||| BY LIN MCNULTY, theORCASONIAN EDITOR |||
Can you hear that fire alarm clanging? Is it becoming increasingly, frighteningly loud?
By some counts, within just the last six months at Orcas Island Fire & Rescue, over 100 years of department experience has disappeared, either through terminations or (sometimes forced) resignations. That seems significant, right, especially on a remote island?
And just within the last ten days alone:
- A commissioner submitted their immediate resignation,
- The department Medical Director resigned, no longer wanting to serve as required medical oversight for the department,
- Two Paramedic/Firefighters resigned to take a job elsewhere, and
- Yet another valued volunteer has tendered his resignation.
Doubt is beginning to roar in about whether there will be enough folks left to respond. This fear is especially prevalent among those who have resigned. They are concerned about what they are leaving behind, as all of us should be.
We have no department paramedics who reside on island, but this was true even before the current resignations. Sure, we have a few former or even current paramedics who still live here, but they are not ‘department’ paramedics, i.e., they are not currently a member of our fire department, so have no coverage or authorization from the State to practice their life-saving skills. My steadfast, although dwindling, belief is that when an alarm goes out they will respond. Yes, the remaining volunteers will come to your house, but the number of remaining volunteers is seriously dwindling. A mass casualty event, which is always an entire section in any fire department’s operations manual, would quickly put us and our neighbors on our own. Don’t worry; perhaps a locally-licensed paramedic will arrive on the next ferry? Yeah, that’s a great idea.
Because that clarion alarm is sounding with increasing intensity, it’s time for action.
If there is a community health or EMS license risk, then the State Department of Health would investigate, either directly to DoH or to Joshua Corsa, M.D., who, despite his resignation from OIFR, is still responsible for EMS medical care in SJC.
If there is a misuse of government property or tax payer money, the state auditor is the route. Another is the County Auditor. For criminal activity, there is the County Prosecutor.
When these situations are not the case, it falls upon the community to act.
- Current Fire Chief steps down, either to leave the department or to be reinstated in a lower level position in which he was a valued employee (and a licensed paramedic); absent that…
- Current Board of Fire Commissioners accepts the responsibility for making things right and terminates the Fire Chief; absent that…
- Employ the only remedy available to us as a community: Recall our Fire Commissioners, which is not an easy task, but may be our best and only feasible response if they refuse to act on their own.
It is difficult to understand, looking in from the outside, how such a seemingly caring environment as a fire department — responsible for the emergency care of our community at large — could not see a way to clear to simply help each other through this current ongoing debacle. That’s supposed to be what these folks are all about.
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We have two department paramedics who live on island. The Chief and Assistant Chief.
More full nonsense Lin. Shame on you.
Lin, this seems off point. I’m reading a lot of opinion but not much substance.
While you bring up activities such as individuals exiting the OIFD I’m confused on what’s really the problem.
It could be said there’s a mismanagement, or there’s bullying, or there’s an agenda to dissolve the past standing Union.. there’s been no actual information that supports the why.. reading this one gets a picture of just personality clashes.
I submit, no Organization endures undermining. That holds true for family wellbeing as well.
What I want to hear is constructive information or at least the atmosphere of hopefulness..
This isn’t going to fix itself, but will require a calm focus of good work by all. That includes us, the Community to give pause and figure out a road map to a broader picture.
The District is struggling, any caring individual can see and appreciate that.. wether perceived or actual malicious behavior is or has occurred we as a Community need to move forward with what’s most important, harmony.
How about let’s discuss objectives that are concerns, is the department functioning in its primary roll. Is the Community being served in a well cared for manner in the field.
I’m a very critical thinker a d I haven’t heard of any complaints from the Public on that matter. Yes there is a lot of concerns, doubts even hostility’s rumored. So may I suggest impersonalizing this and dealing with the fundamental concerns of longevity. I can’t imagine any organization enduring constant negativity, and I have been clear, I have issues with our District, but not personal, I don’t have any facts to support a reason other than I’m not liking what I’m seeing.. but I can say, good change, whatever is lacking can be addressed with good will and consummated effort so let’s get there with accountability.
Technically the chief is the only full-time resident paramedic on Orcas. The AC lives at Station 24 during her 4 day work week.
Do you want to know what is wrong? It is constant statements made like the ones above, alot of untruths and speculations…. The people who work/volunteer at the fire stations do so to help their community, but when they start to hear/see the very community that they are there to help and protect turn on them and their fellow comrads alot of them do not want to deal with the bullies in the community or put their loved ones through that. There are a lot of community members who have their own agendas and want to push those on organizations but do not want to put in the time it takes to get to know the organization or their members… Shame on you, you are the very reason these places are falling apart……
Cheers to you if you actually post this….q
Thank you Robin Garcia for your comments,
It says it all !
All members of Orcas Fire and Rescue are very well trained to do their job. The Orcas public does not need to worry about OIFR’s quality of service.
Lin, there’s a lot of negative reaction to your piece expressed here. It seems to me that someone should thank you and Mia for the op eds and letters in these pages. Bringing light to critical situations and community concerns is your job, after all. I don’t know any more about the reality of this situation than I read in these pages; and, from what I read, most other readers don’t either; but there’s an old saying, “Where there’s smoke…,” and there’s been quite a lot of that. What I do know is that there’s intense interest, and with reason; and it’s incumbent on the Fire Commission, not to mention politically expedient, to address those public concerns forthrightly. Open the curtains and bring some light into the room! What I also know is the OIFER, under Patrick Shepler and his great volunteer crew have served my family extraordinarily well during several critical moments and I hope, as we all do, that that level of service and confidence will continue in the future.
I said I wouldn’t comment on what I didn’t know. But I can comment on what I do know, and what I and others have personally been through, since I know something about authoritarian attempts to bully and intimidate people into shutting up when we started asking questions, and then others started asking too in a groundswell of interest and outrage at not being considered or heard:
We should not sit down down and shut up. Our questions and concerns are legitimate, and we have the right to ask until all of them are satisfactorily answered and addressed.
So; what we can know so far?
For starters: Unbridled authoritarianism leads to low morale. If dozens of people are having problems with one or a few persons, then investigations need to be made because maybe we all should be listening with presence; maybe they aren’t all wrong. Some comments here are incendiary – on both sides.
The same people saying ‘nothing to see here; how dare you ask?’ while attacking anyone who questions or feels unsafe within the department to speak out, have several loyal followers who lording it over the Public, via reputation-damaging innuendos, that they have “something” on the people who have complaints and concerns: That is bullying with intent to tarnish reputations. What would it hurt to air grievances out in public in front of us, say in a Town Hall – and let both sides speak honestly about what is happening?
Some other observations that anyone paying full attention can make:
A) There are two very divided “sides” on this issue – meanwhile, the majority of the Public is late to the discussion (including me) and is just trying to understand what the heck has happened that is breaking up our Dept. from the inside out. People are rightly concerned about lack of transparency and rightly wonder if their elected (or unopposed or appointed) commissioners represent them. What it will take for this to stop and all the records to be released – if not to us, then to investigators so we can get to the bottom of things?
2) One has to wonder how we got to this place; where no questions are allowed to be asked or challenges made to a rigid protocol that singles out whistleblowers and people suffering the effects of authoritarianism; people who feel they have no voice and no one has their backs. If the Commissioners won’t address this, and the Public is told it’s none of our business and we are “haters” and “bullies” and how dare we ask if we have even more concerns and questions about the rock bottom morale in the Dept – what is our recourse in getting the truth?
I see only one path that can get to the truth. That path is twofold:
1) the public needs to get involved – I mean deeply, consistently involved. This means going to meetings, asking for Public Records, asking questions of the Commissioners in writing and answers in writing via email (not phone calls) – and keeping on asking. Sharing results of those records on a Public database available to all, if there is no other recourse to get the information out there, is one option. No more “he said, she said” Orcas rumor-mongering. No more whisper-down-the-gossip-lane.
2) The Public needs to stand with everyone within or who has left the system who still has grievances, to insist on safety for them to speak out. This is yet to be done. We have to insist on this and the only way we are going to get this, if there is no cooperation at the district level, is to bring in whatever State entities are needed for a full investigation on all of this brouhaha – get the facts; all the records, and let the State entities take this over so we can get the facts of everything that has happened on every ‘side’ of the issue. No withholding of records – out with it. As Brian Wiese said, let’s open the windows and get the air into the room.
There is one way to solve this; a full investigation – on everything, and all public records released. ALL the facts – of all wrongdoings, perceived or real – and all things done the right way – will help us as a community know how to act on this and not break further into warring factions.
I could not agree more with Sadie and Brian, and want to also thank Lin and Mia for their courage in speaking up about the problems at OIFR. It is exhausting to have a small but vocal minority continue to do their best to try to publicly shame those who are appropriately raising concerns about OIFR leadership. There is nothing new about these types of tactics. In fact, they’ve been studied and are beautifully outlined by Noam Chomsky, renowned MIT Professor of Linguistics (“10 Strategies of Manipulation”, https://exploringyourmind.com/10-strategies-of-media-control-noam-chomsky/).
In his piece, Chomsky beautifully compiles the strategies that those in power (and the people supporting them) use to try to distract us from the real issues at hand. It’s not rocket science, but it sure does a good job in deflecting us all away from seeing what’s right in front of us through distraction and by demeaning anyone who stands up in an attempt to create needed change. These tactics purposefully make it very challenging and even risky for people to speak out publicly, while simultaneously exhausting the rest of the community from getting involved in the conversation.
There is an elephant in the room in regards to what is happening at OIFR, and attempts at trying to belittle, shame and demean those who are speaking out is not going to make that elephant disappear.
…as I’ve previously commented…Build Trust First…putting out fires is the easy part…