Port Ludlow Fire & Rescue has found a new interim chief at the end of a two-week scramble to replace Brad Martin.

Martin was placed on paid administrative leave May 3 by Port Ludlow fire commissioners.

In a May 4 letter to the chief, Port Ludlow Fire Board Chair Gene Carmody noted Martin’s departure was “non-disciplinary paid administrative leave effective immediately consistent with your request.”

“The action of placing you on paid administrative leave is not disciplinary in nature,” Carmody added. 

Even so, Martin was told he was relieved of all job duties and ordered to return his fire department vehicle, office keys, pager, radio and other computer or electronic equipment to the fire station.

Martin was also told he was prohibited from removing or accessing any district computers or digital information without Carmody’s permission.

Martin was given the OK to travel “for job search related reasons,” but was told he had to notify the fire commission’s chair beforehand and use personal leave for such time away.

At a special meeting Monday marked by three executive sessions, the board unanimously picked Gary Kavanagh as interim chief. Kavanagh, a volunteer firefighter/EMT with the department, will be paid $40 an hour.

Commissioners also approved a contract to have a duty chief supplied by East Jefferson Fire Rescue to assist with Port Ludlow emergency calls.

Under the agreement, the duty chief from East Jefferson Fire & Rescue will take command of all major incidents that happen within Port Ludlow Fire & Rescue’s territory.

Martin was still on paid administrative leave this week, despite earlier plans by the board to take additional action at its board meeting May 11.

The board did not make any new decisions on Martin’s status at last week’s meeting, nor at Monday’s special meeting.

Martin, who was appointed chief in 2012, has been under intense scrutiny within the department since last year.

The fire department’s board of commissioners ordered an investigation into Martin last year after the firefighters union took a vote of “no confidence” in Martin and submitted multiple letters alleging misdeeds by the chief.

The move by the union last September was the first-ever “vote of no confidence” taken by the firefighters of IAFF Local 3811, Jefferson County Professional Firefighters.

In a statement at the time, IAFF Local 3811 president Wicus McGuffey said the chief had failed “to lead this department effectively and has demonstrated an unwillingness and an inability to provide the leadership necessary to strategically lead Port Ludlow Fire & Rescue.”

The union said there were “a litany of issues” that contributed to the lack of confidence in Martin, but the major factors included the chief’s resistance to conducting strategic planning and “the alarming loss of career members through resignation, not due to retirement, but to pursue career positions with other agencies in our immediate area.”

The union said the lack of planning in the department was a primary factor in the departure of five career firefighters in the previous two years, and in two letters submitted to fire commissioners, McGuffey also claimed the chief had failed to properly manage the department’s staffing, and recalled an aid call to assist a 100-year-old man in August that left only an off-duty firefighter who was on probation to respond.

McGuffey criticized Martin for not responding to the medical emergency, calling it a “gross failure.”

“There is also the issue of Chief Martin frequently responding to emergency incidents, both in the district and outside the district, with his family members in the command vehicle, to include minor children who are left without adult supervision on emergency scenes,” McGuffey wrote in the second letter of allegations. 

McGuffey also raised additional allegations of what he said were examples of a lack of organizational oversight and mismanagement in the department by Martin, which included staffing issues as well as the purchase of a new command vehicle, which McGuffey noted exceeded by $18,600 the $75,000 that was budgeted for the vehicle and was made without fire commissioners’ approval.

Martin said in a statement last year the complaint was without merit. 

Commissioners eventually decided to hire an outside attorney to look into allegations against the chief. 

In a vote after the board received the investigation report, commissioners decided 3-2 against firing Martin.

The investigation, which cost more than $16,000, was finalized in February but was not released publicly by the fire department.

Martin declined to comment on the report after it was finished.

Martin is paid a salary of $125,000 a year. His current employment contract was approved by the board in October 2018 and expires Aug. 31.