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Anacortes swears in new fire chief and firefighters; chief flags overtime and minimum staffing pressures
Summary
Chief Mannix McDonald was sworn in and three new firefighters were added. McDonald reported 760 inspections this period, lateral academy training, red‑card wildland certifications and overtime tracking that shows overtime at 123% of budget amid minimum staffing requirements.
Mayor Walters administered the oath to Mannix McDonald, who repeatedly the oath and then delivered the fire department’s Q2 report. "We initially planned for about 400 inspections, and we have surpassed that, accomplishing 760 inspections with 83 reinspections," Chief McDonald said, citing department performance metrics and training accomplishments.
McDonald described a six‑week lateral fire academy for three firefighters hired with a safety grant and said the department is tracking overtime closely after pulling five years of data. He said the department's overtime figure was at 123% of its budget line and attributed some of the pressure to a lower full‑time headcount and contractual minimum staffing (currently nine persons across apparatus). McDonald also said the department has two open firefighter positions and one community paramedic vacancy; filling the assistant chief position is a priority to expand analytics capacity. Council thanked the department for service; no formal actions were taken.
