We all read with amazement the information about the salary increase (60 percent) that was awarded to the soon to be ex-Fire Chief of the North Highline Fire District, Russ Pritchard.

This mind-boggling raise comes on the heels of the levy increase that the same department said was needed to fund operations. What a pathetic decision by the Board of Commissioners.

I served as a Commissioner in this department from 1994 to 2005, and served as President of the King County Fire Commissioners Association. In that time, I worked with many chiefs and commissioners from this county and the state that were smart, dedicated, engaged, and vigilant custodians of the taxpayers' (our) money, while providing top notch service.

This group exhibits none of these capabilities.

How can a $198,000 salary be justified for a small department Chief with 31 uniformed personnel and four civilian employees? For comparison, the 2007-budgeted salary for the Fire Chief for the City of Seattle is $158,980-and he has 1,064 uniformed Firefighters and 78 civilians in his department.

It is easy to see that there was no rational process or reason for this ridiculous "gift" but to pad his already lucrative retirement. It would appear by doing some simple calculations that Chief Pritchard will be receiving around $136,000 per year in retirement. His statement, "this is part of a severance package," begs the question: what part is this? Severance to retire?

Do these Commissioners have any idea what they are doing?

What can be done? Well to start, Chief Pritchard should not accept this outlandish increase. Secondly, the three Commissioners, Ron Malaspino, Barb Peters and Wayne Alishokis, should resign immediately, along with the Chief.

It's time to get some professional managerial leadership and oversight. It is our money that's being wasted.

Robert Cook

Salmon Creek