— from Hilary Canty —
The proposed EMS/Fire Levy is a renewal of the Levy that is in place today. It is not a new tax and will not raise your annual bill from the County. For our family, the cost is less than $1 a day—quite a reasonable investment for the excellent 24/7 emergency service OIFR provides.
As a volunteer and taxpayer I have seen how costs have risen over the years. Since 1999, the cost of living has gone up 37%, EMS and Fire calls have increased by 119%, and the mandated regulations for Fire and EMS departments have grown substantially.
Over my years of service, there have been times I have questioned the direction of the department. I am happy to say that under the current leadership, OIFR is improving in significant ways. Chief O’Brien has worked hard in the first two years with OIFR to clean house, set a positive and professional tone, and attract many great new volunteers. I look forward to continuing to work with him and the entire team of OIFR as we strive to improve our skills, policies and practices to best serve the community.
I greatly appreciate the due diligence and planning that has gone into this levy request and I encourage you to do the math for yourselves. I suspect you will find OIFR and the levy request a good investment as well.
I might have been inclined to support this levy but Management is hiding where the money is going. All we hear are scare tactics. Why is the payroll so high? I do not want to hear cost of living, number of calls stats. Who is collecting this money and can we do without some of them and why has this information not been in any of the comments. It seems like Chicken Little the sky is falling. It isn’t though. That is the bottom line. I can afford this levy but not everyone can.
Harvey – Nobody is hiding anything. The budget is clear and part of the public records. It, along with the commissioners’ meeting minutes, are posted on the orcasfire.org website for all to see. If you have questions, please attend one of the brown bag lunches or town meetings. There are better ways to become an educated voter than reading posting and reading comments on blogs.
I believe the staffing and payroll have all been very transparently reported. The 10.75 FTE’s that are funded help support and train the 64 volunteers, leveraging our investment in OIFR and providing excellent service to the entire community. Whether you vote yes or no, implying that there is some secret or illicit funneling of funds is inappropriate and untrue. There are public meetings on the 12th at Station 27 and the 16th at Station 21. If you still have questions, please attend.