Fire District 13 to fill board vacancy

Fire District 13 Board of Commissioners will hold a special meeting Monday to interview candidates and possibly appoint someone to fill a vacancy.

The vacant board position is the one that was held by Doug Avery, who resigned in April.

Commission members Chuck Hedlund and Arne Fohn will have help in deciding who to pick — Chief Roy Horn and two of his designees will assist in the interviews.

At its last meeting, the commission agreed to let Horn and an assistant chief and a commissioner from another district participate in the selection interviews.

According to Commissioner Fohn, there are several applicants for the position including former commission member Jim Grove, volunteer firefighter Ted Taylor and Ron McFarlane, who is the husband of district secretary Deborah McFarlane.

Commissioner Hedlund was also contacted by a reporter from this newspaper but refused to confirm the names of the applicants. He said all information had to come from Horn, who was unavailable. Hedlund said he was in Eastern Washington.

In most government agencies, the administrative employees answer to the elected officials.

On Monday, June 16, the commissioners will meet at 9 a.m. to conduct regular business. Then they plan to start interviewing applicants in public at 11 a.m. At their last meeting, the chief outlined a plan to have the commissioners — and possibly the selection committee — go into a closed session to discuss the qualifications of the applicants.

The commissioners are supposed to make the decision in public, but the law lets them talk about it in secret. No matter how many people participate in the process, only Fohn and Hedlund can vote. And they must do so in open session for all to see.

Should the two commissioners fail to reach an agreement, the appointment task will fall to the Skagit County Board of Commissioners.