SNOHOMISH — Both incumbents on the Snohomish Fire District 4 board have challengers.
In one race, a longtime community leader faces a career firefighter.
In the other, the incumbent's call to study merging with another fire agency drew a retired Snohomish fire captain as challenger.
The board ratifies annual fire district budgets, appoints the chief, and advises administration on certain policies.
Ballots are due Nov. 7.
Position 2: Jill Gleason versus Craig Erickson, remainder of four-year term
Jill Gleason was appointed to the board in July 2022 to take over for the seat Jim Schmoker vacated. She is a Tacoma firefighter and EMT who has been married to a Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue firefighter.
Her challenger Craig Erickson is a retired Snohomish Fire Captain and adviser to the Snohomish Fire Explorers youth program. He also worked in the tooling department at Boeing.
Gleason did not respond to emailed questions from the Tribune or phone calls to discuss the questions.
Erickson said his goals are that Snohomish Fire "grows in a manner consistent with the population," that the department continues to have community education programs, and that Snohomish Fire can maintain "top-notch firefighting personnel."
That last one is because fire agencies compete for firefighters, and have been using recruiting bonuses to hire laterally. "It's starting to become like police departments where keeping people retained is tougher," Erickson said.
Erickson said he’d keep a steady hand on the budget.
Erickson told the Tribune earlier he was drawn into the race because Gleason made the motion in December 2022 to have Snohomish Fire study merging with Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue.
“I see no harm or effect on looking at other options,” Erickson said, but to look at Snohomish Regional “felt like a shoot-from-the-hip” decision, he said.
“We need to look at other options on whether it is best for the district,” he said.
The three-member board voted 3-0 to pursue studying SRFR. Board member Richard Flath raised a question on the specter of conflict of interest: At the time of the vote, Gleason was married to a SRFR firefighter and board member Evan Merritt was a SRFR firefighter.
Position 3: Richard Flath versus Brian Mills, six-year term
Flath’s young life first saw him drafted into the Army*, then after being honorably discharged he went through a Lutheran seminary and was a pastor for decades, including 20 at Snohomish’s Zion Lutheran. He’s also been an Army reservist for 30 years and Washington National Guard chaplain. He joined the fire board in 2019.
Mills’ life has been in firehouses and fire command for 31 years, almost all at the Seattle Fire Department where he was hired full-time. He rose to be Seattle Fire’s Deputy Fire Chief in charge of fleets and facilities before retiring in 2006. He also spent 24 years as a volunteer firefighter in Snohomish.
Flath frequently asks questions during board meetings. He said he does so because he doesn’t have a fire service background.
If re-elected, Flath’s six-year plan is “to follow up on what we started” to finalize the future fire station on Pine Avenue, he said. The new station is expected to add a fourth fire unit, which will allow Fire District 4 to “continue to provide the best services with the use of money” while continuing to work on shortening fire response times.
Mills said he wants the district to “continue to be proactive in maintaining appropriate service levels that meet the demands of the community,” and keep up service levels as the area’s population grows.
The district is currently jointly studying whether to consolidate with the larger Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue, and recently had discussions with Everett Fire.
Flath said that studying consolidation is appropriate because the act of studying itself lets the district learn new insights. “Just looking at something doesn’t mean you’re going to do anything,” he said.
Mills said studying the advantages of joining resources with other fire agencies is wise and prudent, because it could reveal ways to increase staffing to maintain fire service levels as the population grows. More staff costs money, he points out, and “to help distribute that cost, many departments join forces with surrounding agencies and realize the benefits of economies of scale in various components of the fire service programs,” Mills wrote by email.
After Snohomish Fire began studying consolidation options with Snohomish Regional Fire & Rescue, another agency, South County Fire, made a solicitation to look at studying options. The board declined South County Fire’s offer. Mills criticized this at the time, saying the board should look all options on the table.
Mills said Snohomish Fire 4 is doing well, and if elected he would hope to help ensure “it will always be the best available with the resources available.”
Flath suggested he’d like to see more firefighters have the ability to broaden their training in specialties such as Hazmat training. He praised that some Snohomish firefighters are now certified in tactical water rescue operations.
Union endorsements
The Snohomish firefighters’ union has endorsed Gleason and Mills for election.
Union president Fire Lt. Chris Jorve said the union’s goals are “enhancing staffing levels to ensure better service availability,” improving health care and retirement benefits, “firefighter health and wellness” and protecting employee wages.
“IAFF Local 2694 is confident that the candidates we have chosen to endorse offer the most promising path toward expanding and improving emergency services for the Greater Snohomish community,” Jorve wrote by email. “We believe that their leadership will propel our district to new heights, benefitting both our dedicated members and the residents we serve.”
* - Correction
Richard Flath was drafted into the U.S. Army during the time of the Vietnam War. However, he did not get sent overseas to serve in the conflict like the paper reported in the print version of this story. A Tribune reporter misunderstood. The Tribune regrets the error.
