||| FROM LEITH TEMPLIN |||


Please take a moment to read this especially if you have not voted. Last week I wrote a response to something in Orcas Island Discussion because I was so frustrated with all the misinformation from the responses however, it never left my computer. I continue to be so frustrated with what is happening to the community I have supported, loved, and worked hard to make it a better place.  Naively I thought we were protected here from mean spirited living. We used to be able to have a difference of opinion about issues or candidates but never attacked them personally.

We chose as a community to not vote in 2014 for a capitol levy to refurbish and replace our aging fire department vehicles for the last 10 years.  Now ten years later we are at the end of the road. Our vehicles are from 15-30+ years old and there is no money without the current levy to fix or replace them. This will cause us to lose our fire rating of 6, that we have maintained for at least 20 years if not more.   Losing this rating to a 7 or 8 will cause all our house fire insurance to go up 14-20% depending on where you live. 

It is confusing for me to read all the comments about wanting to get rid of the current fire commission. The continuing diatribe from some community members with a grudge towards the department are trying to convince you of things that just are not true and that the commission needs changing.  Well, the commission that they were so unhappy with has changed.  The last three yes, appointed members have only been there for 7, 9 and 12 months.  They have worked hard to get up to speed at a very difficult financial time when no one else in the community would step up. They were the only ones who applied. As far as the ones they replaced, several community members viciously attacked them through public meetings, articles and emails accusing them of things that all were untrue and verified through investigations.

A well-qualified woman on the commission resigned because she could not believe the way they were being treated and did not move to Orcas to be treated like that (she wrote an amazing letter to the community when she resigned). Who were those men? Well one was retired from being head of the Secret Service for the USA and worked in the White House for four of our Presidents (Bush to Obama), the other is a financial/businessperson who goes all over the world to help large businesses in trouble.  Lastly, thank goodness Tim Fuller is still one of your commissioners.  He retired from being the Fire Chief for St Paul Minnesota and 30 years of fire and paramedic service. He served on several national fire committees and spoke before the US Senate on Fire issues.  He followed his wife to Seattle where she was the CFO for the Seattle Seahawks, Sounders, and Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc.  While living in Redmond Tim was enjoying his retirement until the City of Redmond came to him and asked him to be their Interim Fire Chief and help them recruit a new Fire Chief, which he did. Then the city asked him to step in and be their Police Chief and later their Planning Director. Then he and his wife moved permanently to Orcas. The OIFR commissioners appointed Tim and then the voters elected him.  Tim probably knows more about the fire industry than anyone in San Juan County.  These three men are the men that Toni Knudsen demanded in a public commission meeting to resign as well as on her Facebook account.

Less than half of our registered voters voted in August so out of 4,688 voters, 1712 voted no for the fire levy.

A couple quick remarks. OIFR only has one full-time (bookkeeper/finance person) and two part-time administrative staff.  They have more work than they can possibly do in a week. Two years ago, we had three full-time administrative staff. The mailer that was sent out was developed and printed in the fire house by Chief Holly and volunteers. It was assembled and folded by the same as well as family, community, and commission members. Some things the commission was blamed for had nothing to do with them.  Those decisions were made by the Washington State Dept of Health and our SJC Medical Director.

Please, when you vote think about what the commission needs, remember it is not a popularity contest. I think Brian is a good guy and has some valuable experience but is he the one we need right now?  He is a volunteer but has only attended one training course (last month) in the last three years.  Alan has been past president(8Yrs) of the volunteers and current Director of our Mobile Integrated Health Program and has trained hundred of community members in CPR and updates our current EMTs with their mandatory continuing training requirements. He has been there in all the rebuilding of morale and in the last two years has seen the department become the happy place it once was.  Nic Negulescu has brought fresh eyes to the board as well as business acumen and he has dedicated many hours to making OIFR the best it can be.  He has no hidden agenda or old knowledge of the damage that some community members have caused to OIFR staff and commissioners. Please vote responsibly. Thank you for reading.


 

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