Challengers Taking On Two Fire Commissioners

With top fire officials facing challengers in two of three South Side and West Plains fire protection districts, the election race is, shall we say, starting to heat up.

Fire Protection district commissioners set policy for their district, oversee spending and supervise the fire chief.

There are three commissioners to a district, and each serves for six years. Elections are staggered so that one position is voted on every two years.

The job is part time, with only a couple of days of work required every month, at $70 per day. All candidates agree they are not applying for the money, however.

District 8

This district covers Freeman, Glenrose, Painted Hills, Chapel, Valleyford, Mica, Ponderosa, Saltese, Moran and Hangman Hills. Greg Hesse is running against incumbent Lee Boling.

“My biggest contention is that there is no one with experience among the commissioners,” said challenger Hesse, a 30-year veteran of the Spokane Fire Department.

With critical issues facing the district, he said, including an aging fire station at 57th and Regal, it is critical that fire commissioners have a good working knowledge of day-to-day firefighting.

“We need somebody who’s going to make the right decisions,” he said.

Hesse, 52, has a degree in fire science and has been to national firefighting training numerous times.

Boling has been fire commissioner for six years. He currently is vice president of the Spokane County Fire Commissioners Association and has been working for the past two years on growth-management issues and dispatch consolidation.

He should be re-elected, he said, because “my experience over the past six years and contacts in the county and state have given me the experience and knowledge to ensure the best fire protection and emergency medical services for Fire District 8.

“I’m truly dedicated to this community,” he said.

Before he was a commissioner, Boling was a volunteer arson investigator and emergency medical technician for nine years. He has been a professional law enforcement officer for 23 years.

However, Boling does not seem to have the support of local firefighters. The District 8 firefighters union, made up of the 10 paid firefighters on staff, said they support Hesse “100 percent.”

“We feel Greg’s an honest person. He has no aspirations to go farther than Fire District 8,” said union president Jeff Wainwright.

He said the union backed Boling during the last election but that Boling had “gone south on us.”

The union contends that while Boling did a good job at first, over the past three years Boling has made bad decisions.

Wainwright said many volunteer firefighters also back Hesse.

Boling defends his performance to date and contends he has the support of many volunteers and that he fully expects the union would support Hesse, who is a member.

Also, he said it is not necessary for the commissioner to have firefighting experience, although he does. Instead, the commissioner oversees a fire chief, who has that experience.

District 10

In this district, covering much of the West Plains, Brad Cassell is running against incumbent Paul McBride.

A volunteer lieutenant in District 10, Cassell said current commissioners aren’t doing a bad job, but it’s time for more progressive thinking on the West Plains.

“Ten years ago, this was a more rural district. Now, there’s more industry and homes,” he said.

“I think we need to look at that.” His opponent, McBride, isn’t necessarily in touch, Cassell said.

Cassell’s vision is to ensure the district will be ready for the evolving community.

If elected, Cassell said he would resign his lieutenant status and become a regular volunteer firefighter in the district to avoid a conflict of interest.

Cassell, 33, has been a full-time firefighter with the Spokane Fire Department for the past three years. When he’s not on duty there or volunteering in District 10, which he has done for 10 years, he runs a one-man construction company, volunteers with an ambulance company in Airway Heights and takes college courses.

McBride, 57, has been a commissioner for 18 years and a volunteer firefighter for 20 years before that. He said that as a young man, he actually responded to several fires on his bike.

The key issue facing the district now is land annexation, he said.

Annexation is the process whereby the city of Spokane applies to incorporate county land as part of the city. It is based on need and public vote, so his concern is not whether it happens - that’s the will of the people, McBride said - but rather that fire protection district funding and resources are not compromised in the process.

He and other district commissioners have been working with the city for the past two years toward that end.

McBride is retired, after about 15 years selling and installing water irrigation pumps for farmers.

McBride said he’s running again because “I feel like I’m giving something back to the public.”

District 3

In District 3, which covers the southwest corner of Spokane County, Mike Jackson is running unopposed. Jackson was not available for comment.