||| FROM JOHN ERLY |||
I have been very vocal about letting the new Fire Commissioners choice the next Chief. What I didn’t know was that in 2021, the board interviewed numerous candidates for the position. I also didn’t know that the Chief at the time had informed the board he planned on retiring in a couple of years.
The person being hired was a person that the board hoped would be able to step in and be the next Chief. As it turned out they made the right choice.
At this week’s meeting, which I attended, I learned that the new Chief has built up the confidence of both volunteers and permanent employees. I heard a report from an independent company (that does this kind of work statewide) that did a study of our department. This report not only said OUR new Chief could “walk on water” but “walk on air.”
Would that we were all as willing to admit our errors, even ones as minor as Mr. John Erly’s. I have known John as an acquaintance for many, many years and while I suspect that we disagree politically on a multitude of issues, I have always found him to be a gentlemen of impeccable character and integrity. It is a grief to me that men of his quality are increasingly rare in public discourse.
John, Building on what Ken said. Please do not feel embarrassed. I think you may have experienced a case of poor community engagement by OIFR Commissioners. They may have had “their plan” but they did not share it with the community until the 24th hour. Poor communications with the community, and poor engagement. Or better yet would have been for them to include the community in developing “their plan” and made it “our plan”. I would encourage you to compare the July OIFR meeting recording to the August meeting. There was no mention of “their plan” in July. Quite the contrary. Commissioner Fuller actually discussed other processes they would be following. They had so many opportunities to disclose “their plan” ahead, to avoid community confusion and embarrassment. When they posted the Assistant Chief job and began recruiting they could have told the community it was to have a plan of succession. When they were being asked to take action against the prior Chief, they could have disclosed his plan to retire in 2 years and that they had a plan to develop the AC into the Chief. How about during the community meetings with the candidates? I do not believe “their plan” was discussed then either. This leaves one to wonder why they did not disclose “their plan”. Did they actually have a plan? Or did all the events occur in such a way that a plan could happen to explain it, just not by intent? I don’t know, and I think that is immaterial at this point. I think we are all looking forward to a new OIFR board, one that includes the community in the development and execution of plans, including financing plans, our plans, rather than make community members feel embarrassed by having OIFR not share “their plan”.
John, I appreciate your willingness to attend this week’s BOFC meeting, to do some research, and to share your current view. Ken, I share your respect for John Erly and the character and integrity that motivated him to show up at the meeting. Greg, as you know, 2021 and 2022 presented a number of problems to all our organizations, not the least of which was the conducting of public meetings. Zoom worked better for some things than others. For many of us the default became reading Minutes on a website later. Speaking specifically of the BOFC now that we are able to meet at the Station again, I am hoping that community members will attend regularly, whether they agree politically or not. This will make it much more likely that future plans reflect the community’s needs and wishes as well as the organization’s legal requirements.