“Continuing a recent trend of high interest in service on the Bainbridge Island Fire Board, four candidates go before voters in the Sept. 18.All vie for the single open seat on the three-person board, and two will advance to the November general ballot. In interviews with the Review this week, candidates discussed their qualifications and views on issues facing the department, including tax funding; collective bargaining with career fire personnel; maintaining the volunteer program; and developing facilities and equipment.Scott GrayThe fire service is Scott Gray’s occupation – indeed, he admits, his passion.His day job is as a lieutenant in the Seattle Fire Department. On his off days, he’s a volunteer with the Bainbridge Fire Department. Now, he wants to step up his commitment, as he puts it, by becoming a Bainbridge fire commissioner.I (would) bring a fire service background to the board, which is related directly to the service we’re trying to provide, he said.The 30-year-old Gray lists three personnel issues as the principal challenge facing the commission in the next six years.First, he said, is the contract negotiations with the professional staff, where he says his background as a union member with the Seattle department will prove useful.Second, he says the Bainbridge department needs to upgrade training opportunities for volunteers.Gray says that there are numerous levels of training and expertise recognized by fire services nationally, and he favors making those types of opportunities available to Bainbridge volunteers.Some sort of progression enables goal-setting, he said. It’s something that lets you know there’s more to go for.The third issue Gray wants to address is the med-tech program. He believes the contract setup should be replaced as soon as possible by on-staff paramedics.We need continuity, he said. Right now, there might be 25 different people from King County who come here to cover various shifts. That makes it hard, for example, to put somebody in charge of respirator maintenance.Another issue, he says, is that for liability reasons, the contract paramedic cannot go on live fire calls.If we train our own people as dual-role guys, we get more bang for our buck, he said.While the overall level of service is good, Gray said there are spot problems, such as an 11-minute response time from the south end station.For some reason, there are few volunteers in that area, he said. We might have to go door to door or something like that and recruit some.Originally from Alaska, Gray finished high school in Monroe. He ran into former Bainbridge fire chief Kirk Stickels, who encouraged him to volunteer, which led him to the Seattle department. When he and his wife moved to the island, he began volunteering with the Bainbridge department a week before the Strawberry Plant fire.One call he went on, not memorable at the time, was a house fire on Miller Road. After the fire was extinguished, the house was restored, and Gray and his wife bought it.The house I live in now was one I helped save as a volunteer, he said.Gray acknowledges the issues that could arise being both a commissioner – arguably the fire chief’s boss – and a volunteer, and says that if elected, he might have to quit as a volunteer.But he sees some compensating advantages.There are little nuances in knowing the fire service that could be valuable, Gray said. And I think the chief (Jim Walkowski) could use somebody on the commission as a sounding board that he could relate to.Jim JohnsonJim Johnson is running for fire commissioner to continue a fascination with the fired department that started when he was a little boy on Bainbridge.A field near my house caught on fire, he said. I was really amazed at the fire engine when it pulled up, and the firemen put out the fire.In 1975, he was talking to a volunteer fireman, and decided to join himself. He spent a total of 15 years volunteering, training both as a firefighter and an emergency medical technician.Now, at age 55 and slowed by the effects of childhood polio, he ways the fire commission is the only way I’m comfortable serving.I wouldn’t want to endanger another volunteer because of my physical limitations, he said. Running for commissioner is the next best way to keep involved.Johnson’s principal thrust is making sure that the department continues to offer comprehensive training and provide state-of-the art equipment.We need to keep up to date, and make sure that we have the best equipment money can buy, he said.Keeping an acceptable response time is also partly a function of equipment, he said, and is a further reason for his emphasis on a properly equipped force.He said there is no reason Bainbridge can’t maintain a mostly volunteer force even as it grows.As long as we have a good volunteer force and people are dedicated to it, I don’t see any reason we can’t keep it, he said.He says the contract paramedic program is working well, but will likely need to give way to professional medical technicians on the Bainbridge department. I know we are trying to get paramedics on the island fulltime, he said.Johnson grew up on Bainbridge, then went to work for Western Electric installing telephone equipment.In 1980, he was in a serious automobile accident on the island, and he learned first-hand the importance of a prompt and professional response.If it weren’t for the fire department, I might not be here today, he said. I’ve seen it from both sides, both as a volunteer, and as someone who needed help.After retiring from Western Electric, he took a job with Watson Furniture Systems, installing 911 call centers. Now, he designs the centers, and has made the move to Poulsbo with Watson.It was too bad they left the island, he said. They used to be five minutes away from my house, but now it’s half an hour.Johnson, who has been endorsed by the firefighters’ union, says the ongoing negotiations for a contract may be bumpy at the moment, but he believes relations will be smooth once a contract is signed.This is Johnson’s first try for elective office, and he confesses to being a little nervous about the whole process.But I love the department, I love the community, and I feel that I can do a really good job, he said.Brian LawlerAttorney Brian Lawler got involved with the Bainbridge fire department vicariously, when his oldest son joined the high-school cadet program.Now, he wants to become more involved by succeeding fellow attorney Alan Corner as a district commissioner.We need to make sure the department stays well staffed, well equipped, well trained and well funded to continue to provide the high level of service the community expects, Lawler said.He sees the commission’s challenge over the next six years – the length of a commission term – as responding to the demands of island growth.The overall number of service calls is rising, he noted, particularly calls for medical services. While he is not immediately ready to call for replacing the contract med-tech arrangement with on-staff EMTs, he said the issue demands close attention.A lot of money is going out on the EMT contract, and we need to keep an eye on that, he said.The collective-bargaining agreement now under negotiation between the fulltime firefighters and clerks and management is another challenge, he said, and an inevitable part of department growth.Despite the growth, he wants to see the cadre of volunteers continue to be the main source of personnel.The volunteers are the hears and soul of the program, and will continue to be, he said.Originally from Connecticut, Lawler attended Dartmouth College, received an undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and got his law degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.Since then, he has been in private law practice in Seattle, specializing in real estate and environmental law.He and his family moved to Bainbridge Island 20 years ago, a tenure that he says gives me a general sense of what the community standards are.He says his professional background also equips him for the commission.I think my legal and business experience has helped me develop listening, problem-solving and decision-making skills, he said.One potential challenge facing the district is the possibility of Tim Eyman’s latest tax-cut initiative passing. That initiative would limit local-government revenue increases to 1 percent annually, rather than the present limitation of 6 percent.Should that measure pass, it would require a major revision in fire district finances. The district has for years taken the maximum annual increase, but has used that money for capital acquisitions as well as operations, and has not had to ask voters to approve bonds or otherwise fund capital expenses.That would force us to refocus the strategy of how to maintain our level of service, Lawler said.The district has been able for years to live off the fact that this is a prosperous area, he said. The challenge would be how to generate community support for large capital needs.Lawler is generally well satisfied with the way the fire district has operated, and wants to maintain that direction.The district has done an excellent job, he said, but as the community grows, we need to keep an eye on it.Ralph SpillingerRalph Spillinger wants to be involved in community service. As an engineer and retired Navy officer, he believes the fire commission is the opportunity that best matches his ability.My background is managing changes in processes, and managing in collaborate fashion, he said. I think that fits with the issues facing the department.The issues, Spillinger said, all relate to community growth.As the department gets larger, he said, the organizational structure will need to be examined.We may have to look at a more conventional structure, where the department is headed by a professional fire chief, he said.In the present organizational structure, operations chief Jim Walkowski – the top firefighter – reports to executive director Ken Guy, who is not a professional fireman. Guy, in turn, reports to the commission.I think the department is well managed and well run, he said, but this is something I see the commission looking at in the future.Spillinger said the current arrangement of contracting with a Seattle firm for ambulance services also has to be re-examined, and may need to be changed.Fire calls are not going up with the population, but people calls are, he said, noting that emergency medical calls currently constitute 82 percent of the department’s calls.There will come a crunch point where it’s going to be more economical to have our own medical technicians.It will also be difficult to maintain adequate levels of emergency-call services under the present arrangement, he said.Right now, the standard is to respond to the first call within five minutes, then if another call comes, to give that one your best efforts. As the island grows, that ‘best effort’ is going to be increasingly unsatisfactory.Spillinger wants to maintain a balance between paid and volunteer staff. Presently, there are 9 professional and 75 volunteer firefighters.We can’t afford a fully paid staff, he said. And the island feels pretty passionately about community involvement.The 56-year-old Spillinger grew up in Bellevue and graduated from Washington State University in 1967. He went into the Navy and did a stint in Vietnam. In the 1970s, he was stationed at the Bangor submarine base, during which he lived on Bainbridge. When he left the Navy, he joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and was assigned to the Washington, D.C. area.Before retiring and moving back to Bainbridge, he was the director of design and construction for NASA’s space-flight facilities.He became involved with the fire department when fire commissioner Don Pratt died while in office. Spillinger was one of those who applied for the seat. When he was not selected, he asked Guy how he could be useful and involved. Guy made him a community representative on the fire department’s personnel-selection panel, he said, and he advised on the last three hires, including Walkowski as chief.Let me make it clear that I don’t have an agenda, he said. I don’t think there is a major issue. But I understand fire systems, and I have a leadership background that I think would be helpful to the board. “