Ditto

smcitizen,

I completley understand how the VFC collect money.  I wouldn’t be so quick to say the way in which VFC collect their money won’t change.  It has to.  If you go back and read the post’s I believe you will understand my objections to 14 individual VFC providing Fire/EMS service and the manner in which monies are collected and spent.  I have never in the post and won’t now turn this into a volunteer/career thing.  The way and manner in which Fire/EMS service is delivered has not changed since the 1960’s.  There is no one goal, one vision, no planning, or direction that will provide service to the citizens in a manner in which they deserve.  Waldorf plans for Waldorf, Bryans Road for Bryans Road (just examples) and never the two shall meet.  I would also venture to say that you have a personal stake in this (volunteer) and are worried; as most of you are that a Career Fire Chief, the organization of one Department will spell the end of the volunteers.   Finally, to answer your question I believe County Government could do a better job.  Mainly, because citizens would have a say and a County Fire/EMS system would be accountable to its citizens.

Carl,

The way its collected will not change, maybe the way its distributed could be debated. It’s obvious to me you either work or are closely involved with DES. So we will just have to agree to disagree.

Hope you have a great evening and may God bless you.

Spyglass,

I will counter your arguement with this. The entire city of New Orleans is in a flood zone, Ohhh and we can’t build it in Tompkinsville either because a tornado might hit the building, and don’t look up because the sky is falling. I apoligize for my tone, but your arguement is no more than scare tactics. For the right amount of money you can get any Joe Blow to write a report on anything you want and make it sound offical. The kind of storm you are talking about is a 100 years event, just like the tornado that hit LaPlata. I just don’t buy your arguement.

smcitizen,

Don’t work for DES.  That department would also change and be incorporated into one department.  There are too many people with too many directions and no clear goal.  I appreciate your comments.  Be safe.

smcitizen,

No need to apologize for your tone. It is very endearing and some might say cute. Your style reminds me of one of my childhood educators. I realize that when one is emotionally attached to a subject tempers can flare clouding judgment and logic. Nevertheless, the facts are the facts. I enjoyed our debate! Time will tell.

Spyglass, I don’t know if I was slamed or given a complement…. Well you are right time will tell, Spyglass and Carl I enjoyed the debate. Thank you, and God bless you both.

CIVFD nominated for first “Golden Duck Award”. Public Safety and prudent spending of our Tax dollars won’t stand in the way of the “Good ole boy” system!

It is important to clarify some previous points made by “smcitizen” that were purported to be facts but actually are misleading and incorrect.

The Charles County Division of Emergency Services was formed at the request of the volunteers for the purpose of supplementing the volunteer service.  At the time the volunteers were not responding to EMS calls in a timely manner.  In fact in the Waldorf area calls were being responded to on numerous occasions by PG EMS career service.

The Charles County Commissioners decided to fund a supplemental service.  On July 1, 2001, one paramedic and one EMT went into service housed at Charles County Rescue in LaPlata.  From their inception they were very busy. Within a few months it was evident that Charles County needed to increase the career staff.  All over the county people were waiting too long for an ambulance service from the Volunteer Organizations.  The more the requests came in from the volunteer departments the more the county increased career staff.  Keep in mind that the volunteers were doing the requesting at this time.
 
Regarding the suggestion that the County EMS is “trying to build an empire”, the career department was developed at the request of the volunteers because they weren’t serving the needs of Charles County citizens. In order to provide service to our citizens you need staff, equipment and supplies.  The goal is to get qualified medical assistance to the patient in 8 minutes or less if possible.  Everyone knows this cannot be achieved in every part of the county; however, it should be accomplished in the heaviest populated areas.  At no time should the idea of extending the response time to 10 minutes, or longer, be considered.  Such a plan, intended to give the volunteers more time to get out, is not in the best interest of anyone except the volunteers.  If building an empire means providing the citizens timely service than I should hope that the empire is built.
 
Murray Levy and the Board of Fire and Rescue decided not to tap into the fire tax funds because it would be political suicide and because a number of people within the county felt the county could handle the costs associated with the service through the billing process.  The volunteers at that time did not want the county to bill for ambulance rides and put enough pressure on the Charles County Commissioners that they pulled back the original billing process they were using and rewrote the rules. 

First and foremost the billing is for an ALS calls only.  Rides are billed for career AND VOLUNTEER rides. Keep in mind that a trip to the ER by an ALS ambulance does not mean you will be billed.  Services rendered determine the cost billed.  The County agreed to take what is allowed by Medicare/Medicade or the insurance allowance as full payment.  If you don’t have any medical coverage arrangements can be made to pay what is affordable to the patient.  There is also an appeal process if the patient feels they have been billed incorrectly, have no income, etc.  The appeals process is handled by the County Commissioners. The collection rate in June 2008 was up at 67%.  The .01 tax was decided on, and passed on to tax payers, by the Commissioners in 2003 to help defer the costs of the career EMS service and it has NOTHING to do with the fire tax.

According to the last report given in June to the Board of Fire and Rescue the career EMS provided the majority (88.9%) of ALS (Advanced Life Service)  In addition, the career service provides less than half (40.8%) of BLS (Basic Life Service) provided when the volunteers cannot get out on the call.
 
Career staff is currently located at Newburg, Charles County Rescue LaPlata, Bryans Road, Waldorf EMS3, Westlake, Marbury 10th District, and Hughesville, using a volunteer ambulance.  The EMS building (Audie Lane) provides a medic unit and the Medic Unit on Billingsly Road is staffed with a career crew and county ambulance. The County has now purchased 3 fully equipped ambulances and several supervisory vehicles which are equipped with all ALS supplies.  At the volunteer stations the career staff uses volunteer ambulances and fuel.  But ALS medical supplies are provided by the county which is yet another expense line in the Charles County budget.

The previous writer is correct in saying Charles County could not provide career fire Service County wide at this time.  The Volunteer Departments are mired in so much debt the county could not begin to bail them out with the $14 million (not $4 million as suggested) collected in fire tax.  This makes the funding of a $4,000,000 new station on an island that is routinely closed when Cobb Island is flooded even more irresponsible. Not all departments are as bad off as some but there are several that are in way over their heads. Commercial construction experts agree that the budget numbers presented in the CIVFD July 17 (tune to cable channel 95) presentation to the BFR, are grossly underestimated. Newburg’s department was just built by Rainbow Construction and was finally finished at tremendous cost overruns. As tight as the CIVFD budget is, there is no room for error. One can’t help but wonder who will have to bail the CIVFD out on this project. The County Commissioners couldn’t even build a little road between the courthouse and Route 301 without significant cost overruns and the CIVFD is going to come in at budget. I don’t think so.

Part II

The Commissioners are responsible for the welfare of the tax payers and must accept responsibility and carry out some tasks. The Board of Fire and Rescue must insist on an annual audit of each company, provided by an outside recognized source chosen by the Board of Fire and Rescue. Currently there is no across the board standard for this and a number of company audits are being handled in the good old boy way.

As it currently is handled, the Board of Fire and Rescue is somewhat of a joke. We also have a commissioner that is most concerned with staying on the good side of the volunteers. Then there are the 4 members of the volunteer community who even if they disagree are unlikely to vote against another company in fear of retaliation when their company puts in any request. And 2 businessmen that have no affiliation to any company. For darn sure those 2 members are only there to make it appear that this board is made up fairly.

If you watch the July 17, 2008 Board of Fire and Rescue meeting you will see a classic “Kangaroo Court” in action. The pressure to approve the $4,000,000 to build the CIVFD in a flood zone was already pre-programmed for approval. This approval was already negotiated under the cloak of darkness as you will read in the linked article. Pay particular attention to the last two paragraphs of the article. This deal was brokered with no regard to public safety or how our tax dollars would be best utilized for the entire Cobb Neck area. http://www.somdnews.com/stories/082907/indytop190459_32138.shtml

At one point during the meeting watch how Mr. Graves even re-writes history and the spirit of the fund used for starting new Fire and EMS companies. As a life long, born and bred, Southern Marylander, I have never seen so much collusion and lack of attention to the facts concerning public safety. In fact, let’s have a “Ducky” contest. As you watch the Board of Fire and Rescue meeting, count how many times the BFR members asked questions about the public safety considerations of CIVFD’s new building. Every BFR member had 12 years of reports from “True Professionals” validating these “good ole boys” should build elsewhere. We’ll keep the contest open for about a week and anyone who gets a higher answer than -0- will win the prize.
I would request that The Quack considers sponsoring the “Golden Duck Award”, affectionately named after its cousin the “Golden Fleece” Award. A section of Delusional Duck should be dedicated to an on going listing of this award. The award criteria might read as follows: The “Golden Duck Award” is awarded to those public officials, departments, or local bureaucratic quasi-governmental organizations in Charles County that The Quack, or a web site poll feels as if public money was wasted, trusts were broken, or poor decision making was part of the process. Feel free to change the criteria but I nominate this boondoggle for the first “Golden Duck Award” ever bestowed.

We’ll be watching the Volunteer system with great interest and will keep you posted on the chicanery.

It now makes sense why everyone is trying to push the CIVFD plan through. The CIVFD may not own all of the land on the site. According to the Charles County land records, deeds were concocted to include some community rights-of-ways (ROWs). There are two community (ROWs) that appear on the plats recorded at the Court House. One of those community ROWs actually bisect the very building planned for construction. It appears that those involved believe if they get started fast enough no one will be able stop them.

Does any one know the following:

How can the county issue a building permit to a citizen or business if they don’t own all of the land?

Does the County validate this information before issuing permits?

Can the bank actually do a loan on the property if the CIVFD doesn’t actually own the land?

Does Community Bank of Tri County know this?

Can the Title insurance company actually insure clear title if the deeds are invalid?

Any input would be appreciated.

My concern is why is the BoFR giving CIVFD $400,000 to help them build the new firehouse on CI out of some escrow account they have for helping new fire departments to get started in the county, the last time I looked CI was an established fire department in this county.

Chapter 54-2 of the Charles County Code suggests that any excess funds over $200,000 are supposed to have been returned to the county.
These VFDs have been stockpiling money in an account over the years for new departments. Conveniently, the records for this original agreement have disapproved. No evidence has been found regarding the derivation of this fund. One theory is that the records were moved to a building that was demolished due to asbestos and all contents in that building had to be destroyed along with the building. The BoFR made up it own rules for the use of those funds that evening. If you watch the replay of that event it is very clear this was forced upon the BoFR to fast track the approval. The BoFR also suggested they would write rules for the next time a request was submitted for money from this fund. First thing first! Since no evidence exists for the origins of his slush fund the BoFR should immediately retract the $400,000 and determine, according to county code 54-2, whether they had the ability to build the fund in the first place in excess of $200,000.

4eyes, This is just the tip of the “ICEBERG” in the county VFD system.  With Sam B. down there at CIVFD , he will get them what ever they want. The county VFD’s have the old “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” system in place. There is more then 1 dept in the county that makes interest on their “banked” tax money. The money is divided into categories, so if that cat. has operated in the black, guess what? It is put in the bank. I always thought a budget is what you will need to operate annually, not to make more money. The whole system is screwed up.Here is a few more things that you may want to know about:

- The County dive team ( Co. 13) has requested a new station. Funny, I thought it was a “Fire Tax”. Unless you have a boat or go out on the waterways, the chances of recieving services from them is non existent. They should be placed in a station already in the system, instead of having MORE TAX MONEY spent unnecessarily.

- Nanjemoy just bought a new fire boay that they can’t even traler legally because it is TOO BIG and can now only launch it from 1 boat ramp in their area. ( Remember bigger is better, right?)

- Duplication of services, Almost all of the department are guilty of this. Their mentality is to buy bigger and shiny so they can win more trophies. Everyone wants more fire apparatus, so they can run more calls. Yet they have less members every year.

- Marbury VFD has a convicted arsonist as an line officer. This is a disgrace to all of the other volunteers in the county.

I’ll give you more later.

Hey Viper,

Welcome to the pond.  I have read and admire your posts on the “Watch Desk”.  Keep up the good work.

Thanks Carl Senior, I appreciate the kind words.

I also want to let you all know of something else I’ve heard, I’m not exactly sure how this works within the volunteer system, and maybe someone here can explain it better than I, but I’ve also heard that the volunteer stations in our county also get paid for each call they run on.

Now I’m not sure of the exact pay structure, but it goes something like this, for each structure fire they respond to the company gets $100.00, for each MVA its $75.00, for each car fire $50.00, for each brush fire $25.00, like I said the numbers may be wrong, or heck I might be wrong all together, but if I’m not, where does this money come from, because I’ve heard it comes from a separate pot than the “Fire Tax”.

Viper,

Volunteer Fire/EMS companies have an yearly operating budget plus money they receive each year for new apparatus, apparatus replacement and stations. They are also paid for their response. The monies change depending on if the response is first due or mutuial aid and the type of call it is. For example, you would get more money for a first due house fire vs. a mutual aid response. They are also paid by the number of units responding to the emergency. Hope that helps

Thanks for clearing this up for me Carl, but do you know if those monies come from the “Fire Tax”, or some other secret fund.

Viper,

As far as I know it comes from the Fire Tax.  There are monies that come from the telephone tax for the 911 center, 5.6 million for career EMT-B’s and Paramedics from a differant pot,(Tax). Grants fund the Haz-Mat Team and their purchases.

Carl Senior - 04 August 2008 07:51 AM

Viper,

Volunteer Fire/EMS companies have an yearly operating budget plus money they receive each year for new apparatus, apparatus replacement and stations. They are also paid for their response. The monies change depending on if the response is first due or mutuial aid and the type of call it is. For example, you would get more money for a first due house fire vs. a mutual aid response. They are also paid by the number of units responding to the emergency. Hope that helps

They get paid for each response?  That explains why when the sheriff’s dept cancels them on an accident or other call, they come in blazing lights/sirens anyway.

Cowgirl,

All they have to do is go responding on the run.  They never have to leave the front ramp in order to collect the funds for the call.

The reason units continue in to an accident is because 9 times out of 10 the police say it is PD only then 5 mins later they are calling for an ems unit because someone wants to go to the hospital. I know that this is not always the fault of the police, people always change their minds, but if your not that far from the accident it only takes a minute to continue in to doulble check. Then it doesn’t look as bad if someone has to go back out.

Then I was told this last night, that the volunteer EMS association at their last county meeting voted down Co. #60’s request to become a BLS/ALS transport company, because they said it couldn’t sustain the membership (personnel) requirements to run both a BLS/ALS Company, thus leaving the citizens in the White Plains area of our county waiting for an amb. from EMS 3, or EMS 51 to come to their aid in an emergency.

But I think the real reason is, it would cut those (3 & 51) EMS companies out of their run monies, and cut into their yearly budget, because if you lose run stats, you may have your budget cut, never mind the poor citizen in Co. 60’s first due area that needs a BLS ambulance, and is waiting for help in his or hers time of need, it seems like the C.C. EMS Assoc. doesn’t care about the citizens in this area that pay “Fire Tax”, hey shouldn’t they be receiving the same type of emergency care as everyone else.

The reason units continue in to an accident is because 9 times out of 10 the police say it is PD only then 5 mins later they are calling for an ems unit because someone wants to go to the hospital. I know that this is not always the fault of the police, people always change their minds, but if your not that far from the accident it only takes a minute to continue in to doulble check. Then it doesn’t look as bad if someone has to go back out.

So Hammer,

What happens when they get involved in a personal injury or property damage accident AFTER they have been placed in service and are responding unauthorized?

Hey Viper,

These are the same rocket scientists who wanted the commissioners to kill the funding for the career EMS Service.  They indicated that they could provide much better service if they were given the budget.  This is all about money and power; not about service.  There’s an old saying… You get what you pay for!!!

The police department can not place units in service. It is up the OIC of the fire department to decide if they want to continue in. Most of the time they will acknowledge that the police are o/s advising pd and may say ” keep the assignment untill a fire/ems unit can get on the scene and advise.” or the units will continue in priority 3 which is no lights and no sirens. If a fire department officer or chief puts a unit in service and they decide to continue in “unauthorized”, that is just stupid and doesn’t happen all that often, but it does on occasion. In reguards to EMS 60, they only have about 6 members that keep that place from closing and if the transport unit will be anything like the volunteer medic unit, it would be a waste to put in service. The volunteer medic unit is only in service a handfull of days out of the month and it is usually late at night to early morning. I seriously doubt 3 or 51 is worried about losing calls. They get hammered as it is so I’m sure they wouldn’t mind having a few calls taken off of their plate. EMS 12 would run in there before 51 but thats besides that point.

Hammer,

All I can say is Wow.

You know what, your right… you do get what you pay for. We pay for the county ems yet we have duty officers that don’t run call unless communications request them to, but they have time to go to their house and take a nap or grab a bite to eat. There have been several occasions that I have listened to on the radio when there was a priority 1 call in waldorf and the closes als unit was coming from hughesville yet the duty office sitting at company 60 never once marked up. Guess the people in white plains are getting what they pay for. I don’t even know why we have duty officers, half of them don’t follow up on the people they are suppose to be supervising. We have paid ems personnel sitting out in front of the firehouse sunbathing where everyone can see them, but why should they care. Its a rare occasion to see them clean the unit the drive day in and day out or help clean out around the firehouse. I am not saying all are like this, because there are some who take pride in what they do, others just want that check.

Maybe at the next chief’s meeting they can find out why the commisioners are having emergency lights and radios put in their cars. What the hell do they need that for? They wouldn’t know the first thing to do if they showed up at the scene of an emergency. I guess they are all going to get EVOC, because it is a maryland state law that you must have that class to drive and emergency vehicle. More money for the county to piss away at their leisure.

Carl, just and FYI for ya….. the duty officers are career NOT volunteer, so to make it fair and balanced how bout bashing them for awhile. You’ve been very entertaining. You are corrent on somethings and WAY OFF on others.

smcitizen,

Where am I bashing anyone.  If you read my posts I have pointed out problems with the entire system and the need to overhaul the entire system.

I would like to add, just recently there was a small error discovered in the reporting of calls.  The number of phone calls to the 911 center was inflated by 157%, yes that is right.  How does someone make a small mistake like this and still keep his job.  Makes one wonder also, were inflated numbers used when they were justifiying the Paid EMS requirements???

EMS Jim,

The reponse numbers were used by Tony Rose to try and justify hiring additional dispatchers and 911 call takers.  They were not used to justify hiring Career EMT-B and Paramedics.  There was plenty of justification for that.

Carl, Carl, Carl. Your like a broken record

We absolutely need the paid service. In fact if you watched the last Board of Fire and Rescue meeting, Sam Bowling himself said that membership in the volunteer service is dwindling. Keep that in mind while the Cobb Island Volunteer Fire Department is trying to spend almost $4,000,000 of your tax dollars to build their department in a known flood zone. (http://www.nab.usace.army.mil/hes.htm)

Until Charles County stationed a paid EMS unit in Newburg there was no Advance Life Support (ALS) service south of La Plata. ALS service is allowed to provide IVs, defibrillators, and other true life saving type services. Basic Life Support or BLS is roughly the equivalent of a cab ride to the hospital. Cobb Island only has one (1) ALS qualified individual. That person is, in fact, a full time EMT in Prince George’s County. So the majority of time the Cobb Neck Area ALS EMS services is provided by Newburg.

If you are a scanner buff you will note just how many calls the CIVFD EMS unit makes for additional help from its fire members. This happens at an accelerated rate on the weekends. Would this be because more people are home on the weekend in need of retirement points? During the majority of the week almost before the CIVFD EMS unit gets underway they’ve got a call to Newburg for support for ALS services if needed. Just examine the Ambulance calls over the last couple of weeks and see how many times Newburg’s ALS EMS team was called to meet with the CIVFD EMS unit. Once the paid ALS service is done, the Cobb Island Volunteers transport the patient for more points towards retirement. Now everyone gets in credit game.

At the recent ground breaking of the proposed CIVFD facility it was mentioned that a new department would also probably be built in Swan Point within the next two years. It is a given that if a Swan Point facility is built, not one wheel will turn off of Cobb Island since the majority of calls are made of the island to begin with. Notice that not one argument has found its way into this site, other than emotional or traditional, in regards to why it makes sense to build on Cobb Island and not on 5 acres they own inland.

I can’t understand why more people aren’t up in arms about how our tax dollars are being spent in this area.

Spyglass - 08 August 2008 03:51 PM

We absolutely need the paid service. In fact if you watched the last Board of Fire and Rescue meeting, Sam Bowling himself said that membership in the volunteer service is dwindling. Keep that in mind while the Cobb Island Volunteer Fire Department is trying to spend almost $4,000,000 of your tax dollars to build their department in a known flood zone. (http://www.nab.usace.army.mil/hes.htm)

Until Charles County stationed a paid EMS unit in Newburg there was no Advance Life Support (ALS) service south of La Plata. ALS service is allowed to provide IVs, defibrillators, and other true life saving type services. Basic Life Support or BLS is roughly the equivalent of a cab ride to the hospital. Cobb Island only has one (1) ALS qualified individual. That person is, in fact, a full time EMT in Prince George’s County. So the majority of time the Cobb Neck Area ALS EMS services is provided by Newburg.

If you are a scanner buff you will note just how many calls the CIVFD EMS unit makes for additional help from its fire members. This happens at an accelerated rate on the weekends. Would this be because more people are home on the weekend in need of retirement points? During the majority of the week almost before the CIVFD EMS unit gets underway they’ve got a call to Newburg for support for ALS services if needed. Just examine the Ambulance calls over the last couple of weeks and see how many times Newburg’s ALS EMS team was called to meet with the CIVFD EMS unit. Once the paid ALS service is done, the Cobb Island Volunteers transport the patient for more points towards retirement. Now everyone gets in credit game.

At the recent ground breaking of the proposed CIVFD facility it was mentioned that a new department would also probably be built in Swan Point within the next two years. It is a given that if a Swan Point facility is built, not one wheel will turn off of Cobb Island since the majority of calls are made of the island to begin with. Notice that not one argument has found its way into this site, other than emotional or traditional, in regards to why it makes sense to build on Cobb Island and not on 5 acres they own inland.

I can’t understand why more people aren’t up in arms about how our tax dollars are being spent in this area.

BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH,  Get over it no paid fire service ANY time soon

SMCITIZEN

You are quite good at very traditional tactics. If you don’t like the message, or more important, if you can’t prove the message wrong, you aim to discredit the messenger. Have you actually even gone to the Army Corp of Engineers link supplied in Spyglass’ comments? Building in a flood zone is irresponsible when alternatives exist. My interpretation of your earlier remarks are that you brazenly suggested that a once in a lifetime event such as a hurricane shouldn’t dictate where an emergency services building should be built. The “club members” should.  Your opinions would be of little comfort to the citizens of New Orleans who couldn’t get emergency services because much of it was under water. Should you choose to research, the City of New Orleans has completely re-planned it emergency services because of its experience and yet the CIVFD chooses not to. We have had three tropical storms hit Cobb Island in the last 5 years. God forbid if an actual hurricane maintains its strength with a direct hit next time. You must remember the bridge to Cobb Island is routinely closed in just simple rain storms as well. To date comments in this forum on the matters of the Volunteer System versus a Professional System and Code Home Rule have been based on documented facts.

For example, the recently uncovered slush fund that the Volunteer’s Executive Committee has been building for years has come into question.  This fund has well over $1,000,000 of our tax dollars earning interest while our taxes continue to increase because of shortfalls. While I don’t believe anyone engaged in any criminal intent, participants have violated county codes assuming that no one would read them. Gone are the days when privately contracted organizations can run roughshod over the public and elected officials and avoid accountability. The County Code is very clear regarding the disposition of excess emergency services funds.

§ 54-2. Disposition of excess proceeds. [1965 Code, sec. 118; 1969 Code, sec. 124. P.L.L., 1961, ch. 443; 1969, ch. 717, sec. 118; 1984, ch. 756; 2001, ch. 549]

Excess proceeds, herein defined as proceeds from the fire, rescue, and emergency medical services tax in excess of those necessary to satisfy the requirements of the preceding subsections, shall, upon recommendation of the Board of Fire and Rescue Commissioners, be used by the County Commissioners to reduce the indebtedness of the various volunteer Fire Departments, rescue squads, mobile intensive care units, and dive rescue units to assist in the formation of new Fire Departments rescue squads, mobile intensive care units, and dive rescue units in accordance with the needs and growth of the county, to allot funds to the various Fire Department, rescue squads, mobile intensive care units, and dive rescue units to pay for career fire, rescue, or emergency medical services personnel, to support/aid the Southern Maryland Regional Training Center, to hire necessary clerical assistance, to accumulate an emergency fund up to a maximum of $200,000 to provide assistance to new volunteer fire departments, rescue squads, mobile intensive care units, or dive rescue units or to existing departments, squads, companies, or units suffering major losses through no fault of their own and/or to pay any part of such excess proceeds to the general fund of Charles County as the Board of Fire and Rescue Commissioners deems surplus to the needs of the various Fire Departments, rescue squads, mobile intensive care units, and dive rescue units.

Citizens now have unlimited access to the facts without having to rely on urban legends. Access to the facts allows us all to avoid falling prey to your emotional sacred cow banter. The data and the last two years events clearly show the Volunteer System is in need of an overhaul and Code Home Rule has given our Commissioners a blank check that needs revoking. As a result Charles County has had to raise its taxes, both hidden and stated. This county needs oversight and balance in its decision making processes and this forum allows those issues to be brought to light without fear of reprisal. Now if we can get our local newspapers to hold everyone accountable we might get somewhere.

Until you have factually based, statistically supported comments to contribute, your “Blah, Blah, Blah” remarks resemble that of a whining child holding a temper tantrum. It is obvious you have no concern for public safety, only whether or not a clubhouse gets built for a dramatically declining population of volunteers, located in a questionable location, using the money collected from all Charles County Citizens.

4eyes - 10 August 2008 02:23 PM

SMCITIZEN

You are quite good at very traditional tactics. If you don’t like the message, or more important, if you can’t prove the message wrong, you aim to discredit the messenger. Have you actually even gone to the Army Corp of Engineers link supplied in Spyglass’ comments? Building in a flood zone is irresponsible when alternatives exist. My interpretation of your earlier remarks are that you brazenly suggested that a once in a lifetime event such as a hurricane shouldn’t dictate where an emergency services building should be built. The “club members” should.  Your opinions would be of little comfort to the citizens of New Orleans who couldn’t get emergency services because much of it was under water. Should you choose to research, the City of New Orleans has completely re-planned it emergency services because of its experience and yet the CIVFD chooses not to. We have had three tropical storms hit Cobb Island in the last 5 years. God forbid if an actual hurricane maintains its strength with a direct hit next time. You must remember the bridge to Cobb Island is routinely closed in just simple rain storms as well. To date comments in this forum on the matters of the Volunteer System versus a Professional System and Code Home Rule have been based on documented facts.

For example, the recently uncovered slush fund that the Volunteer’s Executive Committee has been building for years has come into question.  This fund has well over $1,000,000 of our tax dollars earning interest while our taxes continue to increase because of shortfalls. While I don’t believe anyone engaged in any criminal intent, participants have violated county codes assuming that no one would read them. Gone are the days when privately contracted organizations can run roughshod over the public and elected officials and avoid accountability. The County Code is very clear regarding the disposition of excess emergency services funds.

§ 54-2. Disposition of excess proceeds. [1965 Code, sec. 118; 1969 Code, sec. 124. P.L.L., 1961, ch. 443; 1969, ch. 717, sec. 118; 1984, ch. 756; 2001, ch. 549]

Excess proceeds, herein defined as proceeds from the fire, rescue, and emergency medical services tax in excess of those necessary to satisfy the requirements of the preceding subsections, shall, upon recommendation of the Board of Fire and Rescue Commissioners, be used by the County Commissioners to reduce the indebtedness of the various volunteer Fire Departments, rescue squads, mobile intensive care units, and dive rescue units to assist in the formation of new Fire Departments rescue squads, mobile intensive care units, and dive rescue units in accordance with the needs and growth of the county, to allot funds to the various Fire Department, rescue squads, mobile intensive care units, and dive rescue units to pay for career fire, rescue, or emergency medical services personnel, to support/aid the Southern Maryland Regional Training Center, to hire necessary clerical assistance, to accumulate an emergency fund up to a maximum of $200,000 to provide assistance to new volunteer fire departments, rescue squads, mobile intensive care units, or dive rescue units or to existing departments, squads, companies, or units suffering major losses through no fault of their own and/or to pay any part of such excess proceeds to the general fund of Charles County as the Board of Fire and Rescue Commissioners deems surplus to the needs of the various Fire Departments, rescue squads, mobile intensive care units, and dive rescue units.

Citizens now have unlimited access to the facts without having to rely on urban legends. Access to the facts allows us all to avoid falling prey to your emotional sacred cow banter. The data and the last two years events clearly show the Volunteer System is in need of an overhaul and Code Home Rule has given our Commissioners a blank check that needs revoking. As a result Charles County has had to raise its taxes, both hidden and stated. This county needs oversight and balance in its decision making processes and this forum allows those issues to be brought to light without fear of reprisal. Now if we can get our local newspapers to hold everyone accountable we might get somewhere.

Until you have factually based, statistically supported comments to contribute, your “Blah, Blah, Blah” remarks resemble that of a whining child holding a temper tantrum. It is obvious you have no concern for public safety, only whether or not a clubhouse gets built for a dramatically declining population of volunteers, located in a questionable location, using the money collected from all Charles County Citizens.

Hey Commissioners, and Charles County Board of Fire & Rescue, are you reading this, I think you’ve been called, now show us your hands.

But it looks like to me, you’re holding losing hands, because 4eyes is holding a Royal Flush.

4eyes, you hit the nail on the head! My earlier post tels the same thing for these VFD’s having excess budget money every year. My TAXES continually get higher and the fire tax money is going in the bank to earn interest on it. I agree with Carl Sr. ,the whole system needs an overhaul. It makes no sense that some department have MAJOR money in their bank accounts and other departments have to take loans out to buy equipment. How much of that 1 million + dollars could the county use for more career personnel? Every citizen in this county deserves rapid access to the fire and ems sytem when they dial 911. No VFD in this county can garuntee that. I even know that a fully staffed career dept could not garauntee this either, but the odds are better with a career staff. Myself and probably most of the rest of the taxpayers in this county are tired of our taxes continually rising, yet see very little increases in our county services.

hammerhead - 07 August 2008 03:10 PM

Maybe at the next chief’s meeting they can find out why the commisioners are having emergency lights and radios put in their cars. What the hell do they need that for? They wouldn’t know the first thing to do if they showed up at the scene of an emergency. I guess they are all going to get EVOC, because it is a maryland state law that you must have that class to drive and emergency vehicle. More money for the county to piss away at their leisure.

The Transportation Article of Maryland Code strictly limits what vehicles can have emergency lights/sirens or be designated an emergency vehicle. From what I’ve seen and know, they cannot have emergency lights/sirens.

As for the radios… I can justify that. Granted I see no need for them to have them; but there’s nothing “fishy” about them having the County’s 800MHz radios…

EMSJim - 08 August 2008 09:25 AM

I would like to add, just recently there was a small error discovered in the reporting of calls.  The number of phone calls to the 911 center was inflated by 157%, yes that is right.  How does someone make a small mistake like this and still keep his job.  Makes one wonder also, were inflated numbers used when they were justifiying the Paid EMS requirements???

This was found to be an error in the new CAD system phone tracking software. The CAD system had been tracks all incoming, transferred, updated location and 911 hang ups as 911 calls. Even after correcting the software error, there are limitations in 911 call tracking software, such as, it prevents more in-depth analysis of the “All Other” calls category.

With the new software, calls are now Emergency EMS; Emergency Fire; Emergency Police; Transferred Calls to Other Public Safety; Transfer - Non Emergency; All Others.

Just an observation….

It seems like there are no young volunteer’s in the county anymore, let’s say in the 16-20 year old range, what I’m seeing on most fire calls are older, let’s say in the late 30’s, to late 50 year old range on the apparatus. If this continues, the volunteer system in our county a’int going to last very long.

Good thing there wasn’t a fire this morning with people trapped, 2 engine co.‘s in our county scratched on a call, well one company scratched, the other one went out driver only after about 8 min., and the sad thing is this happened on a Saturday morning, what ever happened to the good ol’ days of a packed bunkroom on a Friday & Saturday night.

I’ll bet you all the next thing that’s going to start happening is this, at one of the volunteer company meetings in the not to distant future, if it hasn’t happened already, it will be brought up to have mandatory duty crews, and sleep-in crews, so the apparatus will get out. Now mark my words, if this happens people, it won’t be long, before the volunteer system in this county, goes belly-up.

Hey Commissioner, are you reading this, I know you are, but hey, you think everything is hunky dory in the county when it comes to the “Fire Service”. But I got news for ya, it a’int, and the “Tax paying citizen is now starting to pay the price”  .

Viper, you’ve raised a very good concern.

What happens if the current volunteer program does go belly up? Where does the county stand now? How do you feel the commissioners should react and how are they ignoring the current problem?

I’m just ignorant and very curious. I’d like to make sure my family is going to receive assistance in an emergency.

thank you.

insideout - 23 August 2008 01:25 PM

Viper, you’ve raised a very good concern.

What happens if the current volunteer program does go belly up? Where does the county stand now? How do you feel the commissioners should react and how are they ignoring the current problem?

I’m just ignorant and very curious. I’d like to make sure my family is going to receive assistance in an emergency.

thank you.

insideout

It’s not as they say “if”, but “when” the volunteer system in this county goes belly-up.

In my opinion the so called commissioners we have now, better start looking into a career system, if not to totally take over the fire service, to at least supplement the volunteer system we have now.

I listen to, and show-up on calls all the time, and what I hear and see, more and more, are volunteer company’s in our county failing to respond to emergencies, getting out late, or going out understaffed.

The commissioner that sits on the BoFR, doesn’t have a clue about the problems with the volunteer Fire Service in our county, all he knows is what he’s told by the volunteer’s, and that is, “We sure are saving the Tax Payer a bunch of money”, yeah but at what cost to the tax payer, the cost of the closest company not getting out to respond to an emergency, or to the cost of an engine or truck co. showing up understaffed and unable to perform their assigned duties at the scene of an emergency.

As for paying for this “Career” system, I don’t know about you, and I know everyone of us pay enough tax now, but I would gladly pay, an extra $100 -$200 dollars a year “Fire Tax”, if it went to a dedicated Career system.

I would also like to see mandatory training requirements for the volunteer F/F’s, and line officer’s, set down by the county. Now it’s done by the individual fire stations, and there is no checks & balances, there needs to be a set training guideline established for each station to follow, and its members be held accountable to obtain, hold, and maintain, and this training turned into the county to review, retain, and update as needed.

WOW. I and probably MANY other charles county residents, had/have NO IDEA.

The commissioner that sits on the BoFR, doesn’t have a clue about the problems with the volunteer Fire Service in our county, all he knows is what he’s told by the volunteer’s, and that is, “We sure are saving the Tax Payer a bunch of money”, yeah but at what cost to the tax payer, the cost of the closest company not getting out to respond to an emergency, or to the cost of an engine or truck co. showing up understaffed and unable to perform their assigned duties at the scene of an emergency.

I promise you, Viper, NONE of these commissioners care about any REAL problems with services (even emergency ones) rendered to our residents. They care only about image and political aspirations. They ALL only hear what they want to hear so I’m not surprised by your content. I’m very sure the commissioner sitting on BoFR has NO CLUE. They don’t care. They’re looking to get through a “season” on to their next political achievement. It should make residents want to vomit.

How can residents get involved? How do we fix this? If paying a few hundred dollars a year is a “career system” and better for residents, how do we get it implemented? I don’t have any emergency response experience. I’m simply a resident who cares for my family, neighbors, and other residents of Charles County should they experience a fire or medical emergency. If what’s in place is broken, how do we fix it?

It appears most Delusional Duck bloggers agree that the Charles County Emergency Services system needs updating to the 21rst century.  It also continues to be the Cobb Island Volunteer Fire Department that epitomizes all that is wrong with the Volunteer system and its lack of accountability to the citizens of Charles County.

Land records show that the CIVFD does not own all of the land, on which, they are trying to build its new Fire House. The CIVFD believes if it builds the new building fast enough no one will be able to stop them from completing this ill conceived project. Does this not amount to collusion between the CIVFD and Charles County officials who issued building permits? According to County regulations building permits can only be issued to recorded owners of property? Hasn’t the Charles County attorney’s office advised the CIVFD of this dilemma? The County Commissioners, the Charles County Attorney’s office, and Maryland State officials all know of this situation. If this doesn’t fit the definitions of political favors and collusion I don’t know what else does.

Does Code Home Rule allow our County Commissioners to look the other way and grant political favors as opposed to standing up for what is right?

What about the Slush fund reported in earlier posts?

It has now been confirmed that Charles County Code Chapter 54-2 reads correctly. It reads that excess money should be returned to the general fund of Charles County. The CIVFD written request for $400,000 from the “slush fund” suggested the fund is approximately $2,000,000, more than double that which was originally estimated. In the CIVFD’s written request to the Executive Board it requested 400,000.000 from the fund. No, that’s not my typo, but there was a typo in their request.  They only wanted $400,000 from this secret fund to help finance its $4,000,000 facility in a flood zone http://www.nab.usace.army.mil/HES/Data/CHARCNY.pdf.

However, these escrows were in violation of paragraph 54-2 in the first place. But now the politics and back room agreements are a foot. Since this fund has been uncovered the volunteer groups are suggesting that the excess money should remain in their hands. It’s obvious they can find numerous ways to spend our money. All citizens of Charles County should write the County Commissioners and demand that our money be returned to the county general fund. This new found money could be used to offset our county’s deficit or maybe we could use this money to fix one of our schools and get our children out of a trailer or two.

P.S. How does a Volunteer Department pay a $12,000 per month note on the almost $2.4 million loan they are obtaining for construction? The CIVFD financial statements were not shared with its peer group leaving many members to ask privately how as well. Mark my words, the citizens of Charles County will pay the cost overruns when this over capitalized, soon to be deep in debt fire department can not pay its obligations.

I spoke to 3 of the commissioners about the Fire/EMS service, the Fire Tax, the problems associated with both and the need for drastic change almost a year ago. I believe all of them want change but are unable or unwilling to take that beast on. I again would suggest that language be written into Code Home Rule to establish a Fire/EMS Service (one) in Charles County and elimination of the Fire Tax. The Sheriff, Public Works, School Board, and other Government agencies all must write and JUSTIFY their expenditures each year; they call that a Budget. All of these agencies must draw from the same pot of Tax Dollars. Why are the Volunteer Corporation’s any different?

Viper,

There are classes that you need to have in order to be an officer anywhere in the county. The classes are different depending on what rank you are but most include ICS classes, emt-b and so on. Even if there are paid firefighters in the county, that doesn’t mean the citizens will get better service. PG county is constantly going out with 2 or 3 or driver only and they have been paid for several years. At the fire at chalk point there was more charles county volunteers than there was paid pg county fire fighters. On the fire at breezy point ct in waldorf a few weeks ago, 36 showed up with 2 or 3 and did absolutely nothing but I’m sure you noticed that. As a reply to what someone said on the watch desk, charles is turing into southern pg and the problems from DC and PG are now present in charles county. Most fire stations will not let a convicted felon join, which is a large part of the population in the county if you read the independents police briefs every week. I don’t agree with the fire tax going up but putting paid people in the stations sure as hell isn’t going to fix any problems either. Some stations just don’t have the staffing they use to have 5 years ago, but it all comes in waves, so 2 years from now a station that has trouble getting out may be getting 3 pieces out.

hammerhead—my understanding of the matter is NOT to replace the volunteer service with a completely (or even majority) paid Fire & EMS service, but to create a series of checks and balances where there is one unified command for ALL of the paid and volunteer fire and emergency medical services in the County. Instead of tax dollars being spent ‘willy-nilly’ by each independent fire/ems company, this County Fire/EMS Department would budget for all of the paid and volunteer services in the County and utilize ALL of the County’s Fire/EMS resources in the most effective manner.

Fundraisers held by each independent Company raise questions with this proposal… normally “donations” to any County department are required to be entered into the General Fund and NOT to that department the donations were made; but I’m sure that some arrangement can be made with the County to create a Fire/EMS contingency account to hold all fundraising and donation funds to decrease or offset the next year’s burden from the General Fund. The inclusion of the Fire Tax into the General Fund—being streamlined into the Fire/EMS budget—would surely cover most operating and capital expenses. Not enough to have a full-time paid staff, but no one is proposing that.

hammerhead - 24 August 2008 01:45 PM

Viper,

There are classes that you need to have in order to be an officer anywhere in the county. The classes are different depending on what rank you are but most include ICS classes, emt-b and so on. Even if there are paid firefighters in the county, that doesn’t mean the citizens will get better service. PG county is constantly going out with 2 or 3 or driver only and they have been paid for several years. At the fire at chalk point there was more charles county volunteers than there was paid pg county fire fighters. On the fire at breezy point ct in waldorf a few weeks ago, 36 showed up with 2 or 3 and did absolutely nothing but I’m sure you noticed that. As a reply to what someone said on the watch desk, charles is turing into southern pg and the problems from DC and PG are now present in charles county. Most fire stations will not let a convicted felon join, which is a large part of the population in the county if you read the independents police briefs every week. I don’t agree with the fire tax going up but putting paid people in the stations sure as hell isn’t going to fix any problems either. Some stations just don’t have the staffing they use to have 5 years ago, but it all comes in waves, so 2 years from now a station that has trouble getting out may be getting 3 pieces out.

These class’ you talk about are dictated by each individual station in the county, I’m proposing that the county look into training requirements that every F/F from the newest “Rookie”, to the most “Senior” member, and all the officers be mandated to obtain before he/she is allowed to ride, or hold office.

My proposal would say that for instance the Chief of a department would have to have FO IV, Safety Officer, HM OPs, HM IC, & NIMS 400 as the minimum requirements to hold the rank of chief, then scale this down as your rank structure scales down.

As for “Career” personnel my proposal would be to start of with 2 “Career” personnel in each house to man the Engine, Truck, or Heavy Duty Rescue Squad that has been dispatched on a emergency, this way you would be able to get out the door in a reasonable time with the 4-5 volunteers you have waiting, ready to go, but can’t because there is no driver, or officer in the house to get the apparatus out the door.

Quack,

Your assessment of the views in this blog are right on. However; fundraisers and donations made to independent V/C should not be part of the discussion. V/C that raise money either through fund drives, Bingo, or other avenues should be able to keep them.
It is interesting that views opposed to change have not presented one argument as to their effectiveness,(volunteers) or why there should not be change. I believe ample justification has been made for change. For those interested and so I do not repeat myself; please feel free to look back at my earlier posts.