As Sedona Fire District Chief Jon Trautwein is set to retire on Saturday, Sept. 3, he will pass the baton to Division Chief Ed Mezulis, who will begin his new role as fire chief on Sunday, Sept. 4 — almost 22 years to the day that the Sedona Fire District hired him on September 5, 2000.

Mezulis and Assistant Fire Chief Jayson Coil, who has served 24 years with the SFD, applied to fill Trautwein’s position.

According to SFD Governing Board Chairman Dave Soto, it’s the first time in the history of SFD that two qualified internal candidates were able to apply for the position.

In the past, the board required fire chiefs to live within SFD limits. Most qualified candidates within the district lived outside the area and didn’t want to uproot their families, nor could find affordable housing within the district and wouldn’t apply. This year, SFD agreed to extend the radius by 50 miles to consider internal employees.

Mezulis lives in Camp Verde, and Coil in Flagstaff.

“The SFD was able to drop the resi­dency status. Because of the residency requirements, it was always somebody from the outside,” Soto said. “We had to tap into that expertise. And the only way we could do that was by enlarging the area from which we could draw. And in doing so, we’ve also picked up nearly every other chief in this district. So, in the future, we can still tap into that.”

Mezulis and Coil made their final presentations to the Executive Committee before the tallied vote on Tuesday, Aug.16 by the Governing Board: Soto, Al Comello, Eugene McCarthy, Janet Jablow and Helen Briggs McNeal.

Both candidates had an extensive evaluation process and participated in a two-day Fire Chief’s Assessment Center consisting of eight stations where the candidates encountered scenarios to assess their knowledge, skills, abilities and characteristics essential as fire chief.

Each assessment was evaluated by teams compromised of agency partners, city of Sedona leaders, SFD Governing Board members and staff, compiled into a 135-page document reviewed by the board. The same process selected Trautwein over three years ago.

According to Soto, the decision was not easy.

“As you look across who did better, who was the ‘winner,’ if you will, one, exceeded well, in three [categories] and the other exceeded well in three [catego­ries], and then one of them blew the other one away in one end, and the other guy did the same thing to his competitor,” Soto said. “But there could only be one that we need both. But we can’t have them both in that seat. And that they have to complement each other regardless.”

“When I was considering retire­ment, I started thinking about the lead­ership — we have strong executive leadership,” Trautwein. “[I] started thinking about the potential candi­dates, and I knew, if they’re willing, we had the two solid ones and that we could do an internal process. And it’s good for continuity of operations; it’s good for the district, it’s good for the community — we’re moving in a positive forward direction. I’ve been excited about this the whole time. I think either candidate was a win, and they work well together. One will be leading; one will be the right hand, man, for now. I think that’s a good configuration.”

“I appreciate the competence of the board, competence of the evaluators and our staff in me and my abilities to fill this role,” Mezulis said in an emotional statement to the board. “I hope to continue to prove that I’m capable, competent and ready to lead this organization. And we’ve got a lot of fun things to tackle, and I look forward to it.”

Coil, who will remain SFD operations chief, said, “I’m going to support Ed as chief. I’ve been with Ed for a long time. And he has constantly demonstrated his strength of char­acter. I can’t think of one time where his behavior didn’t align with that character. So that’s the type of person I’m willing to support.”

Coil has been awarded the Outstanding Wildfire EMS Distinguished Service Award in 2020 for his “outstanding contribution, leadership and ability to impact the wildland community and the SFD.”

Soto said that the transfer of command will be a seamless one.

“In all honesty, we had two experi­enced individuals that would benefit this district and this community. We’re in a good place on a [solid] foundation built by those before these fire chiefs.”

Trautwein said he was proud of Mezulis and Coil and joked that he had to talk them into applying for the position.

“I’m not going to say I had to talk them into it, but I had to talk him into it,” Trautwein said. “But it was more who we are as a culture, who we are as leaders, and what’s important for the organization. And I think both just quickly melded into the importance of that. And when I heard that both were interested, I had a smile on my face the whole week — because I feel [the focus I developed] has been a leadership and team building focus and I’m watching the fruit from it. In three years, I’m humbled by that.”

Trautwein’s goal has been to groom his staff and filling the open positions by promoting internally.

“There have been enough growth, development and leadership skills in the department and the board, execu­tive leadership and even labor had agreed that we have enough qualified candidates in-house that would fit that role,” Community Risk Reduction Division Chief Dori Booth said.

“I’m proud of our fire district and the people that we have and the people that we serve,” Mezulis said. “And I’ve watched us grow many talented people over the past 20-plus years. And our board supporting some simple rules and changes that align with regional beliefs allows us to take that talent and continue to move it up the pike. Our new firefighters now know there are fewer barriers to obtaining this position someday.”

As Trautwein concluded in his report to the board SFD, he stated, “As an organization, we are a big freight train that’s on a solid rail, that’s moving to maximum speed, which was about 79 miles per hour, with about 100 cars behind it — we’ve got a great strong forward momentum. As we transfer command, my charge to the board for this district is to focus and ground in these areas to keep that positive momentum going forward. And the sky’s the limit. Let’s take that further step. Let’s always evaluate ourselves, our crew, and our district so that we can improve. And we can even deliver a higher level of service.”