Candidates for a Clallam County Fire District No. 3 commission seat clashed on district staffing during a forum.
Sean Ryan, 53, of Port Angeles — who is challenging appointee G. Michael Gawley, 72, of Sequim for the Position 1 seat in the Nov. 3 general election — believes the district needs more full-time employees and fewer administrators.
He made his remarks at a Tuesday forum hosted by the Clallam County League of Woman Voters at the Sequim Transit Center.
“Right now, if there is a structure fire in downtown Sequim . . . and there is an automobile wreck on [U.S. Highway] 101, we don’t have” enough full-time employees to respond to both and must rely on volunteers, said Ryan, owner of America’s Elite damage restoration service and repair company.
The district — which extends east of Deer Park Road to Gardiner in Jefferson County — is “actually at a point where we can’t handle all the calls the way they are,” Ryan added.
Gawley disagreed.
“Right now, we are in good shape,” he said, adding that district residents “are well-protected.”
Gawley said the district is approaching more than 6,000 annual calls for service and that “we are serving them very well.
“The concept of just simply throwing more bodies on the payroll isn’t necessarily a good one,” said Gawley, who was appointed to the seat in February 2014.
“We have a budget to maintain, and we have to stay within those confines,” he said.
“The idea of putting more [full-time employees] on the street may make for a convenient slogan for campaigning” but would be costly to implement, said Gawley, who retired from the Federal Aviation Administration in 2005.