My Speech before City Council March 2009

In this time of economic strife throughout
our country and

even the world, it seems that when governments, especially local governments
have to cut back in order to balance the budget, Police and Fire Departments
are always the first to feel the pinch. When listening to the government
leaders who make these tough decisions, it always irritates me when they try to
justify their rationale in the establishment of their civic priorities, with
high priorities always given toward hockey and soccer Moms to keep the Parks
open so they have a place to drop their kids off and not have to pay a
babysitter.....
I’m at the end of my career as a thirty
year fire captain with the City of Elyria, Ohio Fire Department having suffered
a stroke while on the job in October 2008. This is very unfortunate
because I wasn’t planning to retire at this point in my career. I truly
loved the job and the service I have given to my community. ....


However because of the stroke and some subsequent residual problems from the
episode, I will be unable to return to the job I’ve loved for all these
years. It was also because of the stroke that it was discovered that I
have a mild cardiac related problem that could possibly manifest itself to a
more serious nature if I were to continue on the job. I’ve told my fellow
fire fighters who were on hand to assist me when I was in need, who I feel were
ultimately responsible for saving my life, that this would be the ONLY time
that I’d let them wheel me off from the job, as I would never let the City Administration
have another opportunity to take me from my family, especially in light of the
pending cuts proposed for the Fire Department.....
I can remember the day I was sworn in as a
Fire Fighter for the City of Elyria, having resigned from my job as a Deputy
Sheriff for Lorain County. My Father was an Assistant Chief on the
Department serving as the City’s Fire Marshall and stood at my side when I
raised my right hand and recited the oath before the Mayor Bowman, the Safety
Service Director, my wife, and my Mother . ....


Having been involved in the hiring process as the Department’s Training

Officer, I likewise have been present at several swearing in ceremonies for new
hires, into a job I feel is the best in the world. However, it is the
City Administrative Officials who are tasked with swearing in these young men
and women who fail to understand just what our job entails. They fail to
ask the pertinent questions to understand what our job entails, and I’m not
speaking just for the job as Fire Fighter, but also as a Law Enforcement
Officer. I know for a fact that just about every member of this City
Council were invited to the Office of the Fire Chief where Interim Fire Chief
Joe Pronesti did his very best to educate you about our job as Fire Fighters
and the state of the Elyria Fire Department
Administrators and citizens alike fail to recognize that local members
of the safety forces are the first line of defense in our communities in our
established Homeland Security. ....
Over the past several years with the rise
in fears of global terrorism, and witnessing firsthand the affects of terrorism
on the shores of America, and significant natural disasters in the forms of
hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes, only those communities who have
adequately

prepared and planned for these disasters have made it through the rough
times. However those communities who have struggled with the emergency
responses, in particular New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina,

the Mayor was the first to criticize the Federal Government in how they

responded to the unfolding disaster. In reality, such first response
capabilities for local resources must be able to maintain initial response
actions for up to the first 72+ hours. Emergency Services remain the
first line of defense in the Homeland Security hierarchy. ....


Yet these services are being decimated to curtail the budget overspending so
that the niceties and not the necessities remain. God forbid that it would
happen here, but consider a Columbine type incident here and not having the
available on-duty resources to be able to provide at a minimum first responder
capabilities. We have been working with
the schools with the establishment of their Emergency Action Planse keep
in mind that it will be the local first responders who come under fire by the
community and ultimately the City Administration for their delayed or
undermanned response to handle the emergency situation. An excellent
example of how Emergency Action Plans are supposed to work comes with how the
incident at Lorain County Community College was handled, especially by the
college staff and security. There was an
orderly evacuation of all the students form the buildings. There was a check of
the rooms by personnel to assure that everyone was out of the buildings, which
resulted in all students , instructors, staff, and visitors were out of the
buildings requiring no emergency rescues required. Everyone there knew their jobs and
responsibilities and performed them well.
Will we be able to say the same at our next major emergency???....
We were lucky that the first fire truck
located only 1 mile down the road arrivewithin minutes after the receipt of the
alarm. Initial actions by firefighters
would have been dramatically different had that Station been closed and that
Engine Company been placed out of service thus adding several minutes for the arrival of the first Fire
Department units. And then once they arrived, the limited fire Department
manpower and resources would have been required to perform the same duties: making
entry into the smoke filled structures to assure that all students, staff and
security had safely evacuated the

buildings, checking every room, stairwell, and hallway, while at the same
time attempting to assess the situation, establishing an uninterruptible water
supply, stretching thousands of feet of hoses from the fire hydrants to the
pumping apparatus and then to the seat of the fire located underground in the
utility tunnels under the campus. The heat in the underground reinforced
concrete tunnels intensifying by the minute with near zero visibility.
The Incident Commander, knowing that the fire will double in size every 20-30
seconds, thus adding to the overall damage and structural instability , possibly
leading to collapse of the tunnels, and knowing that his limited
resources are taking one hell of a beating in the cavernous tunnels, and that
any stoppage of fire operations would allow for progression of the fire
from it’s original point of origin. A call for Mutual Aid from
surrounding communities for additional personnel and equipment is a last resort
call, not to be used for everyday responses that should be able to be handled
by the community Fire Department. The concept of Mutual Aid is that other
communities will provide assistance provided it can be reciprocated by the
requesting community. When that occurs resources from our community
respond to their need thus limiting the resources needed to protect our own
community, thus requiring the call of off-duty personnel to man the equipment,
apparatus and stations affected by the Mutual Aid call out so that our
community is not left any more shorthanded in case of an emergency need by our taxpayers.
We were lucky on the day of the college incident, because the fire station
located just down the road was not closed yet, and the Engine Company with its
three firefighters

were able to respond to the scene within minutes, followed several minutes
later by the remaining resources from all the fire stations located throughout
the city. Firefighters were injured at this fire in the performance of
their duties. Thank goodness their injuries were not serious. Though one
did require treatment at the Emergency Room.....
I would like you
all to consider the following: Fire fighters and police officers are people
who, at one point in his/her life, wrote a blank check made payable to
‘The Citizens of their Community ' for an amount of 'up to and
including their life.' This is something that we have all come to expect
as part of the job. We don’t go to work in the morning expecting
something to happen to us on the job, but when we kiss our loved ones goodbye
as we leave, we know that there is the possibility that we may not return. We
hear members of the community praising those responders and their survivors
when they suffer the loss of a loved one while in the line of duty. But
these are the same ones to cast their dispersions on those same individuals for
working the hours and hours of

overtime, that takes them away from their families in order to serve their
communities. And yet l hear the Mayor and members of his Administration
bad mouth the members of the Department chastising them for the amount of money
requested in their budget, saying in a public forum, a City Council Meeting,
“ITS NOT THE AMOUNT OF MONEY WE SPEND WITHIN THE

FIRE DEPARTMENT… BUT FOR ME WE’VE BEEN SPENDING MORE THAN THEY SHOULD NEED…
IT’S

THE VALUE OF WHAT WE’RE GETTING OUT OF THAT DEPARTMENT THAT'S IN QUESTION.”........
That
statement alone is a slap in the face to all of the brave member of both the
Fire Department AND the Police Department.....
I suffered a stroke while on duty stressing
over these issues and how it would affect not only the citizens of the City of
Elyria, of which my wife and children and many other family members are
included, but how it would also affect the safety of those firefighters tasked
to protect life and property. We have Department heads who are tasked
with providing the leadership as professionals who have worked their ways up
the ranks within their Departments to provide the leadership and
professionalism to perform the duties tasked to the personnel within their
departments. For years the Fire Chiefs have constantly been providing
information to the Mayor, but it seems that they’ve continually fallen on deaf
ears. For years the turnover rate within the Fire Department has been an
issue. Due to retirements, long term injuries and illnesses and military
leave which has taken some of our youngest and brightest members to wars in
both Iraq and Afghanistan. Thank God our members have returned safely
from war. However, the hiring’s have not kept pace with the
retirements. The Mayor has said that it’s cheaper to pay the overtime
than to maintain the minimum manning requirements by hiring new firefighters.
Yet in Public Forums, he blames the Firefighters for the budget crisis because
of the overtime they get!....
I’m getting off my soapbox now; this just
aggravates the hell out of me and I can feel my blood pressure rising again.
Before it gets out of control and leads me to another stroke I’m gonna quit
this tirade. ....
To the Department Heads in the City, I urge
you to carefully read over and study the City’s Emergency Operation Plan which
addresses each Department’s responsibilities should a disaster strike in the
City. The Plan is currently effective,
having been approved by the Administration following countless hours spent
working on the development of the City’s Plan by Assistant Chief Bob Dempsey
from the Fire Department, Captain Dan Jaekle from the Police Department, Mr.
Tom Kelley from the Lorain County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland
Security, and Myself. We missed an ideal
opportunity to practice the Emergency Plan with the Snow Storms we’ve had the
past couple years. Instead we operate in
responsive actions instead of predetermined actions, even when we knew up to
five dasy ahead of time before the storms struck and the snow began flying.....


To the Citizens in the City of Elyria I urge you to practice fire safety and
make sure your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors are working and
have fresh batteries in them. This coming weekend when we turn the clocks
ahead for Daylight Savings Time, take the time to change their batteries. Along with that make sure that your family
has an escape plan in case you are faced with a fire or CO emergency.
Don’t wait or hesitate to call 911 in an emergency. The longer you wait
to call, the longer it will take for the first responders to get to your
location. I urge the citizens to become involved in their Neighborhood
Block Watch Programs through the Police Department and Community Emergency
Response Team Program through Emergency Management Agency. We all need to be aware of what’s going on
around us in our neighborhoods and take care of each other, because despite
what the Mayor says, I strongly
feel that his priorities place the niceties over the necessities!....
.. ..