In November 2018, Joe Moore took over as chief of the Verde Valley Fire District. Two years later, Moore is ending his long career with fire departments in the area, set to retire in March.
On Tuesday, Feb. 9, the Verde Valley Fire District hosted four candidates for the job at a meet-and-great at Station 31 on E. Godard Road, giving the fire district governing board and other interested members of the public a chance to meet the candidates.
Unlike previous leadership searches, the VVFD board hired an outside consultant — Brenda Tranchina from Human Resources Strategies LLC — to handle the recruitment process. Tranchina found four applicants who came to the Verde Valley on Tuesday and stayed for two more days to work along with the district staff, before holding formal interviews on Thursday.
Board Chairman Ken Bishop said that the most important thing that the board was looking for was a chief who would be able to handle the district independently without a lot of input from the board.
“[We’re looking for] someone that has a lot of interest in the district and can work along with the people,” Bishop said. “The board is responsible for the chief. The chief handles operations, and the board will not interfere or micromanage.”
All four candidates come with fire experience, though only one has been a chief.
■ Ed Mezulis is the only candidate with direct Verde Valley fire experience, after having spent two decades with the Sedona Fire District, rising to the position of division chief.
“I figured this was an opportunity to get more involved with the fire service in the Verde Valley,” Mezulis said. “Verde Valley Fire is unique because it covers incorporated and unincorporated areas …. The region is growing, and Verde Valley is poised to have a pretty bright and dynamic future. What draws me to Verde Valley Fire is the people. I’ve worked with them for 20 years.”
■ Jeff Sargent has been the fire chief for the city of Nogales since August 2019 and said that he is interested in seeing if the VVFD would be a better fit.
“I’m just looking for a place that’s a good fit,” Sargent said. “There are a lot of benefits of working with a fire district instead of a municipality. It’s self-contained. In Nogales when we need an apparatus we’re kind of competing with the rest of the city …. That’s one of the things I like about the fire districts. I am looking for a place to work out the remainder of my career that’s got better temperatures and sort of a smaller community.”
■ Jason Napier spent most of his firefighting career in Washington state, but moved to Avondale several years ago. He sees the fundamentals of fighting fires in both rural areas to be similar, even if the biomes differ.
“[I come with] my history as an administrative officer for 12 years — mainly in fire prevention and risk reduction,” Napier said. “That affords me the ability to understand laws and interpret them and apply them. The biggest thing is the whole listening thing and being open-minded as a fire marshal. Being able to listen to people and understand where they’re coming from, and being able to get to a win-win situation I think will be very beneficial here and I think will improve interdepartmental communication.”
■ Danny Johnson retired from working his way up through the leadership of the Daisy Mountain Fire Department, which stretches from Anthem to Black Canyon City, before spending several years at a construction company that builds fire stations.
“Because I’ve been in Arizona my whole life, and all my time with the Arizona fire service, I have relationships and connections with fire chiefs all over the state,” Johnson said. “It’s a resource that I can draw on, and there’s mentors and there’s people that have done it that are a phone call, so if I need some advice or I need some wisdom or I need somebody to say, ‘This is what we’re dealing with,’ I’ve got that resource. I can pick up a phone, I can bring that resource from the whole Arizona fire service.”
“They’re going to need flexibility, diversity and patience, and they’re going to need a lot of stamina,” Chief Moore said. “I say that because COVID’s changed our world, when you think about what this chief is going to endure and the challenges they’re going to deal with, with the virus and what comes after that.”
