The Kalispell Fire Department is reorganizing its top positions, giving Acting Chief Dan Diehl the job permanently, and laying off DC Haas, the assistant fire chief and fire marshal, a position that oversaw fire prevention. The city also plans to hire a new assistant chief of operations.
Acknowledging the layoff decision was unfortunate and difficult, City Manager Jane Howington said the move was in line with her guidance from the Kalispell council to make the city government more efficient, both “financially and operationally.”
But the loss of Haas is reverberating through the department, as evidenced by last week’s city council meeting, where firefighters and their families filled the chamber to show their support for him as he spoke to the council about his layoff, which he learned of Dec. 1.
“I am somewhat confused why I would be laid off,” Haas told the council, while wondering out loud why he was being cut around the same time a new assistant fire chief position opened up, for which he lacked the proper credentials to apply. Haas said he allowed his Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) certification to expire while he focused on fire investigation training.
“The practice of decision-making without building consensus will continue to destroy the department,” he added.
F. Ray Ruffatto, a firefighter who originally joined the department as a fire inspector working under Haas, lamented the fact that the program no longer exists, and praised Haas for qualities including “trust, dedication, loyalty, the ability to communicate.”
“It is just disturbing,” Ruffatto said, “that we no longer have a prevention division.”
Mayor-elect Tammi Fisher said the council should implement a policy that cross-trains laid off employees in administrative positions so they can fill openings elsewhere in the city, and urged that preference be given to Haas for the operations chief position.
After the meeting, Haas said he would like to be considered for the operations position, noting the significant training investments the city has already made in him. He will receive his current salary through the end of the year.
“I may not be the best person on paper,” Haas said. “I think I would be the one most dedicated to customer service here in Kalispell.”
But at this point, Haas being considered for the operations chief opening looks unlikely. In later interviews, both Diehl and Howington said the idea of cross-training administrators has merit, but senior public safety positions tend to be so highly specialized in terms of certifications and experience, it doesn’t make sense in this case.
“It’s very hard to cross-train somebody into a position they’re not qualified for,” Diehl, formerly the operations chief, said. “We’re talking about someone with experience in operations related to extreme fire behavior – the cross-training doesn’t apply to this position.”
Howington noted the operations chief position, which offers a salary range of $58,509-$81,913, depending on qualifications, requires a minimum of 10 years experience in fire department operations.
“You can’t cross-train that,” Howington said. “DC’s experience was all in prevention and inspection.”
As for fire inspection duties, Howington said that would now be handled by the Building Department. Gary Hoes, who formerly worked as a fire inspector in the Fire Department, now performs the inspections in the Building Department.
Traditionally, the Building Department handles fire inspections of new buildings and structures, while the Fire Department oversees required annual inspections of existing buildings and establishments. During Kalispell’s boom years it became necessary to grow the Fire Department’s prevention division to accommodate all the necessary inspections, since there were too many new building permits for the Building Department to handle. But as growth dropped off over the last two years, so too did the need for a designated fire prevention division in the Fire Department, making the trimming of that unit, according to Howington, a necessary cost-cutting measure.
“I look at departments and I try to find ways to streamline,” Howington said. “What we might have been able to afford at one point, we can’t afford now.”
“I know (Haas) is a good employee, but that’s not the issue,” she added.
Once the economy eventually improves, and development picks up again, Howington acknowledges she will have to expand the Building Department’s capacity to handle the increased workload, but for now, she is trying to adjust the structure of the city bureaucracy so it has, “the ability to develop a sustainable operation flexible to upswings and downswings of the economy.”
Asked whether that will lead to staff reductions in other departments, Howington would offer no firm answers, only that she was holding budget meetings to examine “what programs are priority programs.”
“I can’t say ‘yes’ and I can’t say ‘no,’” Howington said. “If you’re going to make major cuts in an organization that is primarily staffing, you’re going to make staffing cuts, one way or another.”
Within the Fire Department, Diehl, the acting fire chief for 20 months now, is reasserting focus on the key duties of the department: ambulance and fire protection. He also wants to develop a budget for training, despite lean finances, and figure out a funding formula so the city ambulance fund doesn’t operate at a deficit every year.
But he acknowledges a void in the firehouse due to Haas’ absence.
“DC was a very well-liked person; he’s a great guy,” Diehl said. “It would have been a lot easier if he wasn’t a very well-liked guy.”
“Fire prevention divisions across the nation have always been the first to go when times are tough,” he added. “Unfortunately, that’s the same situation here.”