Port Townsend’s Fire Chief Quits After Council Cuts Pay
Salary reductions leave the department’s chief and engineer gone, with Engineer Draper refusing to juggle five jobs—engineer, janitor, teamster, alarm superintendent, and assistant chief—for less pay.
The recent reductions in the salaries of the Port Townsend fire department by the city council brought forth the resignation of Chief Hill and of Engineer Draper, the latter stating that he did not feel that he could fill the positions of engineer, janitor, teamster, superintendent of the fire alarm, and assistant chief of the fire department and do justice to them all.
“he did not feel that he could fill the positions of engineer, janitor, teamster, superintendent of the fire alarm, and assistant chief of the fire department and do justice to them all.”
Budget cuts that push public-safety workers out the door—and ask the remaining crew to absorb several jobs—remain a familiar municipal story. Port Townsend’s 1893 resignations show how a small-town council’s pay vote can become a staffing crisis.
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