Meet Waylin Lee McCurley, Candidate For West Pierce Fire & Rescue Commission

CANDIDATE PROFILE INFORMATION:

What is your full, legal name? Waylin Lee McCurley

What position are you running for? Fire Commissioner West Pierce Fire & Rescue Position No. 3

Who is your opponent?

Where do you work and what is your job title? Wilcox Farms, Senior HR/Risk Manager

When and Where Were You Born? 1974, Ft. Benning, GA

Where do you live now and  how long have you lived there? Lakewood (11901 Nyanza Rd). I've lived there since 2003

Education (include graduation date(s), if any): New York University, BA in Chemistry; Graduate of the Pacific Coast Executive Banking School-University of Washington

Memberships and affiliations with clubs and other organizations: USAT-triathlon association, Past-Board President/Board Member for United Way of Pierce County; Society for Human Resources Management, Fire Commissioner for West Pierce Fire & Rescue

Have you or a business you owned (or had principal interest in) ever filed bankruptcy? No

As an adult, have you been convicted or charged with a crime other than a minor traffic violation? No

CAMPAIGN INFORMATION:

Web site: N/A 

Email address: wmccurley@msn.com

Phone number: 253-363-2118 

Campaign manager: me

PREVIOUS ELECTED OFFICE(S):

Elected: Lakewood Fire Commissioner (2005-Current)

Other campaigns for public office: None

THIS CAMPAIGN:

What is the primary reason you are running for this office? I am running for re-election as Fire Commissioner for West Pierce Fire & Rescue to ensure we provide the very best, state-of-the-art emergency and EMS services to the communities we serve in the most effective and efficient manner.

What will be your top three priorities if you get elected and why?

1. South Sound 911—We need to ensure we have the necessary infrastructure, technology and systems to carry us forward into the future. Our current systems need significant improvement.  The goal of South Sound 911 (SS 911) is to build two new public safety answering points (“PSAP”s), one for law enforcement and one for fire. The new PSAPs would meet all of the current national standards for communications centers and critical infrastructure, which would be state of the art facilities, fully redundant and geographically separated. Currently, the average facility age for a PSAP in Pierce County is 45 years old. Currently none of the existing PSAPs meet all of the NFPA 1221 standards for Communication Centers and none of them were built after 9/11 when most of the national standards for critical infrastructure protection were enacted. Currently, there is limited redundancy between PSAPs. Should there be a region-wide disaster that takes down a PSAP, rerouting radio communications and PSAP operations would be extremely difficult to do in a timely fashion. There are currently six different radio systems (City of Tacoma, Pierce County, Fire Communication, City of Puyallup, Fife and Buckley) used for public safety, limiting operational efficiency. The goal of SS 911 is to create a single seamless radio system throughout Pierce County for all public safety agencies. The Federal Government is requiring all VHF radio systems to be narrowband by 2013. This directly impacts all fire departments operating on the Fire Comm radio network, all police agencies operating on the Pierce County Radio network and the Buckley network. Once the systems are narrow-banded, coverage areas will decrease and most of the user radios will be obsolete. This will cost millions of dollars just to maintain the current level of service with no improvements to coverage.
2. Effective and Efficient Service! I played a significant leadership role working towards the collaborative and successful merger of UP and Lakewood to form West Pierce Fire & Rescue.  I want to ensure that we deliver on the intended outcomes and objectives of the merger to the citizens by providing exceptional fire protection and emergency services in an effective and efficient manner.  With the merger, we need to assess and analyze our existing fire station locations and determine where relocation of our fire departments would be best suited to enable us to provide emergency services to the district.
3. Merger/Partnership Opportunities: We should continue to look for more opportunities to partner with other local fire agencies to improve our economies of scale to achieve better efficiency and effectiveness when it makes financial and operational sense. 

What sets you apart from the other candidates and/or previous office holders? I believe my strategic leadership and management skills combined with my executive business and board leadership experience set me apart from my opponent. I served as a senior executive for a community bank, Fire Commissioner for West Pierce Fire, Washington State Correctional Industries Board of Directors, as well as Board President for United Way of Pierce County.

How much money do you expect your campaign to spend on this election? $3,000

Official endorsements: Full endorsement from all labor groups with West Pierce Fire & Rescue, endorsement from Tacoma Fire & Rescue, State Rep. Dick Muri and Sen. Debbie Regala.