The Sun City Fire District board of directors updated the fire chief’s job description before discussing a potential search for candidates during a work session March 12.

The board will vote on whether to begin a job search for a fire chief at the regular meeting March 26.

Rob Schmitz has been the acting chief for nearly three years. The board has held off on conducting a chief search, deciding several years ago to wait on the results of a feasibility study that would lay out the pros and cons of consolidating with the Arizona Fire/Medical Authority.

AFMA is composed of the North County Fire District, which includes Sun City West and Wittman; the South County Fire District, which includes Sun Lakes and Tonopah; and the Buckeye Valley Fire District. Sun City would join AFMA as a fourth fire district working with the others to pool resources, especially tax dollars, to better meet the needs of the community. By joining, SCFD could potentially save money by increasing their purchasing power and reducing administrative personnel, among other things.

Tim Wilmes, board chairman, said recent discussions with AFMA indicated it would likely be 2026 or 2027 before the consolidation could occur should they even decide to move in that direction once the study is complete. That would mean, without changes, the SCFD would continue to operate without a chief for another two or three years.

He said it was not fair to the stakeholders nor to Schmitz to continue under the current situation. A chief search is expected to take at least 4-6 months.

Before they could begin a search, however, the board needed to update and revise their existing job description, which was last reviewed in July 2020. Wilmes, who was a board member at the time, said that review changed nothing and it was quite old.

“I thought it was very comprehensive,” said Stephen Arnold, board clerk.

The board did, however, make small modifications throughout the description to modernize it and to better reflect the position today.

The chief’s salary will also have to be addressed, Wilmes said. It currently offers a range of $141,000-172,000, which is lower than other, comparative, districts. Sun City is unique in that with only three stations it is much smaller than many comparative districts, but its call volume rivals that of much larger districts. Its call volume is high because its an older aged community and emergency services receives a lot of calls.

Brandon Crossno, vice president of the United Sun Cities Firefighters Local 3573, said it was also difficult to target a good salary range because city districts were not comparable.

“What cities and towns do is that fire chiefs are considered a director and pay is made comparable with other department directors,” he said. “In most districts, it’s what is negotiated with the board.”

The most comparative fire districts, Crossno said, are Daisy Mountain and Superstition, which have salaries that top at $192,482 and $194,228 until July 2024.

Wilmes said the board members should consider the issue and they would discuss it at the March 26 meeting.

“I’m worried if we’re on the bottom, we’re not going to get good candidates,” he said.

Arnold proposed promoting Schmitz to chief permanently or until the search is complete.

Crossno said that although he felt the union members liked Schmitz and the job he has done, the board needed to have a more open search. Firefighters at all ranks have to go through a hiring process that compares them to their peers and Schmitz needed to do the same.

“The perception then is he went through the process and he’s earned it,” Crossno said.

Additionally, Wilmes added, the board needed to do its due diligence and look at all the candidates. He said there would be other complications to promoting Schmitz even temporarily aside from searching for a position already filled. If they made Schmitz chief and then chose another candidate for the position, Schmitz would be demoted to a position that no longer exists, raising further questions.

“The current situation sucks,” Wilmes said, “but until some other decisions are resolved we can’t put our foot on the gas.”