing shortage and cited lack of funding as the problem in a letter requesting support for a grant from Arizona lawmakers, public records obtained by the union show.
Watson expects the board will appoint one of the district’s two battalion chiefs, Michael Price or Darin Reid, to serve as interim chief.
