The Observation Deck

There will be two public meetings to discuss the regional fire department:

Tuesday, March 9th
Rocky River Senior Center
21014 Hilliard Blvd.
Rocky River, OH 44116

Wednesday, March 10th
Westlake Recreation Center
28955 Hilliard Road
Westlake, OH 44145

The meetings will run from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

This is another one of those “reforms” that has merit in concept but becomes subverted by the status quo. The status quo in this case is represented by the Firefighters union. Once they were given a seat at the table the chance of real reform and cost savings simply vanished.

The likely result is:

The departments will merge

The only cost savings (about 8%) will be in dispatching and maybe in shared equipment purchasing

In two years the 8% savings will disappear

Then it will be back to business as usual

Lakewood will have no control over the cost of the merged department

Lakewood will then be required to send money to the merged organization with no control over how it is spent or how the FD it is operated

The question is:

Will the Mayor and the Council feel the need to join this regional organization out of fear of being left out? And if Lakewood is left out of the West Shore Regional FD is the City then shackled to a corpse (Cleveland)?

The other option is to withhold Lakewood’s support unless there is real reform.

Mayor Fitzgerald is campaigning for County Executive as a reformer.

His conduct on this issue will tell us what kind of reform he has in mind. A truly reformed regional fire department can be a symbol of what is possible when a real reformer is in charge.

Fake reform will be a symbol of a different kind.

The North Olmsted fire department is reducing the number of supervisors and considering the addition of part time fire fighters:

http://www.westlifenews.com/2010/03-03/nolmfire.html

Bill Call wrote:There will be two public meetings to discuss the regional fire department:

Tuesday, March 9th
Rocky River Senior Center
21014 Hilliard Blvd.
Rocky River, OH 44116

Wednesday, March 10th
Westlake Recreation Center
28955 Hilliard Road
Westlake, OH 44145

The meetings will run from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

Anyone attend either of these meetings? Bill? Shelley?

Charlie Page wrote:Anyone attend either of these meetings? Bill? Shelley?

I did not.

I hope to see something online that provides some details but you know what they say about hope:

"In reality, hope is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of man."

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, Human, All-too-Human

I found this...it may help...

http://www.cleveland.com/sunpostherald/ ... bilit.html

Rhonda loje wrote:I found this...it may help...

http://www.cleveland.com/sunpostherald/ ... bilit.html

Thanks for the link.

The City of Lakewood is doing the right thing by taking part in this study. Someone else is paying for it and we are under no obligation to accept any of the recommendations or take part in any regional approach to fire safety.

The consulting firm will be studying the effects of shared resources or consolidation:

“So far, Emergency Services Consulting International found that the locations of fire stations in all seven communities would serve a regional district well and that response time could be reduced slightly by switching to some system of shared resources, whether it be a legally consolidated district or stronger collaboration between the cities”

Cities which have underinvested in their fire safety programs may seek to avoid making needed investment by piggybacking on Lakewood:

“Kouwe stated in his presentation that Bay Village emergency services reach only about 71 percent of the city within the nationally recommended 4-minute time period. The consulting group is suggesting that the city either invest in a second station if the districts decide to remain separate, or combine resources which could eliminate the need for another station”

There will be tremendous political pressure put on the individual cities to implement some kind of “merger”, either as a legally consolidated entity or a system of shared resources. The danger to Lakewood is that we will surrender not only control over costs but control over resources already paid for with Lakewood tax dollars.

That is what we have under the ROCKY RIVER SOLUTION. That solution worked well for Rocky River because the City could under invest in its department and call on Lakewood’s assistance as needed. As far as I can determine that service is provided to Rocky River without compensation to Lakewood.

A consolidated district can be a more efficient and responsive if the governments involved commit themselves to rethinking the management, staffing and pay structure of the consolidateted entity.

Simply grafting the current culture to the new consolidated district will leave us with a more expensive, less responsive and less transparent fire department (the goal of the fire fighters union).

Will the fear of being left shackled to a corpse lead the City to agree to a bad deal?

Those cities with the most to gain will be pushing for a merger. The story mentions Bay Village's need for another fire station. Bay will gain through a merger unless there is some weighted cost applied at the beginning of the agreement (think of it as a higher down payment than other cities) or higher annual operating fees to the merged group.

Those with less to gain will be pushing for a cooperative agreement. These cities don't want to get stuck with dependent cities unless they get paid for it.

Bill - you mentioned getting shackled to a corpse. I'm assuming you mean Cleveland? Well, Cleveland is raising our water rates by 5%. I don't know if we have a formal cooperative fire/EMS agreement with Cleveland right now. But if we don't, it's time to get one and get paid for it.