Fire Chief Ken Cardinale of Chehalis Fire Department watches flames billow out of a van Tuesday afternoon in the 300 block of Teague Road in Centralia.
Chehalis Fire Chief Ken Cardinale may soon be serving as interim chief of Lewis County Fire District 6 in addition to his duties at the helm of the city’s fire department.
The Chehalis City Council is slated to consider an interlocal agreement with Fire District 6 on Monday that would see Cardinale receive a 50 percent increase of his salary for the duration of his dual tenures, with Fire District 6 picking up the bill for 40 percent of his overall compensation, or $6,290 per month, until it hires a permanent fire chief. Ratification of the agreement would result in a total cost savings of about $1,350 per month for the City of Chehalis.
Cardinale declined to comment on Friday, saying he would wait until an interlocal agreement is approved by both the city council and the Fire District 6 Board of Commissioners.
“I think you can look at it as a small dollar savings for the city, but the reality is the chief already works more than 40 hours a week, and there’s only so many extra hours a man can work,” said Chehalis City Manager Jill Anderson. “That’s what the dollar amount is there to compensate for.”
According to the agenda packet for Monday’s meeting, Fire District 6 leadership approached Chehalis in April following the resignation of then-Chief Tim Kinder to see if it would be willing to share Cardinale’s services on an interim basis. The city declined, citing the need for its staff to focus on other priorities, such as finding land for a new fire station. Following an unsuccessful search for an interim chief, Fire District 6 went back to the city to again inquire about an ILA.
The specific reasoning for Kinder’s resignation has not been made public by Fire District 6. The agency posted the job opening late last month and has been delegating the responsibilities of a fire chief to multiple parties within the organization.
The Chehalis Fire Department has been operating out of Fire District 6 headquarters on Jackson Highway since last summer, when asbestos contamination forced the evacuation of the fire station in downtown Chehalis. Further inspection of the nearly century-old building resulted in city staff recommending its fire department not return to the premises.
“I think some of the things we had been working on, like working with District 6 to make sure the facilities there were up to speed, had progressed,” Anderson said. “But it was more us recognizing they were in a difficult spot and they went out of their way to help us. It wasn’t so much that a lot had changed, but we thought that since they helped us out, we wanted to do what we could for them.”
Anderson and Fire District 6 Board Chair Jim Martin negotiated the agreement with input from additional parties on both sides.
The interlocal agreement is drafted to expire on Jan. 2, 2020, with a provision allowing for Anderson to extend it for an additional six months. It also allows her to terminate the agreement with 15 days notice without getting approval from the city council.
“(Cardinale) is a hard worker, and this is going to require him to work more while having that responsibility for a much larger jurisdiction,” Anderson said. “At this point, we’re anticipating it would last for six months or less. We would also be able to assess how well it’s working, and it’s effect on (Cardinale), before any sort of extension.”
