In yesterday's post you saw the video where interim our interim fire chief discusses the state of our fire service when he arrived earlier in 2008. He states that there is evidence that the fire department has been in a state of crisis for quite a while prior. That this crisis probably even pre-dates Chief Jensen. Was there a clue to the deterioration of the department?

Well, probably. If you care to read the council minutes from the years past, council certainly must of had some concern of the amount of overtime paid to the fire department and how it was consuming the budget. When you work people in excess of 72 hour shifts there is bound to be some serious OT. Perhaps that amount was evened out by the lack of training provided to the fire staff.

The chief painted a picture of an over worked, habitually understaffed department. He stated that this led to gaps in coverage that at some point left only two personnel on duty to protect the city.

Let that sink in.

He did not mention when this occurred, but is that a level of service you expected? Think for a moment, not of a brush fire, a car fire, or even a house fire. Think of Farelli's. Think of the Liberty Inn. Think of State Farm, Intel, Venture Bank, or Federal Express. What do you tell our business partners about the level of service, for not only their lives, but their livelihoods that depend on it?

What is the level of fire service that our businesses and potential businesses expect? Would it be acceptable to their insurance underwriters that we on occasion staff two people for the whole city? Would two be enough to stage a rescue at Chloe Clark if smoke filled the classrooms?

The topic in today's post is level of service. Frankly, I am surprised at how difficult of a concept this proved to be for our council. Councilmembers Ehrenreich and Coffey laid the foundation for discussion but it seems to me that their schedule and sense of urgency has presupposed that there must be a ballot proposition.

That usually means we can't afford it.

What has me scratching my head is that you think that much of this information would have already been known to council. Sure, the task force published their slides as they proceeded. I read them months ago. But you would have figured the city leadership would be clear on what we were already providing and funding as a standard.

This was arduously illustrated by Councilmember Marin struggling with the concept of what she was being asked to consider. It was evident that she wanted a price before she ordered from the menu, but that is not what was being asked.

What was being asked, to my estimation, by our chief and paid consultant was the question of What is your vision of fire service for the city if DuPont? From there models could be constructed for manpower, equipment, and facilities placement.

A few of the councilmembers who thought they knew the question chimed in with comments like "I am happy with the current level of service our model with Lakewood provides," and "The citizens of DuPont want the level of service currently established with the inter-local agreement provides."

That all sounds great, but in reality it is planning to bring the fire service to where we are now as a city and not where we are projected to be once Quadrant leaves, or once the additional offices, warehousing, and light industrial develop. So shouldn't this task force be closer linked to the planning agency and departments?

The council wasted an awful lot of time stating the obvious but never seemed to get to the answer they were being posed.

Now I know why Elvis shot up his television sets.

So, in deference to all of the hard work done by the Fire Services Task Force, allow me to paraphrase for our council the question that needed to be answered.

Council! Based on your knowledge of where the city is now, and based on the plan of where the city will be after build out from Quadrant, the light industrial areas and the business district, what is your vision of an appropriate level of service to meet the needs of all members of our community?

Period.

Forget cost because you cannot afford what you have now. And, you cannot go back to what you had budgeted before. The pendulum is in motion, the plan is being implemented, and time is marching on. You have been elected to provide for our current needs and to see around the corner for our future needs.

Or something like that...