||| FROM ORCAS FIRE COMMISSIONER NICK NEGULESCU |||
Some people in the community have characterized this action and this budget as “vindictive”. I want to speak directly to those people.
I don’t live in a fantasy realm where we can magically – and in good conscience – send the fire department into bankruptcy. The public has spoken, twice! We are heading over the levy cliff.
What does “Levy Cliff” mean?
It means draconian budget cuts because the public has chosen to defer a payment on the fire department. The public has essentially chosen to skip a payment and the immediate and direct result is that the department has been “short changed” and is facing a budget shortfall. This is the most responsible action, in my mind, for the board of fire commissioners to take given that any new funding for the fire department is still just a twinkle in the new commissioners’ eyes.
If, and WHEN, the public votes again on a levy – because you’re going to need a new levy before you get a bond or anything else –
If, and when, a levy passes – at that point – hurrah! That money doesn’t start flowing again until April 2025. Maybe the new board can look at rehiring and line up some job interviews for March 2025. The board is simply resetting the fire department’s budget back to the current tax levy rate. We’re right-sizing it based on the amount of funding it is projected to receive based on voter approved levies. This is why I am voting yes on this budget. This community has voted that it does not want to support the fire department at a critical time when it needed funding to continue operations at the same level of care as before and the community voted that down – twice. The community failed to grasp the importance and criticality of the patient – the fire department. The community voted to skip a payment and now it has the outrageous audacity to ask that we not cut the budget. We’re not actually cutting the budget, that has already been done by the public. We’re simply reconciling the budget with what the voters have approved.
I don’t intend bury my head in the sand and vote “NO” and simply keep staffing and equipment refurbishment in the budget on a whim that the community will pass a levy in the future. Many of you run businesses in the community, don’t gaslight me. If your revenue falls, you reduce operations. It’s simple. Lock step.
My vote will be to approve this budget.
And to fire department I want to say thank you to everyone who has worked in any capacity – in the past, currently working or will work in the future: My hope is that the community can reconcile, quickly, with itself, the actions it has precipitated here today.
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Ok thanks Nic, I guess.
Hard to know what to say here…what portion of the election results have you missed? Do not even try to blame this on the voters. This entire fire department crisis was precipitated by our commission. Now we have a new one.
Thank you Mr. Negulescu for your very clear explanation, and for your service to the community.
Interesting and comment from an OIFR commissioner on a Board that contracted for arguably the most expensive ambulance ever purchased in the State of Washington and two new fly cars, approved hiring a new assistant fire chief (OK … that position was needed), and approved major pay increases (16% over two years), and wanted five new fire engines in the next six years. Only issue … they had to pass a new permanent levy that would have more than doubled the fire district taxes paid by Orcas citizens. And the levy cliff, which is real, is still more than a year away. Meanwhile, the fire department will still get more tax money in 2024 than at any other year in their history.
Of course you voted for the annual budget still within the 10th year of a voter approved 10 year levy increase. Actually didn’t matter which way you voted … an annual budget is required by law to be passed, so the other commissioners would have approved it.
And frankly, your rant blaming an informed voting public for not supporting the levy or the fire district is simply misdirected.
The new commissioners will try for a new levy probably in April 2024. It’s still going to be a significant tax increase because union agreements and personal contracts have to be honored. Possibly the most significant issue will be whether we need five new fire engines in the next six years, or whether it would be more logical to either space them out of perhaps look at buying professionally refurbished engines with reliable warrantees. Orcas averages fewer than 2 fires a month, and with eight fire engines and a brush fire vehicle, it’s not like they are aging and wearing out from overuse. So the new commissioners will be faced with a levy proposal to pay the debt service for what has already been purchased without sufficient funds to pay for the equipment, a significant larger payroll, and a new capital equipment acquisition plan. Right after election certification, time to go to work.
I am very glad that anyone willing to write, “The community voted to skip a payment and now it has the outrageous audacity to ask that we not cut the budget.” is not going to be in a position of public trust any longer.
One problem is that, having failed to pass this levy lift a few months back, the Commissioners failed to modify their budget planning and propose a new, smaller increase this November. As the old saying goes, “you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you’ll get what you need…”
Nic,
Thankfully, annual budgets can be amended.
A recent letter posted by one of your co-commissioners mentioned that you (Nic) weren’t paying attention to the BOFC two and three years ago. It’s unfortunate to me, but only because I would’ve loved to have heard your thoughts at the time.
I attended meetings two plus years ago when talk of the end of the current levy and general financial concerns came up regularly. That would have been a good time to create some realistically achievable projections and goals. A time to begin communicating with the community openly about needs and musts.
I know too many people involved with the department during that time who were genuinely traumatized. The division of this community is a fallacy manufactured by commissioners pushing back against whistleblowers and a handful of people who were simply doing their civic duty by showing up, paying attention and daring to question.
The tone was set by the same folks who would have you believe that saying no to the levy as written is the same as saying we don’t support the department or the responders.
It’s a nasty falsehood and disrespects everyone.
I believe the majority have made it clear that we are not in agreement with how things have been handled. I know I’m ready for a a kinder gentler world.
Nick, I appreciate your willingness to serve. Orcas is a complicated creature/community. Unlike any I have ever lived in. It’s special. It’s also a double edged sword.
Knowing history is important so let me share some with you.
Mia is 100% correct about the trauma experienced by past and current members. There is, and has been, a culture of retribution nurtured by past administrations and sadly continued by this one. People being afraid to “go public” for fear of being personally attacked by your staff speaks volumes. Your administration reacted to such attacks with a wink and a nod.
History shows that the voters are very well educated. A 77% defeat of this levy and clean sweep of the sitting board proves it. I know you have done what you believed was best without malice. You simply misread the pulse of the community. I’m not surprised. You are new.
I wish you success in whichever path you take moving forward. As I have told you privately I hope you stay engaged with the process. We need all hands on deck to sort out what level of service the community will support.
Finally— about that history thingy..
Commissioner Templin was incorrect at the last meeting when she stated “a maintenance levy failed in 2014. Only an operations levy passed”. That never happened. There was no “maintenance” (capital improvements) levy in 2014. That levy was all in one lump sum and it passed fairly handily.
Also.. a levy to build station21 failed initially (in 1999 I believe). We tweaked that levy a tad and passed it the next year. Station 21 and 24 got built. New engines (WASPS) were purchased and we created the reimbursement program for volunteers to help with medical bills. That program still exists today. I am very familiar with it because I was tasked by the chief at the time to create it!
I am confident that the community will get behind the next levy. They are highly educated voters.
Please get on the bus with us.
Ouch. I don’t know you, Nic – at least I think we’ve never met. Thanks for your service. But, this letter…where is the desire to understand history and nuance, not just financial, but the impacts on the lives of the people involved, past and present?
I look forward to creative and, as corny as it sounds, heartfelt and thoughtful solutions and ideas – because I know that they happen and that collaboration happens if things are transparent – and people get behind these things. This is why I keep saying ad nauseum: If we don’t know how we got here (history), we won’t be able to right things, because we won’t be able to correct or stop the abuses. I think Bob and Mia spoke well to the fact that there has been and continues to be a lot of top-down abuse and trauma.
What is most appalling is that our career staff and volunteers – now almost all gone – were so wrongly mistreated and driven out with threats, bullying, and downright disrespect for all their years of service by the former chief and commission. That’s still, up to now, continuing- though people want to deny it. Some say that we should focus only on the new, put it all behind us and “just move on.” No. That kind of denial and refusal to face what happened only condones further abuses.
I’ve been reading various Fire and Rescue site articles about bullying and votes of no confidence, and about the positive culture that ought (and does) exist as well. There’s a lot of wisdom and experience on those sites, such as Daily Dispatch and Fire Rescue 1. We’re not the only district to grapple with these issues.
How is it possible that a 100% vote of no confidence can be swept under the rug while we step on the bodies under it, pretending it’s nothing? That is… outrageous – and horrifying. The victims were blamed for calling out administrative abuses. Were/are there any whistleblower protections in place to counter threats of loss of career if someone speaks out? How did it happen that so many – almost all volunteers and career staff who live, or lived, on Orcas, were replaced with all-new non-local-but-connected people who don’t know our history or don’t choose to, while getting hefty pay raises and perks? How is that possible?
In a small community, the kind of thinking laid out in this letter doesn’t fly. Nor does blaming the voters, or the victims of maltreatment. My heart and efforts go with those who were treated without regard or respect, only to have to watch the new hires get all the perks they should have had, and watch the union’s collective bargaining agreement be changed to put rank over years of volunteerism, service, seniority, numerous certifications – all of which should have qualified them for the higher ranking positions – and didn’t. This is all connected to the financial difficulties OIFR faces.
Onward, yes – let’s set our sights to a bright new future and what we can do to ensure that all of this gets addressed so it never happens again. IMO, our new direction ought to include justice for the wronged, and bulletproof protection for any whistle blowers who wish to come forward and finally get redress.
I don’t claim to know it all, or even much, nor do I speak for anyone else – but the people who won the election promised to listen to all views, be transparent and inclusive, work together with all stakeholders. We need this.
Good luck in your future endeavors, Nic. I hope you will stay involved and realize that we are not the enemy – that working together opens hearts, minds, and doors so that success can and will happen in ethical and meaningful ways.