There is no question that we absolutely trust firefighters about how to fight a fire. Of course we do. But that’s not what we’re voting on, we are not being asked how to fight fires. We’re being asked whether the RFA is the right way to fund and support our fire departments. And the answer to that question is a resounding no.
As has been pointed out, and nobody disagrees, the new Fire Benefit Fee doesn’t hire a single firefighter, nor buy any fire engines, nor build any fire stations for seven years. So how does that help?
The cities have other choices that would be much less expensive and much more effective. If they need more money and want to ask us, here’s one better way. With a simple $.25 levy lift they could hire 18 firefighters, plus buy a fire engine every year, plus fund their new CARES program which is specifically designed to help relieve pressure on the fire department by handling some of the non-fire calls. And they wouldn’t need to waste over $2 million a year on extra duplicate overhead positions.
We all want to support our firefighters and fire departments. They provide a vital service, and we have tremendous respect and appreciation for firefighters. Which is precisely why we say vote no on the RFA, and tell the cities to send us a proposal that we can support that actually does help the fire department.
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