Letter to the editor: Brad Pillow

Jan. 27, 2022

I’d like to address the flyer I got in the mail from “Citizens For Accountable Government.” Really? Accountable?

I moved here 46 years ago, married, raised a family, including two grandchildren, who all live here, and I have learned to value and love the sense of community and the friendships that exist here. That’s why I made an exception to my practice of not writing letters to the papers and decided to write this. It was so disturbing to read this mailer and see all the misleading statements and bald faced lies. It worries me that some islanders might be swayed by these irresponsible falsehoods. This feels toxic to me. The slimy tactics being applied seem to belong to our toxic national politics. The people behind this seem like they don’t care about our community.

And we all know what the fire department has been doing, like sending out big fire trucks to every aid call, telling their drivers to get there first, running a motorcycle off the road (it did happen), and often blocking the EMS paramedic from getting there quickly. What is that about anyway? My opinion is it’s about an out of control fire chief.

The November Fire levy failed in part because we, the voters, smartly said no. And a lot of us said no to keep our first class EMS from being absorbed by the fire department. We want to keep them where they belong, under the umbrella of the Public Hospital District, the district whose first concern is our community. If you want to know more about what the PHD has been doing for our community start with Kyle Loring’s column posted in the San Juan Islander last week.

What concerns me the most is that the so-called Citizens for Accountable Government and the fire department seem to be more interested in winning their political objective instead of doing what’s best for our community.

Brad Pillow
San Juan Island