New chief brings experience to Fire District 12

Published 4:49 pm Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Courier-Herald

He doesn't even live on the Plateau yet, but new Fire District 12 Chief Bill Steele has a lot of ideas for his district.

Steele was hired as the new chief by the district's board of commissioners at the Feb. 10 meeting and was ready to start his new job the next day. Steele replaces interim operation chief Alan Predmore and interim fire administrator Dave Crossen, who filled in after former Chief Dick Steinmetz's contract was not renewed.

While he is eager to begin his new job, Steele admits he is busy sorting through all the new information he has to process.

"Right now I'm dealing with an information overload," he said, laughing.

But he is confident things will get smoothed out soon enough, as being a fire chief is nothing new to Steele.

Prior to taking his District 12 position, Steele, 50, spent the last 17 years as the Thurston County Fire District 2 fire chief in Yelm. While doing that he also worked as a full-time Department of Natural Resources fire investigator until 1997.

Steele's educational background includes a bachelor's degree in public administration and he's a certified firefighter, fire officer, fire instructor and fire investigator; also, he has earned his technical hours for a firefighter teaching certificate in Washington.

Steele's employment at Yelm/Fire District 2 ceased when that district's board of commissioners decided not to renew his contract, citing a need to grow in a different direction.

But District 12 Commissioner Doug Hudson sees that as being a bonus for District 12.

"Basically, Yelm's loss is Fire District 12's gain," he said.

Hudson said Steele's prior experience is going to help District 12 tremendously because the district is facing a lot of the same issues Steele dealt with in Yelm.

"He's a great fit," Hudson said. "He's very knowledgeable. He's a people person. I think he's going to do very well."

Steele said he decided to apply for the job in District 12 when he found out his District 2 position was not being renewed.

"What makes me feel good about being a candidate and being a selection is I was fairly aware of the issues going on with the board (of commissioners) and with Chief Steinmetz at the time," Steele said.

He said he also feels good about taking the job because he has since learned District 12 is facing the same challenges and issues the Yelm district has faced in the past concerning more calls for service and a shortage of staff, meeting state imposed training and equipment standards and budgetary issues.

And Steele expects to be able to use some of his ideas implemented in Yelm in District 12 in helping to solve some of these issues.

One of his top priorities is to see District 12 have a more cohesive training operation with the other fire service agencies on the Plateau and Bonney Lake and expand on the training programs already being worked on by the various agencies. He said the requirements for being fully functional firefighters are becoming more difficult to attain and maintain competency.

"It is becoming necessary to work smarter, not necessarily harder," he said.

Steele sees the way to fix the gap between the number of volunteers and increase of call volume is to enter into more thought out mutual aid agreements and to increase the working relationship between District 12 and the other fire service agencies without infringing on individual agency identities.

And in the long term, Steele said his priorities will always focus on service to the public, communication, operations, policies and procedures and his employees, whom he calls team members.

But right now Steele's goals focus more on immediate department issues and getting situated in his new job.

While he may be overwhelmed with new information right now, Steele soon hopes to meet and get to know his staff of 34 volunteers and three career firefighters and assess their and the department's needs.

He also wants to gauge his "people resources," familiarizing himself with the internal budget and the board of commissioners. In regard to the board, he says he needs to learn what the board wants from him and what his role will be as fire chief.

He said he believes the board wants him to fill a "strong chief" role and move away from the board not only setting policies but also overseeing a large part of the day-to-day operations and management decisions.

Hudson agrees, admitting in the past the board was involved in day-to-day operations and management "way too much."

Steele said his third immediate goal is to develop open communication with the surrounding area including fire agencies, businesses and the public as well. He said after working 25 years in Yelm, 17 as fire chief, he is certainly aware personally of the interworking connections in communication.

Steele said he would like the public to feel free to come into the fire station and ask questions; and he also is interested in setting up public education and safety classes.

Steele also wants his firefighters to become involved in pre-fire planning activities, specifically at the new high school, building structures and the lay-outs of buildings, so they are aware of their surroundings before there is an emergency.

"I'm very committed to public service and becoming involved in the community and having safe responders to provide that service," he said.

"The bottom line is taking care of the public, and that's what I'm all about."

Jessica Keller can be reached at jkeller@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald