STANWOOD – The shock is still reverberating in the Stanwood Fire Department after the sudden resignation last week of Chief Kevin Taylor, who was hired just five months before.
That shock boiled over into frustration vented at Mayor Herb Kuhnly and the City Council Thursday night at the council’s regular meeting, when about 50 people jammed City Hall.
“Our membership is absolutely devastated,” said Scott Johnston, the department’s temporary chief and a representative of the local firefighters union. “We really saw ourselves taking off with the hiring of Chief Taylor.”Kuhnly asked for Taylor’s resignation in a prepared letter handed to the chief on Aug. 26.
“He felt we had communication issues,” Taylor said by phone from his Snohomish home. “That’s his word for it.”
Earlier in the week, Kuhnly said he was expecting the firefighters to show up onThursday.
“The firemen, they appreciated a lot of things he was doing up there, and I don’t take that away from Kevin at all,” Kuhnly said. “We had another direction.”
Taylor’s contract allowed the mayor to fire him at will with no cause, so the former chief said resignation was his only option.
“I never thought that would happen to me,” Taylor said.
At issue was the city’s desire to merge with a neighboring fire district. In the spring, the city had turned down an offer to merge with Camano Island Fire and Rescue. The city also was unable to come to terms with Snohomish County Fire District 14, which covers the rural areas surrounding Stanwood.
Taylor was hired soon after that, in March.
“I was specifically brought in because I had a lot of merger experience,” he said, citing his work in King County and Edmonds.
Taylor said the relationship soured after he recommended that the city move first on a deal to merge its paramedic services with either Camano Island or Arlington. Those departments wanted a response from Stanwood later this year.
Taylor said the mayor seemed put off by the suggestion. Kuhnly preferred to focus on the fire department merger with District 14, he said.
At Thursday’s meeting, Jim Ruble, a local ambulance driver, urged the council to back away from the interim agreement with District 14.
“The take-home message for me is do not sign the agreement tonight,” Ruble said.
City Councilman Andy Chappel agreed. He moved to schedule a workshop instead. The motion passed 3-2, with Gil Powell and Shelley Klasse casting the “no” votes. The crowd applauded.
The council set a workshop for Tuesday to discuss the next step.
Taylor had hoped to negotiate a stronger contract with Stanwood at the end of the year. Now, he’s looking for work.
Johnston agreed to run the department in the interim.
“Looking at this crowd that’s here tonight, we can’t make a decision,” Councilwoman Dianne White said. The she told Johnston, “Thank you for stepping up that way.”
Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.
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