Correction: Next Fire and Rescue Working Session, Tuesday, March 26 at 5:30 p.m. at Eastsound Fire Hall
By Margie Doyle
At its Town Hall meeting earlier this month, Orcas Fire and Rescue Commissioners, Chief Kevin O’Brien, Sheriff Rob Nou and Department of Emergency Management Representative David Halloran heard from a sparse but well-informed audience, mostly in support of the Orcas Fire and Rescue Department joining a partnership with the Sheriff and other county Fire and Rescue agencies to purchase and operate a new marine transport and rescue boat.
The County Sheriff’s Office received notice last fall that it had been granted an award of up to $785,000 (provided a local match of about $260,000 is obtained) from the Department of Homeland Security for an emergency response and transport boat. The new boat would replace the Guardian, which is now home-based on San Juan Island.
The Town Hall meeting on Thursday, March 7 was the second special meeting of its kind to present the grant opportunity and to receive citizen comment about Orcas Fire and Rescue’s participation in the Marine Operations User’s Group (MOUG) for the boat’s use.
Chief O’Brien opened the meeting by giving statistics on marine transport and rescue in the last five years, as he did at an earlier Town Hall on this matter in January: orcasissues.com/fire-depts-town-hall-describes-rescue-boat-grant
After O’Brien and Nou’s presentation, audience members discussed whether they favored participate in the MOUG as a financial partner that is currently estimated to cost OIFR $25,430 per year (based on 5 transports per year); or a “pay per use” membership, which is slated to cost $6,500 per EMS transport.
In the past several years, marine operations have included search and rescue, emergency medical service, marine fires and custom and border patrols; Nou said the new boat would continue to be a multi-purpose marine operations boat.
Some of the information elicited by the audience:
- The Sheriff’s 28- ft Whaler patrol boat at the Orcas ferry landing has over the years taken on water in its lining; the additional weight is overtaxing the engines;
- The grant includes training and project costs;
- The new boat will be moored on San Juan Island at same place the Guardian is, and that boat will move to the county dock at Orcas Landing;
- The current fire and rescue boat, the Confidence, owned by the San Juan Fire and Rescue District, will go into surplus and fund the San Juan Fire District’s investment in the new boat;
- The additional public safety tax that was levied in 2012 won’t cover maintenance costs for the boat, Nou explained. That tax is intended “to protect and maintain existing services, not for any new programs.”
From the audience, James Wolf questioned some of the underlying assumptions of figures and supported keeping the option to withdraw from the MOUG until more specific numbers are available.
Tom Carter questioned the panel about training for marine operations in using the Guardian and in using a new boat.
Nou said that the “Intent of MOUG is to develop a pool of qualified operators: those details have yet to be worked out; I’m interested in having the best most competent operators to be at the helm, whether that’s someone affiliated with fire, emergency medical service (EMS) or maritime experience.
“First and foremost we want someone who knows how to drive the boat.”
Fred Klein asked, “Why is this being pitched as a pay-per-use proposition rather than as a fundamental service under your charge? As a taxpayer… I feel as though when I pay those taxes I should be getting the services I need in the event I have some kind of emergency.”
Chief O’Brien said that the purpose of this agreement is to “looking for partnership within public safety community to share that burden.
“We’re not looking for a new tax, just trying to figure out amongst ourselves how to pay for this equitably out of existing tax payer dollars.”
The main question before the Town Hall was defined as a choice between working this new program into the existing Orcas Fire and Rescue budget or paying as billed on a cost-per-use basis.
Medical insurance attorney Tim Blanchard said that the inter-district partnership “makes sense from a management perspective and from an intergovernmental agency perspective.”
In discussing whether the Orcas Fire and Rescue District should provide services outside of district boundaries, and how it may seek reimbursement for those services, Nou said that out-of-district charges among the county agencies is “an issue we haven’t tackled yet” in the agreement. “These notes will help us develop policy,” he said.
Currently, Lopez and San Juan Islands’ Fire Districts seek reimbursement from the insurers of those they serve. If the client doesn’t have insurance, he or she won’t be billed if a resident or property owner.
Fred Klein said, “We rely on cooperation and collaboration to keep operations running smoothly. …In terms of Orcas Fire extending beyond the district where it collects it taxes, I salute you for extending help where you can and do the best you can to get reimbursed for those costs.”
Klein also suggested that it may make sense to have the new boat based on Orcas, given the impact of the Peace Island Hospital, which opened on San Juan Island last November.
Tom Carter stated he was opposed to billing people directly, as opposed to seeking reimbursement from insurance companies: “Haven’t we already paid as taxpayers?
Carter added, “Billing is such a scam and doesn’t truly reflect what the cost is. The whole system is a national disgrace.”
Tim Blanchard said, “Tax dollars cover your personal responsibility. A hardship waiver [for those without insurance] is not needed for folks within the district because taxes take care of that. It becomes an issue when dealing with people outside the district.”
Blanchard advised the fire districts should bill EMS and transport services through Medicare and private insurance companies.
After discussing these issues, the majority of the dozen or so people in the audience favored Orcas Fire and Rescue entering full partnership through the MOUG, and build the costs into its budget, rather than paying per incident.
The Fire Commissioners will meet for a regular meeting this Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Eastsound Fire Hall. District Commissioner said following the meeting on March 7 that they would need to make a decision soon.
This is a really complex issue. Remember that being airlifted off the island is the first option that is generally used for true emergency cases. If you don’t have the Air Northwest coverage, you will receive a large bill–I suspect for several thousands, because helicopters are not cheap. And then there’s the receiving ambulance crew that has to shuttle to the hospital on the mainland. They will also impose a charge. Individuals and/or their insurers are responsible for those charges. As I understood it, the new boat will come into play only if conditions are too bad for the helicopter to transport. It’s for those times that the Fire District has to figure out what to do.
As a firm believer in the US constitution I am deeply opposed to allowing our local elected officials (Sheriff) and first responders (Fire Departments) accept funding from an organization that has repeatedly found itself at the center of scandal and controversy surrounding violations of civil liberties and constitutional “gray areas” (I’m talking about DHS).
According to a county council person I spoke to last week, DHS has been running funds into the Sheriff’s department for many years. This has bought a great deal of influence with the department – influence that is designed to reside with the voters who pay the salaries of our public officials.
This was exemplified during the 2008 DHS exercise in which a border crossing for US citizens, within the US, was established at the Anacortes terminal. The #2 man for the Northwest division of Border Security (DHS) was sent to address a overcrowded hearing room in Friday Harbor with 200 enraged citizens of San Juan County. I was the second person to speak.
As Joseph Guillano of Border Security entered the hearing room he was escorted by our then elected Sheriff, Bill Cumming. I found it disturbing that Sheriff Cumming stood in solidarity with this man as if they were chums – especially when there was such an overwhelming majority of constituents who were opposed to the practices of his agency. I thought Bill should have been sitting next to me instead. I will not forget this symbolism – here is an official that we voted to elect, who is charged with our protection, and who is standing in solidarity with a person that we claim is committing a constitutional offense of stopping US citizens for questioning without probable cause. I later understood Mr. Cummings allegiance – his office had received significant funding from DHS, and as such, was expected to show up and back up their practices regardless of the opposition by the people who put him in office.
Mr. Guillano stated that while his practices were not specifically allowed by the constitution, they were also not strictly prohibited by it either, citing a gray area in which DHS was allowed to operate. He was a smooth talker and did a brilliant job of swaying the opinion of the room. But I, and many others, were not swayed.
Most of the 199 people who spoke against the practices of DHS and Mr. Guillano stated that he was not welcome in our community.
Agencies that operate in gray areas of the constitution are not to be trusted, neither are those who are employed by those agencies. Mr. Guillano was convicted later that year of 24 counts of child rape. Despite the mandatory minimum imprisonment penalties in Washington State, Mr. Guillano walked with no jail time. The parents of the girl he raped no fewer than 24 times were mortified.
Yes, our Sheriff stood in solidarity with a child rapist as 199 of his constituents spoke against him. This imagery has stayed with me since that day. I will never forget that meeting. The allegiance of the Sheriff’s department should be to the people who put him in office. Any deviation from that principle is a violation of our agreement with that official. If you are paid with tax dollars then you are here to serve our interest. The arrangement between voters and public servants is tainted with the influence of federal funds. They are supposed to be paid by, and loyal to… us.
Do not accept funding from DHS. There are no free lunches and there is no such thing as free money. We have the resources locally to deal with any issue pertaining to emergency response including emergency transport. Kevin O’brien has a long list of other options that we have discussed. Follow his lead toward independence from DHS funding.
Please come to the Orcas fire Hall Tuesday, March 26th at 5:30 pm and tell our fire commissioners to block this program by refusing to spend our tax dollars on the new sheriff’s boat.
Sincerely,
Adam Farish
Further DHS scandals below….
ICE chief of staff resigns amid sexual misconduct claims
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/48873285/ns/politics/
Exerpt from Washington post article (link below)….
DHS activities have been found riddled with… “ineptitude, waste and civil liberties intrusions, according to a scathing 141-page report by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs permanent subcommittee on investigations.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/dhs-fusion-centers-portrayed-as-pools-of-ineptitude-and-civil-liberties-intrusions/2012/10/02/10014440-0cb1-11e2-bd1a-b868e65d57eb_story.html
In speaking with the Emergency Management Coordinator for SJI’s, Dave Hallorvan (last name?) I asked the question “what happens if the local fire departments decline to participate in the Marine Users Group…?” i.e. what if we refuse to cough up $200,000 plus for the new boat. He said that the Sheriff will simply get a more reasonably priced boat and will pay the matching grant of 25% from his own coffers. The Sheriff’s department will offer the same marine transport for the same cost whether or not the local FD’s participate in the program.
Let the Sheriff’s department pay for their own boat.