ABSTRACT: As reported in the article “Firefighters battle city over merger” in the March 28, 2008 edition of The Carmel Pine Cone, statements attributed to City Administrator Rich Guillen are presented followed by comments or responses from Fire Engineer August Beacham. QUESTION & COMMENTS are presented.
• City Administrator Rich Guillen:
Guillen stated he is skeptical the public would support a full consolidation, which could put Monterey firefighters on engines in Carmel. “The feeling is we should keep our firefighters, because they know our streets, we know them and they know us.”
Comment: For any city administrator to posit that he is “skeptical the public would support a full consolidation” without proactively educating the public and placing the item on a pubic hearing agenda for public input is unprofessional and engaging in projection. Moreover, Guillen’s “feeling” is an insult to the professionalism of all firefighters everywhere.
• City Administrator Rich Guillen:
“This staffing ensures that advanced lifesaving capabilities are included as part of the fire department’s initial response.”
Fire Engineer August Beacham:
That system only works when the ambulance is at the Carmel Fire Station and available to tend to emergencies with the engine.
“The ambulance responded to more than 500 calls outside the city last year, sometimes as far away as Salinas,” he said, since CRFA crews help outside their jurisdiction when Westmed, the county’s provider, is unavailable. It also went to 372 medical emergencies inside the city, each taking it out of service for about an hour.
“During these times, there are only two firefighters left on the engine in Carmel, and our ability to effect a rescue is severely compromised,” Beacham said, because they have to wait for an engine from another agency or for an ambulance dispatched from somewhere outside the city. “It puts us in danger and puts the citizens in danger.”
• City Administrator Rich Guillen:
Regarding “staffing during critical emergencies,” Guillen stated “that agreements with neighboring agencies provide additional engines for structure fires and other major incidents in the city.” And the department can also summon off-duty personnel and has “13 paid volunteers, including intermittent engineers, paid-call firefighters and a paid-call battalion chief.”
Fire Engineer August Beacham:
“The volunteer ranks have dwindled as training requirements and regulations have increased…They only responded to 10 percent of the calls in 2007, and one person was responsible for half of those responses.” Additionally, the “aid agreements with other fire departments only work if their crews are available.” “They may be responding to emergencies in their own jurisdictions.”
• City Administrator Rich Guillen
Guillen wrote in his taxpayer funded advertisement in The Carmel Pine Cone that the city puts residents safety first...It is always our goal to provide you with exceptional public safety service.
Fire Engineer August Beacham:
Engines at neighboring Carmel Highlands and Cypress Fire Protection District stations carry four people, including a paramedic.
“How can Mr. Guillen argue the citizens of Carmel are receiving the best level of service when others are receiving far better service?”
• City Administrator Rich Guillen:
City Administrator Guillen’s letter stated “it does not exclude the city from acting in a financially responsible manner.”
Comment: With an annual budget of $13 million and reserve funds of nearly $10 million, Guillen’s statement about “acting in a financially responsible manner” is not credible. It is a matter of fiscal priorities, not quantity of financial resources.
• City Administrator Rich Guillen:
Guillen’s letter stated the three “continue to discuss ‘headquarters’ consolidation — not full department integration,” meaning a combination of their management and clerical staff.
Comment: The City has already implemented ‘headquarters’ consolidation. The City “contracts with Pacific Grove for chief, assistant chief and clerical duties, and has Monterey supervisors respond to emergencies, for a total $110,000 annually.”
Clarification: The $110,000/year is the old contract amount which expired in November 2007. The City is in the process of negotiating a new contract with Pacific Grove and Monterey and is balking at proposals which are less than half of what Carmel should be paying as set forth in the Citygate Report. In addition, the “headquarters model” is not a sustainable option. At some point Carmel will have to either merge or be obligated to have a properly staffed stand alone department. The administrative setup of a stand alone department will cost close to $1 million/year.
(Source: Mitch Kastros, Carmel Fire Department)
QUESTION & COMMENTS:
• Since the City Administrator misled Carmelites about "headquarters consolidation,” how can Carmelites trust him to act honestly and professionally in the best interests of Carmelites?
• The mayor, city council members and city administrator are not presently supportive of the Carmel Professional Firefighters and are definitely not acting in the best interests of Carmelites. Now is the time for Carmelites to educate ourselves on the issue of fire department consolidation, demand accountability of our city officials by demanding the Carmel, Monterey and Pacific Grove Fire Departments Consolidation be placed on a city council agenda for a public hearing and demand substantive reasons for the City’s abandonment of negotiations in January 2008 without input from the citizenry beforehand.
• The mayor and city council members have a record of failing to inform Carmelites of vital information that the public has a right to know and of denying due process to Carmelites. Carmelites must demand better of their government representatives, or we will get a continuation of poor governance in Carmel-by-the-Sea.
• Issues of Honesty, Integrity and Competency: City Administration Rich Guillen imparted to Carmel Firefighters that he personally supported the consolidation of the Carmel, Monterey and Pacific Grove Fire Departments. Yet he used taxpayer monies to publish an advertisement in The Carmel Pine Cone seemingly rebutting the Carmel Professional Firefighters in an attempt to mislead and confuse Carmelites and demoralize our Carmel Professional Firefighters. In another matter, the Dolores St. speed hump, City Administrator Guillen told a resident that after reviewing the Police reports and the petitions, there was no reason not to remove the speed hump. Yet later at a neighborhood meeting, Guillen imparted to the residents that the speed hump was “lawful” and he had “no plans to remove it.” In sum, City Administrator Rich Guillen lacks the necessary attributes of honesty, integrity and competency to be a respectable city administrator worthy of citizen support.
• In closing, City Administrator Rich Guillen’s excuses against Fire Department consolidation are not supported by credible factual evidence or reality. As a result, his actions exemplify a failure to act in the best interests of Carmelites.
8 comments:
You only need look at Seaside to know Rich was passed over when he was acting city manager for a more qualified and competent city manager. Now we can see why in Carmel. Even if he is doing what Sue tells him, and the council doesn't know about it, he easily tells one story one time and another story another time without regard for truthfulness. The council bears some responsibility for putting up with his bad city management and unethical conduct.
SUPPORT CARMEL FIREFIGHTERS! Everyone should be apologizing to the firefighters for the behavior of the incumbent candidates and the city administrator. For them to perpetrate such wrongheaded reasons against fire consolidation is beyond comprehension. And yet another study funded by the taxpayers only to be assigned to the trash can. What next?
If Carmel was part of a fully integrated fire service,there is no reasonthat the same firefighters couldn't be permanently assigned to the Carmel station just as they could be in Monterey and Pacific Grove. It would make sense and we would have to have twice as many firefighters, which is considered the minimum for safety.
It seems clear that having two firefighters and two ambulance persons at a fire does not meet minimum standards even when the ambulance people are available. It is disingenuous at best for Guillen to claim otherwise. More importantly, it means that Carmel residents and businesses do not receive even the minimum standard of safety from their fire department.
To claim there are thirteen volunteer firefighters available is to lie with statistics if they are rarely utilized and if only one of them is willing to come when called on most of the time. It has been reported that the paid firefighters only consider one of these so called volunteers reliable.
As has been said here before, the City Council puts minimizing spending above all else no matter what revenues the city has in hand. Safety, upkeep, staff etc. definitely rate a distant second.
There is no chance that Carmelites will get open government, due process, fair teatment or good representation so long as the current administration remains in office. The mayor and city council members are more interested in doing whatever they want whenever they want than in doing things to benefit the city, the residents or the businesses of Carmel.
Guillen does not operate as an independent administrator in the way that other city administrators do. He does what he is told to do by Sue McCloud period. It is her practice to tell people one thing and then to do another so why should anyone be surprised if she has Guillen do the same thing.
Post a Comment