— by Lin McNulty —
Orcas Fire Commissioners met at Eastsound Fire Station on Tuesday evening in a regularly-scheduled session.
Two topics were included under Old Business: (1) Public comment guidelines during Commission meetings and (2) increasing the number of Commissioners to five, following the recent passage of Proposition 1. Both matters sparked responses from audience members in attendance.
As the Commission weighs the unmandated option of not allowing public comments during meetings, Commissioner Amanda Montague voiced her opinion that public comments should be included, while Wes Heinmiller spoke to discontinue the practice altogether.
Ed Sutton advised the Board they would be “unleashing a firestorm” if the public were to be gagged.
Heinmiller noted his objection was in not being able to fully address public concerns beforehand. He would prefer a method whereby the Board could be emailed in advance by community members who have a comment or statement to make. It’s always the same people in a usually-small audience wanting to speak, he added.
“While it is true that a comment period is not required,” added Leith Templin, “if you do take it out, this room will be full” of citizens looking over your shoulders.
Briah Ehrmantraut suggested that the Board may feel more in control of their meetings by instituting widely-used Rules of Order.
The Commissioners voted to table the motion, indicating they may visit the topic later. Meanwhile public comment will continue, but will no longer wait until the end of the meeting, and not following an executive session, during which the audience usually departs. Comments will be incorporated into the normal agenda items, unless and until the Board revisits.
Regarding the increase in the number of Fire Commissioners from three to five, which was just approved by voters, the Board outlined a path by which they would choose the additional two Commissioners. Again, the public intervened with Ed Sutton reminding the Board that the election had not yet been certified, that they may want to hold off. Following certification, the Board trio voted to advertise for the vacant positions until November elections are held.
In his Chief’s Report, Scott Williams noted that so far this year, 20 percent of fire and rescue calls are overlapping, meaning a second, or even a third request for help is called in before the first scene is cleared. While the department has been able to effectively and efficiently cover everything, it remains a concern when delivering service.
Transition of finances from the County, back to the Department, is going well, Williams mentioned.
In their final agenda item, the Board unanimously agreed there is no objection to the County changing the name of Channel Road in Deer Harbor, where there is a fire station, to Sunset Beach Road.
Actually Lynn the information about waiting until November to
appoint the two new Commissioners is incorrect. The Board decided last night two advertise in the legal section of the
local papers for two weeks in a row as to anyone that is interested in applying to be appointed Fire Commissioners, which includes the candidates that provided a resume and introduce themselves at a public meeting in September 2016
This is actually not a legal requirement in order to appoint
the two new Commissioners.
There might be other members of the public that might be
interested in filling the positions of Fire Commissioners
at this time.
I appreciated both Wes and Amanda’s discussion of the Public Comment period. I am glad that they are discussing it and allowing the public the opportunity to vet the discussion.
Looking forward to the board bringing on two new members to allow them to more easily execute the business of the district.
Eliminate public comment period at regular meetings? Why stir the pot? I would think that all three commissioners have enough experience with boards and committees to know that any concern coming from the public is on average ten times bigger when put in writing as opposed to having a few minutes of time at a regular meeting to present what ever is on their mind. If time or the subject needs more attention than the chair determines is available, the chair can, after listening to the public presenter, refer the matter to another meeting or to a board assist committee or person.
As pointed out above, if you shut the public out you will create a firestorm. “They must be hiding something”, will prevail. You have a great relationship with the public in spite of a tumultuous last couple of years, why would you mess it up?
The important aspect of public comment on any issue of concern is the follow-up. Matters of controversy generally are not resolved in a single discussion so that it is incumbent on those in the community who are asking pertinent questions to ask them again until they receive a reasonable response. In the meantime, we should each seek out the individual board members and have a dialog with them on these issues so that they will have a better perspective of the public position on each topic.
The Fire Commission meeting was very revealing. I was considering applying for one of the two new commission openings, having been a local firefighter for 15 years (Orcas and Lopez) and certified two different times as an EMT, in addition to serving on a few boards and running my businesses.
Regarding the problems with the public comment period: After observing the meeting, it appears that Commissioner Wes Heinmiller was right, the public comment period poses “difficulty”. One might go so far as to say that much of it was disruptive, tedious and inappropriate.
Unfortunately, these public comment sessions attract self-appointed watchdogs who like to speak, making repeated and lengthy discourses, acting like they are the authority that the Commission should be listening to. And the same ones doing this have been doing it for many years!
Commissioner Heinmiller’s suggestion is that public input could be best handled by people expressing their concerns by email (or snail mail) and the Commission could then put the matter on the next meeting agenda. Much more efficient, much less exasperating! Could you imagine a body of decision makers such as our legislative bodies putting up with a public comment period in their sessions?
Unless something is done about this problem, very few qualified persons would want to be on the Fire Commission and have to put up with this every meeting. I surely wouldn’t!