District fire chief appointed

WASILLA -- After about 12 weeks of waiting, a chief has been appointed to head the Central Mat-Su, or District 1, emergency services.

Jack Krill Jr., previously the district's battalion chief, was chosen by a six-member nominating committee to oversee the borough's largest emergency services district. Krill Jr. will officially begin working in the position, with a salary set at $53,000, in December.

Central Mat-Su has between 150 and 175 on-call responders and is not only the borough's largest emergency services provider, but has surpassed Fairbanks as the second-largest in the state. Krill Jr. will oversee both the fire and emergency services portions of the department -- along with managing a few boroughwide programs such as rescue operations and hazardous materials response. It will be a full-time job, one of six within the district. And it will be the first time it's ever really been filled. Previously, the fire and emergency medical divisions were split and separately managed but, in 2002, the department was reorganized to bring the two functions -- fire and emergency medical services -- together.

Although there were several applicants for the position, Ken Slauson, a member of the panel that interviewed 10 or so of the applicants, said it was apparent after the first round of interviews that a few stood out. Two of those top applicants were James Steele and Krill Jr.

"It's probably as much a compliment to Jack Senior's leadership style … that the two top candidates both came out of that department," Slauson said.

But there was a looming obstacle to naming Krill Jr. as the district chief -- a position formerly held and currently overseen by his father, Jack Krill Sr., the borough's emergency services director. Mat-Su Borough Code has two clear mandates about family members working together. First, no employee can be discriminated against for a promotion if it means that employee would be in contact with a member of their immediate family. But it also states the employee can not serve under supervision of a member of his or her immediate family.

Slauson said the group wrangled over the nomination, eventually submitting both names to Borough Manager John Duffy for consideration in August.

It took a while, Duffy said, for him to research the process and make a decision. He said while he didn't dispute that it had taken a long time, there were several factors involved.

"Not only did I want to review this, I wanted to talk to people about it," Duffy said. As the topic was discussed, more rumors of nepotism surfaced. And other issues, such as discussions over coal-bed methane development in the borough surfaced, whittling the time Duffy had to dedicate to making the decision. The delay, Duffy said, gave him time to research the process and see if the rumors were true. They weren't, Duffy said.

"I have found nothing," he said.

Decisions such as this, Duffy said, are generally handled by department heads. In this case, however, Krill Sr. stepped aside early on to avoid any questions of nepotism, and actually suggested his son not apply.

"I kind of encouraged him to stay in the Anchorage Fire Department," Krill Sr. said. "We're growing, and we're growing rapidly … and it takes a tremendous amount of work -- it's not an eight-hour job."

But apply he did, so Krill Sr. said he called the borough's human resources department to recuse himself from the process.

"I wasn't involved with it, even up to the final decision," Krill Sr. said.

The Krills, according to code, wouldn't be able to work together in the current setup, although Krill Jr.'s position would actually be directly overseen by Dennis Brodigan, deputy director of the department, and not Krill Sr. Although the details are still being ironed out, it appears there is a way to solve the problem.

"I've submitted my retirement papers to the borough," said Krill Sr.

Nearing the end of his 20 years of service with the borough, Krill Sr. said he had considered the nearing of that deadline before.

"When John [Duffy] asked me to assume the director's post, I reminded him the date was pretty soon," Krill Sr. said. "Once we ascertained I was eligible in March was when I agreed to take that job. But the time has come for me, after 37 years in the fire service, to take a break."

Krill Sr. said he'll continue to work with the department through May -- pending assembly approval -- in a position yet to be named. Duffy said he's got a lot in store for Krill Sr., if the position he has in mind is approved by the borough assembly at their meeting tonight. He said he'd like to have Krill Sr. handle the issue of emergency dispatch, along with training new managers in the borough's incident command protocol, working with risk assessment and working to better operations in the borough's Animal Care and Regulation office.

Meanwhile, Krill Jr. said he's looking forward to his new job. He said he was pleased by the positive response from district officers and volunteers last Tuesday, when Duffy announced Krill Jr. was the chosen candidate.

"It's been great so far," Krill Jr. said. "Coming out of those meetings, it was a really good reception."

It's a drop in pay of about $10,000 for Krill Jr., who previously held a full-time position with the Anchorage Fire Department, but it's a job he said he's been working toward all his life. A fourth-generation firefighter, he cut his teeth at Central, where he started training at 14 and helped get the district's Explorer program -- geared toward teaching teens about fire response -- off the ground. Through college at Oklahoma State University's prestigious fire services training program, Krill Jr. said he used Mat-Su's department as the backdrop for most major assignments and, in the process, found some ways the borough could work more efficiently.

"It was kind of to the betterment of each other," Krill Jr. said.

Krill Jr. worked during breaks at Central to maintain his membership, he said, and worked hard at college too, serving as the president of OSU's largest student group, the 250-plus member Fire Protection Society, by his junior year. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in fire protection and safety engineering and a master's in fire and emergency management, Krill Jr. returned to Alaska. He worked for AFD for two years, he said, while working 20 to 30 hours each week at Central, where he most recently served as Battalion Chief.

"I've been helping basically run this department for 10 years," Krill Jr. said.

He's not going to be managing the department alone, he said. Steele will continue in his position as deputy fire chief, and the two will work together, Krill Jr. said. But that may not be for long -- Steele could, theoretically, end up taking a different job in the shakeup that Krill Sr.'s departure will cause. Brodigan is expected to step in as the department's acting director, and some have speculated that Steele will be favored for Brodigan's previous position as deputy director -- giving him oversight over the department Krill Jr. was just appointed to.