||| FROM ART LANGE |||


I would like to express my strong support for re-election of Commissioner Wes Heinmiller.

This election is, unfortunately, occurring within a context of a serious controversy within Orcas Island Fire and Rescue. Based on previous volunteer consulting I have done with the department in past years, I suspect the union’s recent vote of “no confidence” in Chief Williams is motivated less by union members’ concerns about their treatment by the Chief and more by their concerns about aspects of their salary and overtime, their personal ambitions within the department, and leadership’s efforts to hold some of them accountable.

My understanding is that the Fire District Commissioners have conducted independent investigations of any formal grievance filed against the Chief, and the independent investigators have found these complaints to be baseless. It is a known fact that Patrick Shepler, Wes Heinmiller’s opponent in the election, was actively involved in the efforts to discredit the Chief before he retired from the department.

Shepler served as a paramedic within the Department for many years and has certainly become known in the community as a result. Having been a paramedic, however, doesn’t necessarily qualify a candidate to act as an unbiased Fire District Commissioner.

As voters, we need to learn more about what is actually going on within the department in order to understand who we want to represent us on this board. 

Voters must reach a conclusion about whether we support what Chief Williams is attempting to achieve or what his critics are attempting to achieve. Who we elect as our commissioners will go a long way toward determining whether the department’s leadership will operate for the good of our entire community and not just for the benefit of the department’s internal critics.

I believe Wes Heinmiller is the best candidate to ensure that Orcas Island Fire and Rescue continues to serve our community in the exceptional manner it has for decades.


 

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