GAW6

As a "civilian" fire commissioner, I feel I must respond to this post. Although I have 25 years experience in emergency services, I am not a firefighter and know nothing regarding trucks or firefighting. I rely heavily on my fellow commissioners who are firefighters/Ex-Chiefs/Ex-FDNY.
You are probably asking, "what purpose do you serve then"? In my position on the Board, I handle the insurance and I am the LOSAP Administrator. As a former Treasurer of the District, I also help out with the fiscal responsibilities.
As said previously, we not only have to answer to the tax payers, we have to answer to NYS. We have an outside professional audit done every year which is forwarded to the State Comptroller's office.
To have a Board the consists of all "civilians" would be ridiculous. I know of a neighboring District that has a majority of "civilians" on their Board and they have been spending more money on "consultants" than anything else. The "consultants" should be your experienced members, not some "white collar" person who knows nothing about the fire service.
I am very glad that I have four very experienced members of our department sitting beside me.

As a "civilian" fire commissioner, I feel I must respond to this post. Although I have 25 years experience in emergency services, I am not a firefighter and know nothing regarding trucks or firefighting. I rely heavily on my fellow commissioners who are firefighters/Ex-Chiefs/Ex-FDNY.
You are probably asking, "what purpose do you serve then"? In my position on the Board, I handle the insurance and I am the LOSAP Administrator. As a former Treasurer of the District, I also help out with the fiscal responsibilities.
As said previously, we not only have to answer to the tax payers, we have to answer to NYS. We have an outside professional audit done every year which is forwarded to the State Comptroller's office.
To have a Board the consists of all "civilians" would be ridiculous. I know of a neighboring District that has a majority of "civilians" on their Board and they have been spending more money on "consultants" than anything else. The "consultants" should be your experienced members, not some "white collar" person who knows nothing about the fire service.
I am very glad that I have four very experienced members of our department sitting beside me.

As a "civilian" fire commissioner, I feel I must respond to this post. Although I have 25 years experience in emergency services, I am not a firefighter and know nothing regarding trucks or firefighting. I rely heavily on my fellow commissioners who are firefighters/Ex-Chiefs/Ex-FDNY.
You are probably asking, "what purpose do you serve then"? In my position on the Board, I handle the insurance and I am the LOSAP Administrator. As a former Treasurer of the District, I also help out with the fiscal responsibilities.
As said previously, we not only have to answer to the tax payers, we have to answer to NYS. We have an outside professional audit done every year which is forwarded to the State Comptroller's office.
To have a Board the consists of all "civilians" would be ridiculous. I know of a neighboring District that has a majority of "civilians" on their Board and they have been spending more money on "consultants" than anything else. The "consultants" should be your experienced members, not some "white collar" person who knows nothing about the fire service.
I am very glad that I have four very experienced members of our department sitting beside me.

As a "civilian" fire commissioner, I feel I must respond to this post. Although I have 25 years experience in emergency services, I am not a firefighter and know nothing regarding trucks or firefighting. I rely heavily on my fellow commissioners who are firefighters/Ex-Chiefs/Ex-FDNY.
You are probably asking, "what purpose do you serve then"? In my position on the Board, I handle the insurance and I am the LOSAP Administrator. As a former Treasurer of the District, I also help out with the fiscal responsibilities.
As said previously, we not only have to answer to the tax payers, we have to answer to NYS. We have an outside professional audit done every year which is forwarded to the State Comptroller's office.
To have a Board the consists of all "civilians" would be ridiculous. I know of a neighboring District that has a majority of "civilians" on their Board and they have been spending more money on "consultants" than anything else. The "consultants" should be your experienced members, not some "white collar" person who knows nothing about the fire service.
I am very glad that I have four very experienced members of our department sitting beside me.

My dept and district have no drama, which is rather unusual. We are a cohesive team, and no, the commissioners do not "steamroller" the chief, nor does the chief/dept create problems and vise versa. Our dept isnt huge, we dont run tons of calls, and we are a pretty decent family. The Chief doesnt ask for crazy things, and the commissioners do our best with in our small budget to get what we need to provide a high level of fire protection to the town.. Our meetings are open (as all fire districts in NYS meetings are), and we have one citizen that shows up to show his support for the dept/district. Honestly, I wish more citizens would get involved to see how we operate. I think all they really care about is that the big red truck shows up when they have a problem so we can fix it.

As a "civilian" fire commissioner, I feel I must respond to this post. Although I have 25 years experience in emergency services, I am not a firefighter and know nothing regarding trucks or firefighting. I rely heavily on my fellow commissioners who are firefighters/Ex-Chiefs/Ex-FDNY.
You are probably asking, "what purpose do you serve then"? In my position on the Board, I handle the insurance and I am the LOSAP Administrator. As a former Treasurer of the District, I also help out with the fiscal responsibilities.
As said previously, we not only have to answer to the tax payers, we have to answer to NYS. We have an outside professional audit done every year which is forwarded to the State Comptroller's office.
To have a Board the consists of all "civilians" would be ridiculous. I know of a neighboring District that has a majority of "civilians" on their Board and they have been spending more money on "consultants" than anything else. The "consultants" should be your experienced members, not some "white collar" person who knows nothing about the fire service.
I am very glad that I have four very experienced members of our department sitting beside me.

As a "civilian" fire commissioner, I feel I must respond to this post. Although I have 25 years experience in emergency services, I am not a firefighter and know nothing regarding trucks or firefighting. I rely heavily on my fellow commissioners who are firefighters/Ex-Chiefs/Ex-FDNY.
You are probably asking, "what purpose do you serve then"? In my position on the Board, I handle the insurance and I am the LOSAP Administrator. As a former Treasurer of the District, I also help out with the fiscal responsibilities.
As said previously, we not only have to answer to the tax payers, we have to answer to NYS. We have an outside professional audit done every year which is forwarded to the State Comptroller's office.
To have a Board the consists of all "civilians" would be ridiculous. I know of a neighboring District that has a majority of "civilians" on their Board and they have been spending more money on "consultants" than anything else. The "consultants" should be your experienced members, not some "white collar" person who knows nothing about the fire service.
I am very glad that I have four very experienced members of our department sitting beside me.

Meetings are open to the public and you do not have to be a taxpayer to vote on items such as resolutions, all you have to be is a registered voter within that fire district to be heard. Our district adopted a public comment section to their monthly meetings just for that very reason "public comments". Sadly it is the same people that attend monthly, the fire commissioners and a few officers, even when we went through the purchasing of the new engine that failed on the first vote, no one from the public attended a meeting, once in a while we get a "hot" topic and a few individuals show up. I personally would like more people from the public to be on the board, instead of just members or past members, I've found that many times some of our own members that haven't seen a fire or been an active member for a great length of time really have no idea what is going on in today's emergency services either so are they really an "asset"? I think not. I would like to have five members that a are financially responsible and not "yes" members to the Chief. As always like you did above, do your homework ahead of time, be prepared, justify your expenditures and make a presentation to the members that have been voted in to over see how the taxes are spent, as well as the public, chances are if you are prepared, you should have no problem with getting approval for items, at least that's been my experience sitting at the other side of the table.

I would assume from not being there that the FAS Teams were put to work and needed to be replaced.

Why not? with the size of the structure/fire load/situation at hand maybe the IC felt the need to have multiple fasts readily available. If you ask me you can never have to many FASTs, most situations where a FAST is utilized, it takes multiple teams to remove the member out.

I was not the IC but the first two FASteams were put to work. Bedford Hills was requested for a cascade ( not a FASTeam)because Briarcliffs needed to refill during the incident and the county's filling system was O.O.S

im sorry but i think some of you are missing the picture here. A Parade is for the community. A celebration of whatever it may be. Celebrating America or troops coming home or something within the community. Its very much American as apple pie. When i hear the "should have used the time for training or done this or done that or the rig should be covering." As long as he dept has resources to cover, go to the parade. Let the people enjoy a weekend and see firetrucks, police cars and Ambulances and bands. I just don't get it. Next parades will be banned because they are too patriotic according to the trend the country is on. Some of you need to get a grip and enjoy life.

My husband is a "Tier 2" and it changed a few years back to "55 with at least 30 years".
Fire Commissioners control the LOSAP program. The State DOES have some say in it - the now required yearly audit MUST contain an audit of the LOSAP program also. I happen to be the LOSAP administrator for our Fire District - and if any District is "under-funded", then shame on them. Everyone should be receiving annual reports from the company who handles their program.

My husband is a "Tier 2" and it changed a few years back to "55 with at least 30 years".
Fire Commissioners control the LOSAP program. The State DOES have some say in it - the now required yearly audit MUST contain an audit of the LOSAP program also. I happen to be the LOSAP administrator for our Fire District - and if any District is "under-funded", then shame on them. Everyone should be receiving annual reports from the company who handles their program.

My husband is a "Tier 2" and it changed a few years back to "55 with at least 30 years".
Fire Commissioners control the LOSAP program. The State DOES have some say in it - the now required yearly audit MUST contain an audit of the LOSAP program also. I happen to be the LOSAP administrator for our Fire District - and if any District is "under-funded", then shame on them. Everyone should be receiving annual reports from the company who handles their program.

Although I agree that the elections are not "well publicized", I am not getting your REAL point here. If you are aware that there are elections, and you are so concerned with who is running, then why don't you 1). Run for the position; or 2). Put someone up that you think would do a better job. You can easily go to the NYS Association of Fire Districts website and you can get all the information and timeline as to when petitions have to be filed, etc.
What I am also not getting from reading many of the previous posts, is why would you not want an experienced person, i.e. Ex-Chief as a Commissioner? Would you rather see five John Q. Publics in there that have no knowledge of the fire service and will just nickel and dime everything?
I know that I am very grateful to have Ex-Chiefs on our Board since I have never been affiliated with the fire service. Yes, I have been involved in EMS for 23 years, so I have knowledge of "emergency services", but I know nothing about fighting a fire. Do I bring anything to the table? Yes, I feel I do, having a bookkeeping/construction/administrative background, I am not "just a body" sitting on the Board.
As far as adding the election of Fire Commissioners to the General Election in November, would be fine with me, but will probably never happen.
I am sure you would be pretty hard pressed to find Mr. John Q. Public, "businessman", who gets on the train at 7 a.m., returns home at 7 p.m., who wants to be a Fire Commissioner. If they volunteer for anything, it is usually to coach soccer or Little League for their little "Johnny".
I feel this post is going nowhere. I think it just comes down to someone who, for whatever reason, has it out for Commissioners due to a past incident. Sorry.

Although I agree that the elections are not "well publicized", I am not getting your REAL point here. If you are aware that there are elections, and you are so concerned with who is running, then why don't you 1). Run for the position; or 2). Put someone up that you think would do a better job. You can easily go to the NYS Association of Fire Districts website and you can get all the information and timeline as to when petitions have to be filed, etc.
What I am also not getting from reading many of the previous posts, is why would you not want an experienced person, i.e. Ex-Chief as a Commissioner? Would you rather see five John Q. Publics in there that have no knowledge of the fire service and will just nickel and dime everything?
I know that I am very grateful to have Ex-Chiefs on our Board since I have never been affiliated with the fire service. Yes, I have been involved in EMS for 23 years, so I have knowledge of "emergency services", but I know nothing about fighting a fire. Do I bring anything to the table? Yes, I feel I do, having a bookkeeping/construction/administrative background, I am not "just a body" sitting on the Board.
As far as adding the election of Fire Commissioners to the General Election in November, would be fine with me, but will probably never happen.
I am sure you would be pretty hard pressed to find Mr. John Q. Public, "businessman", who gets on the train at 7 a.m., returns home at 7 p.m., who wants to be a Fire Commissioner. If they volunteer for anything, it is usually to coach soccer or Little League for their little "Johnny".
I feel this post is going nowhere. I think it just comes down to someone who, for whatever reason, has it out for Commissioners due to a past incident. Sorry.

I happen to be a Fire Commissioner, who as you can see from my profile, is a female, and NEVER been a MEMBER of the Fire Department, much less a Chief. Two of my fellow Commissioners were Chiefs, the other two were never even Officers, one of which was an FDNY Lieutenant. Needless to say, as you can see, it is a fairly good balance.
By the way, I am up for re-election on Tuesday, and I would WELCOME a challenge!!!

I happen to be a Fire Commissioner, who as you can see from my profile, is a female, and NEVER been a MEMBER of the Fire Department, much less a Chief. Two of my fellow Commissioners were Chiefs, the other two were never even Officers, one of which was an FDNY Lieutenant. Needless to say, as you can see, it is a fairly good balance.
By the way, I am up for re-election on Tuesday, and I would WELCOME a challenge!!!

I happen to be a Fire Commissioner, who as you can see from my profile, is a female, and NEVER been a MEMBER of the Fire Department, much less a Chief. Two of my fellow Commissioners were Chiefs, the other two were never even Officers, one of which was an FDNY Lieutenant. Needless to say, as you can see, it is a fairly good balance.
By the way, I am up for re-election on Tuesday, and I would WELCOME a challenge!!!

Really can't understand why you couldn't just leave it at your first paragraph.
Who, may I ask, are you referring to as the "powers that be"?????

Not to mention, is 37M1 going to be responding to calls on the Reservation at night? This would be stripping the Town of a a Medic - and the taxpayers of Mount Pleasant are paying for this service!
Also, no one has mentioned the burden on Pleasantville. What happens when HFD can't respond - PVAC is their first due mutual aid. Nice that someone mentioned about VVAC and HFD getting some $$$ for this, but what about PVAC who is HFD's first due mutual aid.
P.S. Unlike VVAC and HFD, PVAC has NO paid staff.

As a responder that day, one of the things that got me through was that I kept telling myself that those poor children didn't know what hit them. When the toxicology report came out, it broke my heart. Those kids had to be so frightened in that car with that drunk/high maniac. I also firmly believe that Dan Schuler said or did something to his wife that morning that caused her to go over the edge - I only hope that one day the truth will come out.
By the way, I thought HBO did a terrible job!

I, too, have sat back long enough reading these posts and feel the need to finally comment:
1. As far as the "said" department, they need to work on a schedule system so that they don't have to keep relying on their mutual aid departments.
2. As for the "facility" that the "said" department keeps going to, they HAVE spoken with the "head honchos" and they HAVE given them fines. I happen to work at the "facility", so I know this for a fact! The "facility" does NOTHING to correct the problems.
3. LOSAP - how can you compare that to a regular pension? I certainly hope your "real job" pension is more than $300/month!
4. A paid department in the Town of Mt. Pleasant? Are you kidding??? As a life-long resident of the Town, I for one would get on a bandwagon to vote down such a proposal. To increase our already high taxes to cover false alarms - which, yes, that is the majority of calls, would be totally ridiculous and would run every "old timer" out of the Town. My suggestion - grow a set of "balls" and start cracking down on members who are refusing to drive and/or respond. Or go back to the automatic dual response.
5. I think most departments have "frequent flyers" or facilities that call on a regular basis. Unfortunately, you are required to respond no matter what. The standpoint I take is when the call comes in, just think if YOU were that person or your family member waiting for that fire truck or ambulance, how would you feel if they didn't show up???
By the way, I sympathize with the "said" department because I believe most departments have been there at one time or another. They just need to address the issues head on and come up with a solution, so that people like problEMS don't get on here strictly to "stir the pot".

Well said. Couldn't agree with you more! Whenever someone brings up about flaws in a "vollie" department/system - it always turns in to the paid vs. volunteer discussion. I personally am tired of the "Certain Ones" on here constantly saying that volunteers/departments suck! Put your money where your mouth is BNechis and show me how a paid department will cost me less than the $280/year that I pay for fire and the $35/year for EMS??? Especially when both VOLUNTEER agencies in my District have excellent response times with well-trained, experienced members!!!!!