Steve Ulvi for Dwight Colley and Fire/EMS Levy

To the Editor

I have tried to suss out the convoluted issues involved in the merger of Fire and EMS.  Not easy or fully successful.  I voted against the EMS levy twice in the past due to fuzzy talk about just how the money would be spent to improve what was already damned good service.  I supported the third attempt out of necessity.

All of the Citizen Advisory Committee key recommendations, thrashed out in long meetings over long months and have been ignored more or less.  I am bowled over to have heard Jarman and Chief Collins explain away the most important recommendation to increase the oversight group (for the combined agencies under the auspices of Fire) from three to five people.  Main reason given?  That a group of five might result in coalitions of two meeting outside the sanitizing effect of the many Sunshine laws in place to preserve public transparency.

That is one of the most cynical and distressing views of voluntary public service that I have ever heard! We can’t expect to trust elected commissioners to obey the meeting laws?  This big merger, frought with tendrils of controversy in both organizations and delivered with fuzzy arguments about the hard numbers, the eventual cost to taxpayers necessitates a larger commission to defend the public interests!

So, I have come to an odd conclusion as have others.  I support Dwight Colley for a fresh, “open the windows” approach in one of the classic “good old boys” commissions.  Thank you, Bob Jarman but your time is up.  Vote YES on the Fire-EMS merger as it is the only reasonable outcome in this little berg and the overall costs can be trimmed back to save taxpayer money while receiving less redundant services.

Steve Ulvi