Maui Fire Chief Brad Ventura speaks at a badge-pinning ceremony for him and Deputy Fire Chief Gavin Fujioka on Sept. 30. The Maui Fire and Public Safety Commission is recommending a $210,000 annual salary for the chief, which would be a 32 percent increase over the $158,851 a year advertised for the position last year. COUNTY OF MAUI / SHANE TEGARDEN photo
The Maui Fire and Public Safety Commission is recommending a $210,000 annual salary for the position of fire chief, with commission members saying Thursday that the increase would make the chief’s pay higher than earnings of employees in lower-ranking fire positions while acknowledging the duties of the top job.
“It is absolutely crazy to think that the fire chief and deputy chief should make less than anyone in the department,” Commissioner Punahele Alcon said during an online commission meeting Thursday.
“It’s a huge responsibility and they take it home at night and it never goes away the entire time you’re in the position,” she said. “You worry about everybody.”
Seven commissioners attending the online meeting Thursday voted unanimously to recommend the amount, which would be a 32 percent increase over the $158,851 a year advertised for the position when Brad Ventura was selected to be fire chief in September.
Commissioners voted to recommend that the deputy chief’s salary be 90 percent of what the chief earns, which would amount to $189,000 a year.
Brad Ventura was selected as the new Maui fire chief last year following the retirement of David Thyne. MFD photo
The commission also recommended 3 percent to 5 percent annual pay increases based on performance evaluations.
The recommendation was sought by the Maui County Salary Commission, which is reviewing salaries of county directors and deputies. The last time the commission did a review was in 2019, said Corporation Counsel Moana Lutey. She said the commission, which sets the salaries, is expected to begin deliberating in the next week or two.
At the Salary Commission’s online meeting Friday, more than a dozen people testified against a 29 percent pay raise to $205,000 a year that was recommended by the Police Commission for Police Chief John Pelletier, who was sworn into office Dec. 15.
In addition to his brief time as chief, some of those testifying noted the Police Department has about 100 vacant positions for police officers, who have gone without a raise for about seven months while the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers union is in statewide contract negotiations.
Ventura said arbitration is occurring over pay raises sought by the Hawaii Fire Fighters Association.
In a presentation similar to one he made to the Salary Commission in December, Ventura noted that the cost of living here is 96 percent higher than in the average state and the median sales price is $1 million for a single-family home.
His presentation also included a comparison with fire chief annual salaries ranging from $199,000 to nearly $294,000 in cities in Washington state and California. He said he didn’t select the cities, which came from a website that recruits for civil service jobs. Most of the cities had populations smaller than the 167,417 people in Maui County. All had fewer employees and fewer fire stations than the 389 employees and the 14 fire stations and 10 lifeguard towers staffed in Maui County. Annual calls also were lower than the 14,464 in Maui County in fiscal year 2021.
Like the Police Department, Ventura said the Fire Department has “salary inversion,” with some battalion chiefs, assistant chiefs and captains earning more than the chief and deputy chief.
He said one reason is overtime, as assistant chiefs can be called to the county Emergency Operations Center or into the field for major incidents.
Last year, the top wage in the department was $181,915 paid to a battalion chief, with the chief’s pay ranking sixth on the list and the deputy’s pay ranking 14th.
Ventura’s presentation also noted that there were two candidates for fire chief last year, compared with four candidates in 2018.
Ventura said the job was different from other county directors.
“Being available 24 hours a day is very common when we’re on island,” he said. “When we’re on island, our phones pretty much ring almost any time day and night.”
Ventura didn’t recommend a salary amount. “That’s a tough question,” he said. “I feel we’re all in a very tough situation. This is about the position, not the person.”
Commissioners said they thought the fire chief’s salary should be comparable to the police chief’s.
Commissioner Gregg Lundberg said recruiting for chief should be a consideration in recommending the salary.
“I think there’s a scary situation when we only have two applicants for the position,” he said. “We can’t be settling for second or third best.”
He said the job “is getting more and more technical every year.”
Commissioner Dylan Andrion recalled talking about the salary inversion with the former fire chief.
“I remember the response being, ‘I’m not doing this for the pay,’ “ Andrion said.
He said the salary level might help the commission gauge whether someone would seek the job not for the pay but “because of their passion and heart to be there.”
But Andrion said he wouldn’t oppose the $200,000-plus salaries proposed by other commissioners.
“I think our fire chief is worthy,” he said.
Ventura, a 20-year veteran of the department, said, “I can honestly say that all my time as a firefighter, signing up, getting promoted, I never once in my life asked ‘what does it pay?’ “
“I think that sentiment is shared throughout our service,” he said. “If we all wanted to get paid more, we would have worked somewhere in the private sector years and years ago.”
Commission Vice Chairwoman Lisa Vares said a higher salary might encourage those in lower positions to try to become chief.
After suggesting annual salary amounts ranging from $200,000 to $225,000, commissioners voted to recommend $210,000 as an average of sorts.
The recommended amount would be higher than salaries of other fire chiefs in the state. The Honolulu fire chief’s salary is $199,000 a year, followed by $151,200 for the Hawaii County fire chief and $137,022 for the Kauai fire chief, according to information provided to The Maui News by each of the counties.
* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at .
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