From the Firefighters Union:
August 22, 2007
Dear Commissioner,
Since March ‘07, the Escambia County Professional Firefighters Union has presented the County with numerous unsafe situations for the career personnel, the citizens of Escambia County and for the volunteer firefighters. The core of the unsafe situations had to do with volunteer firefighters operating in Structure Fires who did not have the minimum training requirements necessary to operate in this manner. These safety problems have not been fully resolved; they have only been “band-aidedâ€. The Union was waiting for the FSCAC recommendations to be implemented so the safety problems would be fully resolved. Despite a unanimous acceptance by the Commissioners at the June 18 Committee Of The Whole meeting no action has been taken on the FSCAC’s recommendations.
The Union fully understands the conflicts that the FSCAC’s recommendations have with the Volunteer contracts, but there are numerous ways that the recommendations can be implemented despite the contracts conflicts. There should be no need to deliberate with the individual Volunteer Fire Districts concerning the recommendations as requested by the County Attorney. The process of Democracy has taken its course. A panel of hand picked citizens who were representative of the Escambia County citizenry provided the answers for the future direction of the fire services in Escambia County.
The Volunteer Districts along with the Volunteer Firefighters Association had six months of full access to the committee members of the FSCAC. There was never a meeting where the Volunteer Firefighters leadership was not present to provide any information necessary. Copious amounts of information was presented and processed by the committee members along with travel to various similar counties throughout Florida. The recommendations made by the committee are unbiased and are representative of a process worth commending.
Four months prior to the committee’s completion date I met with each Commissioner individually to discuss various issues, one being the Unions support for the FSCAC’s formation and their future recommendations. The Union fully supported the committee’s recommendations before they were ever discussed because we knew with a concise analysis of the fire services in Escambia County the resulting recommendations would only expose and then resolve the severe problems with the current delivery of services.
The implementation of the FSCAC’s recommendations will remind the citizens of Escambia County how government works for them by being fiscally responsible and still providing high quality services. A resistance to the FSCAC’s recommendations only exposes an individual’s lack of acceptance for change and their loss of proper direction for providing adequate Fire and Rescue services to the citizens of Escambia County.
On a weekly basis some calls for assistance are either, answered in an untimely manner, without sufficient amounts of trained personnel and at times there is no response by the individual Fire District where the call for help originated. Do not allow the need for change to be validated by an event that could’ve been prevented. This is a time in which true leadership is needed. The Union is looking to the commissioners for that leadership because subsequent requests for change have been disregarded. Help us stop any future unnecessary and unsafe acts by immediately implementing the FSCAC’s recommendations.
If you have any questions or concerns about the content of this letter I would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you.
Sincerely,
Dan Brask, President,
Escambia County Professional Firefighters Union