Council makes fire chief official

Diana Sahagun

Thursday, Aug. 16, 2001 | 11:20 a.m.

Saying David Washington has the best blend of skills and character, the Las Vegas City Council Wednesday unanimously approved naming the interim fire chief to the position permanently.

Washington was picked from four deputy chiefs by a three-member panel of fire chiefs brought in from Denver, Sacramento and Madison, Wis.

Washington, the first black fire chief in the city's history, has been interim chief since May, when Mario Trevino left to become fire chief of San Francisco.

Mayor Oscar Goodman, jokingly, asked Washington if he planned to take a position out of state in the future. Washington, who joined the department as a firefighter in 1974, said absolutely not.

"I want to do the best job that's humanly possible," Washington said. "I care about the city, not just about the fire department."

Dean Fletcher, head of Local 1260 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, questioned whether the selection process was fair and if Washington was truly the best candidate.

Fletcher said the candidates should have been ranked based on their skills and interviews. City Manager Virginia Valentine said it is not the city's policy to rank candidates and even if she had ranked them, she said, the results would have been the same.

A salary has not yet been set for Washington, but Valentine said it would be around $100,000 annually.