Interim Columbia River OR Fire Chief Steps Down after Three Days

Three days into his job as interim fire chief at Columbia River Fire & Rescue, Michael Gorsuch resigned on Friday, calling the past week his “life’s worst.”

The second day after he was thrust into the top job at the small Oregon fire district beset by financial and labor-management strife, Gorsuch, 50, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he wanted out.

“I am very overwhelmed and underprepared,” he said Thursday.

In a resignation letter Friday, he said he’s been “threatened, chastised,” and his reputation has been challenged.

“It only takes a few bad apples to bring you down. I have been threatened, chastised, and told that I might lose everything I’ve built over a 32-year career. My reputation and integrity have been challenged, and now my livelihood,” he wrote. “I am very sorry to write this; I cannot continue to serve as the Interim Fire Chief for Columbia River Fire & Rescue.”

Gorsuch, who joined Columbia River Fire & Rescue in 2004, was appointed interim chief Tuesday night by the fire district’s board, moments after three newly elected, union-backed members of the five-member board voted to fire Chief Joel Medina, effective immediately.

The board voted to add the resolution to terminate Medina to the agenda at the start of the board’s monthly meeting without any notice to Medina or the public — in apparent violation of the state’s open meetings law.

On Tuesday night, Gorsuch appeared by video for the meeting and his appointment as interim chief of the St. Helens-based district with 35 full-time firefighters.

Gorsuch said union members and others from the board had talked to him about their desire to replace the fire chief following the May election of Richard Fletcher, Ryan Welby and Austin Zimbrick to the board. Fletcher, Welby and Zimbrick haven’t hid their displeasure with Medina and his administration.

Gorsuch said he suggested to union members during those conversations that they should find someone through a fire executive recruiting group to look for a qualified leader to run the department.

Then on Monday night, the day before Tuesday night’s monthly board meeting, Gorsuch said he got three phone calls from two different board members, one of whom was board president Kelly Niles.

He said they asked him if he would take the interim chief job because he had made it clear that he was looking to leave the department and find a job elsewhere.

Before he was appointed interim chief, Gorsuch said he had enough of what he called a “toxic” environment at Columbia River Fire & Rescue. In fact, he said he had an interview scheduled the day after the board meeting for a supervisory firefighting job with a different department.

Gorsuch said he didn’t realize the local board was going to fire Medina on Tuesday night. He said he thought the board would place him on paid administrative leave.

“The immediacy of it was surprising to me,” Gorsuch said.

He said he had no animosity toward Medina. “I didn’t have a problem working with the former fire chief,” he said. But when he was asked by board members if he’d step in as interim, he said he felt “duty bound” to try to do what he could for the district and the community.

Gorsuch, a battalion chief, had recently been named to serve as a division chief of training and said he tried to “keep his head down” and not get involved in the details of the ongoing dispute over the Columbia Rive Fire & Rescue labor contract, now before a state arbitrator. As a manager, he’s not a union member.

“I didn’t want to pay attention to what was going on with union-labor management issues. I enjoyed my job in training,” he said.

“I’m a really good fire officer,” he added, “but I have very little executive experience.”

Gorsuch said he believed the district deserves an interim chief who knows what he or she is doing. “I really just want someone who’s ‘been there, done that,’“ he said.

On Thursday, he said, he felt “very overwhelmed and stressed.”

In his resignation letter, he said he was placing Deputy Chief Eric Smythe in command to lead the department.

He referenced that “it only takes a few bad apples to bring you down,” and said he planned to take sick leave, possibly long-term disability, “due to mental health reasons.”

Gorsuch, who worked as a firefighter in Milwaukie, La Pine, Salem and Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue before joining Columbia River Fire & Rescue, said on Thursday that December would mark his 25 years in firefighting, making him eligible for retirement.

Retirement appeared desirable from his current situation, he said. “This really sped that thought process up,” he said.

Medina, 57, was hired by the previous board in December 2020 from out of state after a national search. He raised concerns about unexplained credit card expenses by current and former department employees and the improper classification of former administrative staff into the more lucrative state fire retirement program.

That prompted a criminal investigation by Oregon State Police and a board-ordered forensic audit, which are both ongoing.

Medina also faces a sexual harassment lawsuit filed in April by three former district staff whose jobs he had eliminated.

And the district’s disputed labor contract, which could lead to layoffs or a property tax hike if the union gets the significant pay boost for firefighter paramedics it seeks, now rests in the hands of a state arbitrator.

Niles, who has been on the fire district board since 2017 and abstained from the vote to fire Medina, said he spoke by phone with Gorsuch on Monday night after he and Welby, one of the three new members, agreed Gorsuch would be a good candidate to serve as interim if the board acted to place Medina on leave.

He said he and Welby were previously chosen by the new board to represent it in discussing administrative issues with district staff as part of a personnel subcommittee.

“Mike Gorsuch has been with the district for about 20 years, from a firefighter to lieutenant to captain to battalion chief and always had done a great job,” Niles said. “When they were throwing names around, I was like Mike would be a good choice. He’s had a good fire career with a lot of connections. There’s familiarity.’’

Niles said he didn’t see the resolution to fire Medina that Welby presented Tuesday night until about 45 minutes before the meeting. Niles said he didn’t support the firing and chose to abstain from the vote, adding he would have placed Medina on administrative leave instead.

The resolution said Medina needed to be “discharged for cause” and cited alleged dishonesty, misappropriation of funds and discourteous treatment of employees, volunteers and the public.

Longtime board member Gary Hudson voted against the firing and alleged the three new members who voted to fire Medina were doing the union’s bidding.

After Medina was fired and walked out of the meeting, Welby introduced another resolution to appoint Gorush as interim chief with the same compensation and benefits package that Medina had.

As Gorush appeared on video, Hudson noted to his colleagues on the board, “You guys all came prepared,” and added that it looked as if they “cooked this thing up,” he said. He asked Welby if someone else had written the resolution he had read, and Welby said yes.

Asked Thursday night what he thought about Gorsuch’s desire to find someone else to serve as interim just days into his new role, Niles responded, “That’s Mike telling the truth.”

Niles said he spoke with Gorsuch on Thursday and told him he’d support him in whatever he chose to do.

He suggestedother options, such as reaching out to the Special Districts Association of Oregon, formed to help provide support to special fire protection districts such as Columbia River Fire & Rescue, which act as independent local governments. The association provides training, resources and legislative advocacy.

Aside from not giving Medina notice of his termination and a chance to refute the attempt as required by his contract, the district board also appears to have violated public meetings law that calls for agendas to be public.

“Somebody or somebodies knew that these actions were going to be taken at the meeting,” said attorney Jack L. Orchard Jr., general counsel for Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. “If they knew they were going to have this item on the agenda when they walked into the meeting, that needed to be published in the agenda, which is circulated publicly. It needed to be on the agenda, posted and published.”

Given the “juxtaposition” of firing one chief and immediate appointment of an interim chief, who was waiting in the wings on the board meeting’s virtual connection, “they have veered off path,” Orchard said.

“Given the sequencing, it sounds like this was pretty much set in stone when people walked into the meeting,” he said.

The law allows for special or emergency meetings with short notice but the items expected to be discussed at those sessions also need to be made public ahead of time, he said.

Welby, who read the two resolutions at the board meeting, said he couldn’t answer why he didn’t have the items placed on the board’s agenda. He said the board meeting was only his second and he was unfamiliar with board policies and procedures.

Asked who helped him write the resolution, he said it was his own personal attorney and he didn’t pay for the assistance.

Public board members who violate state public meetings law could face a complaint before the Oregon Ethics Commission. Individuals who intentionally violate public meetings law could face a lawsuit and be held personally liable, Orchard said.

“There’s a pretty good case here that they did intentionally violate the meetings law,” he added.

— Maxine Bernstein

Email [email protected]; 503-221-8212

Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian

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