Public invited to meet candidates for fire chief

Commissioners for the Spokane Valley Fire Department on Wednesday announced the names of five finalists who will compete to be the city’s next fire chief.

The job candidates, who come from all over the country, will be in Spokane Valley next week to interview for the position left vacant by Chief Mark Grover, who will retire at the end of this month. Grover, 54, has been with the department for 31 years, serving the last four as chief.

The board has been working with the Oldani Group – a firm in Bellevue, Wash., that assists companies in executive searches – to find a replacement for the job, which pays between $110,000 and $130,000 a year.

None of the candidates is a current employee of the fire district, and all except one live out of state.

The five candidates announced Wednesday are: Scott Ferguson, operations chief for the Peoria (Ariz.) Fire Department; John Huff, assistant chief for support services, Lincoln (Neb.) Fire Department; Renn Ross, chief, Boise Fire Department; Mike Thompson, retired chief administrative officer, Culver City (Calif.) Fire Department, who moved to north Spokane in 2003; Paul Wagner, chief, Papillion (Neb.) Fire Department.

The candidates were selected from an original group of 52 that was pared down to 11 before the final selection was made. The interview process will take two and a half days and will begin next Thursday.

A reception will be held next Thursday for the community to meet the candidates and ask questions, said Joe Dawson, commission chairman.

“We want to involve the community as much as we can,” he said.

The following day, candidates will be interviewed by three six-member panels, including two officers from the department, two non-uniformed staff members, and four firefighters, Dawson said. The commission also hopes to include a school board member from each of the three Valley school districts and a council member from each of the towns and cities – Liberty Lake, Spokane Valley and Millwood – served by the department.

One interview panel will also include a member from the Inland Empire Fire Chiefs Association, Dawson said.

The department hopes to offer the selected candidate a contract by mid-February, Dawson said. It is unlikely that the new chief will be in place by March 1, when Grover’s retirement becomes official. An interim chief will likely have to be appointed, Dawson said.