Stimulus money for fire/ems

[boeingb13]

Heres another topic to promote conversation.

With the money that was available for fire and ems recently, did your department recieve any of it and if so what did they spend it on, personnel, training, apparatus,etc.

I'll start, my fire/rescue dept is using a portion of what they recieved to build a new station at what I believe is 2.2 million dollars.which is average around this area for a new station, while on the other hand, a dept not to far from me used a large portion of theres to hire 90 people this year, now the state of Florida requires by law that each dept turn in a balanced budget, and after searching through this dept's budget I found they had only planned to hire 5 this year, as per their 5 year plan, in comes the money and more hiring. Now that the money is gone and those positions were not budgeted for, the mayor is teloling the public next year there will be a financial short fall of approx 69 million, and stating if he can not raise taxes he will have to layoff firefighter/paramedics.

Now im not one for anyone losing their job but give me a break, why does the public get a guilt trip and almost guaranteed tax raises for the mistake of a mayor, who comes from a millionaire family mind you.

It just amazes me the stuff these people do once their in office.

[Richard B the EMT]

I know you're not referring to Mayor Mike Bloomberg, of NYC, yet it sounds so like him.

Your problem is more universal than you think.

Here in NYC, seemingly in less than 24 hours, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority first announced that it had a multi-million dollar surplus, and then says the bridge and tunnel tolls, as well as the bus and subway fares, have to go up, due to a deficit.

Case in point, the bus and subway fare went up to $2.25 from $2.00 on June 28, 2009, just 2 days ago, yet they started construction (again!) on the Second Avenue Subway Train line.

What happened to the surplus?

[Dustdevil]

The sad truth is that, when they get a windfall like this, they don't immediately start thinking of how they can help their city. They start thinking of how they can use it to buy the next election. Firemen and paramedics -- who most citizens in your city will never, ever in their lives need -- are out of sight and out of mind. You are taken for granted. If you don't show up on time, do you think the mayor gets blamed for not providing a budget for adequate coverage? Nope. You get blamed for being a lazy bastard who sits on your arse all day, then drags your feet when it comes time to respond to an emergency.

On the other hand, citizens experience potholes every day of their lives. They use parks every weekend. They use the library every week. They use water every day. They look forward to X-mas decorations at city hall every year. Those are the things that citizens see and remember. You, you're just supposed to be there whenever they need you, but not burden them with demands otherwise. Kind of like, well... a volunteer. And speaking of volunteers, how come more than half of the firemen in this country do the job for free, out of genuine concern for their fellow man, but you demand so much money, you greedy bastard?

That's how the politicians look at it. That's why you're the last one to get any trickle-down money.

[joesph]

The sad truth is that, when they get a windfall like this, they don't immediately start thinking of how they can help their city. They start thinking of how they can use it to buy the next election. Firemen and paramedics -- who most citizens in your city will never, ever in their lives need -- are out of sight and out of mind. You are taken for granted. If you don't show up on time, do you think the mayor gets blamed for not providing a budget for adequate coverage? Nope. You get blamed for being a lazy bastard who sits on your arse all day, then drags your feet when it comes time to respond to an emergency.

On the other hand, citizens experience potholes every day of their lives. They use parks every weekend. They use the library every week. They use water every day. They look forward to X-mas decorations at city hall every year. Those are the things that citizens see and remember. You, you're just supposed to be there whenever they need you, but not burden them with demands otherwise. Kind of like, well... a volunteer. And speaking of volunteers, how come more than half of the firemen in this country do the job for free, out of genuine concern for their fellow man, but you demand so much money, you greedy bastard?

That's how the politicians look at it. That's why you're the last one to get any trickle-down money.

Your right (man that felt weird) I think the only way to change that is threw a coordinated effort to promote EMS and change its image. Know I acknowledge that my experience is in a small rural area but what I have heard over and over again is the same here they (the public) are willing to pay for what they see and use every day so they will harass the politicians into getting them what they want. People have the inaccurate concept that EMS is supported by trip charges and has no need for extra funds. Know fire has seen the light in many respects and learned to promote themselves. Does anyone realize how big of a return is generated in goodwill towards the fire department for doing community work such as passing the boot for Jerry's kids. And if we have a big fire we do our best to get in front of the TV camera. A chief told me yrs ago you don't have to be a good firefighter if you have a good PR man and sadly its true. At a auto accident or medical call we don't talk to the media cause they ask stupid questions about the patient that we can't answer but if we can charm the media then when funding rolls around we have a better shot at winning in the political arena.