PORT ANGELES — Ken Dubuc has now been hired twice by Dan McKeen.
McKeen, the Port Angeles city manager, tapped Dubuc for the permanent fire chief position last week at a salary of $105,000 a year.
McKeen was the Port Angeles fire chief when he made Dubuc the assistant fire chief-fire marshal 11 years ago.
Dubuc took the city fire department’s top spot in April on a temporary basis after McKeen was named interim city manager to replace Kent Myers, who is now serving as the city manager for Fredericksburg, Texas.
The City Council hired McKeen for the permanent position in July, paying him an annual salary of $135,000.
Dubuc said he will earn 5 percent more than he did as assistant fire chief-fire marshal.
He will head a department that in 2012 has a budget of $4 million and a staff of 22 full-time career staff, including firefighter-emergency medical technicians and firefighter-paramedics and up to 24 volunteers paid on an hourly basis for fire department-related activities.
In April, “I was looking at it as temporary,” Dubuc, 52, said Friday, a day after the city announced the promotion.
“I looked at it myself as a good opportunity to step into the job and see what it was like.
“Things are going well here.
“[McKeen] was happy with my performance, and the rest is history.”
McKeen did not interview anyone else but Dubuc for the job, he said Friday.
“He is extremely capable of doing the job, and there was no need to go outside,” McKeen said.
Hire from within
Dubuc said he will try to hire someone from within the department to take his old position.
“There’s a succession plan in the department we’re real proud of,” Dubuc said.
Dubuc, a native of Larkspur, Calif., was working in the fire prevention division of the Vancouver, Wash., fire department before he came to the North Olympic Peninsula with his wife, Teresa, the owner of Sleepy Valley Quilt Co. in Port Angeles.
“She has been an incredible support to me throughout my entire career,” he said.
The couple has five dogs, including rescue animals, he said.
“I had been here before and really liked it here,” Dubuc said.
As for his new job, “the draw is the challenge and the people,” he said.
“The people here are absolutely first-class.
“There’s no one who could ask for a better group to work with.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
