LYNNWOOD — Gary Olson was surrounded by his loved ones and supporters July 11 as Sandy, his bride of 35 years, pinned him as Lynnwood’s fourth fire chief in the city’s 44 year history.
The process to find a new fire chief was a long one-, about 11 months, but well worth the wait ,Olson said.
“It has been a professional goal of mine and there’s a lot of people who have supported me through this,” Olson said.
He said he was more than thrilled July 11 to have all of his family in town for the special tradition. The Olson’s three sons, two of which are also firefighters, their wives and his five grandchildren were present for the pinning ceremony.
Olson, who has a total of 35 years of service in the fire department has experienced just about every aspect of the profession there is.
Since he started in Lynnwood in 1996 as the assistant chief of operations, Olson has served as the acting or interim fire chief for 19 months of that time. Olson was put into the acting lead role because former Fire Chief Bob Meador had been on disability leave and more recently, the position was vacant.
Prior to Lynnwood, Olson was, among other things, the assistant chief for nine years for the Long Beach, Calif. Fire Department.
Olson said this is a very exciting time to be the fire chief because, “the future of the Lynnwood department starts right now,” he said.
Olson said the department has many firefighters who are going to be retiring and they’re currently in the process of training and preparing all the others to come through the ranks.
This has been one of Olson’s goals as fire chief.
“I want there to be a career path within the Lynnwood Fire Department,” he said.
Among Olson’s first tasks as fire chief is to fill the open assistant fire chief of operations position and the medical services administrator (MSA) position which oversees the city’s paramedics.
According to Robin Hall, Lynnwood’s human resources director, testing and interviews are currently going on for the assistant fire chief position and the MSA position is now closed and testing for it will start soon.
Hall said the city’s civil service committee planned on approving the selection process for the assistant chief on Wednesday, July 16 and the position is planned to be filled by the end of September. The MSA position is planned to be filled by the beginning of September, she said.
Until the civil service committee was finished approving details for both of the positions, Hall wouldn’t comment on who the internal or external candidates were.
Lynnwood Mayor Mike McKinnon said he is happy the process is over and is glad Fire Chief Olson is in place as Lynnwood’s new fire chief.
“Olson is genuinely and highly respected by a very wide range of the fire service community,” McKinnon said. “Many fire chiefs and mayors have congratulated me on appointing Chief Olson as Lynnwood’s fire chief.”
McKinnon has also said he took extra time to select the new fire chief to ensure the right person was hired for the job, following his well-publicized dispute last year with Meador, the former fire chief.
McKinnon put Meador on administrative leave in August, then approved a fire-lane change himself. The move triggered an ethics investigation and lawsuit. Meador, who led the department for 12 years, retired in December without returning to work.
Meador was also investigated for alleged billing violations after he reportedly allowed a firefighter on disability leave to bill the city for repairs he made to a department fire engine.
The reason, McKinnon has said, it was hard for him to make a decision about the chief was because “I was looking for a chief with more administrative strengths than what we had before and that was difficult to find,” McKinnon said. “Chief Olson and I look forward to working together for a better Lynnwood.”
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