Letter to Editor | My 2 cents on the fire levy lid lifting, and running candidates

||| FROM CLARK CUNDY |||

Many of us have probably voted already but it took me some time to get more up to speed. After attending the League of Women voters Fire and Port Candidates meeting at the Firehouse the other evening, I came away more confused about the reasons for the monetary Lid lift on our Fire District 2 taxes. I had heard about all the attrition, lawsuits in the dept, the union members vote of no confidence in the chief by his own employees, elected board members quitting in frustration, and appointees being assigned to fill those positions.

In the meantime, the Fire Personnel, EMT’s etc., were still functioning at a high level of professionalism even though they were working in a toxic environment. Our staff was and is continuing its high level of knowledge and professionalism despite the current environment. Bravo to all of them! To me this is amazing.

In listening we also heard that most of our equipment is getting old and needs replacing and the dept was going broke. I was sitting there thinking about staggered equipment purchasing, depreciating them off on separate schedules so they all wouldn’t be needing replacement all at once, and wondering why better management wasn’t
occurring? I believe there was a 10-year period to get this done.

I747 was mentioned as a contributor to the dept deficit, I’m no Tim Eyman fan but this law has been on the books since 2002. The department was being run with it in place then for a number of years. In the case of this levy I’m grateful that I747 is there to limit a new levy to 1%.

I747 doesn’t prevent small taxing districts from submitting a levy hike, it forces some transparency in the process, which is where we are and probably why consultants were hired.

Then there were Fire service people fired, Fire Service people on probation, Lawyer’s fees, and in-house accounting where the department was doing their own accounting, which seems to be the rule for this and other fire taxing districts. In my professional life I come from the large corporate business world and no way did we do our own accounting. Always we had an independent firm keeping the books and asking questions. Keeping our feet to the fire as they say.

Currently there is an inflated real estate market and demand on Island property that directly affects our property taxes we pay to SJC. Add the new Fire levy lid lift and the other taxes we are paying and it’s starting to add up. Potentially forcing long time land owners to have to sell, priced off of their own land by a capricious real estate market. Personally, I don’t think property taxes should be connected to real estate values on any current day and that those taxes should be restructured using a different method. That discussion is for another day.

What I came away with was a sense of confusion at the current state of financial affairs at OIFR and the reasons for the lid to be lifted. With that confusion I’m saying NO, and WHOA on the levy lid lifting offering until after the election of new elected board members is done and they’ve had a chance to get up to speed and rewrite it. It’s my understanding that there is still time to rewrite the levy.

I do appreciate the appointed members for stepping up to fill legal needs of enough people to run the dept and have a quorum. This levy was put together mainly by individuals who are not on the board anymore, a chief that is gone, an accountant that has quit, consultants, and a less transparent process to get to where we are. Einstein said, ‘We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.’ So we need some new thinking from new people.

There are two highly capable people running for Fire Commissioner seat 1. Kate Hansen and Tony Knudson. Let’s put them on the ballot for the November election. It’s our best chance to make positive changes happen and heal the department so we can move into the next phases. I worked hard for my money and want it spent wisely for things in the budget like operations and capital expenses, not on lawyer’s fees and consultants who have very little real connection to our island community…