ABSTRACT: The Carmel Professional Firefighters placed an advertisement in The Carmel Pine Cone, April 24, 2009, entitled ‘Carmel Firefighters need your help!’ The Carmel Firefighters state that the "merger with Monterey is the best for Carmel" and ask members of the pubic to attend the City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 5, 20009 at 4:30 P.M. and speak in support of the contract with Monterey and in support of our local firefighters. The advertisement is reproduced in its entirety.
Carmel Firefighters need your help!
The Carmel Professional Firefighters would like to take this opportunity to thank the citizens of Carmel-By-The-Sea for their continued support through the years. We would also like to thank the City Council of Carmel-By-The-Sea for all of its efforts to ensure that Carmel Fire Department is a great organization—well suited to the needs of the citizens of Carmel.
Almost all of our current line staff were born and raised locally and consider Carmel home. The uniqueness of Carmel makes this a special place. Our local knowledge is invaluable when locating a person in distress or finding a fire. We truly appreciate working for the City of Carmel-By-The-Sea because this is our community and this is our home.
Carmel Fire Department is in danger though, and we need your help. The City Council is considering options for the future of Carmel Fire Department. These options could have huge consequences for your fire department and, more importantly, for you.
• The current status of Carmel Fire Department. For the past several years, Carmel has contracted with the City of Pacific Grove, and more recently the City of Monterey, for administrative oversight and Chief Officer coverage. This system has repeatedly proven itself to work well, and more importantly, it has retained the local firefighters and their knowledge.
• The city has considered other alternatives. Since the year 2000, the city has experimented with other departments and commissioned studies to look at other options. A stand alone fire department is too costly for a city of our size to sustain. The conclusion of the Carmel Professional Firefighters is that the contract with the City of Monterey provides the best level of service, for now and into the future, while minimizing costs.
We need your help. Many people are frightened that they will lose their fire department. That is not true as we, the local firefighters, will still be here responding to any emergency we are called to. Others feel that we can do it on our own. It is just too costly for a city of our size to pay for an independent and appropriate sized department. If the fire department were to revert back to a smaller stand alone model in order to save costs, both the safety of its citizens and firefighters would be at risk. Some are of the opinion that other organizations could do a better job for less money. These options have been independently studied and the Carmel Professional Firefighters feel that the merger with Monterey is the best for Carmel. No other system can guarantee that local firefighters and current levels of service remain intact.
There will be a meeting at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 5, 2009 in the Council Chambers. Please attend this meeting and speak in support of the contract with Monterey and in support of your local firefighters. Thank you for your help and support.
The Carmel Professional Firefighters
If you have any questions, please call August Beacham at (831) 238-0862. He is available at any time and would enjoy discussing this critical topic with you.
(Source: The Carmel Pine Cone, April 24, 2009, 9A)
5 comments:
Carmel firefighters have disliked Cal-Fire for decades. Even they don't seem to remember why. Our firefighters are already halfway merged with Monterey in their own minds and are comfortable with what they already know. It would be nice to go along with what Carmel firefighters would like but the city of Carmel really needs to do whatever is best for residents and businesses. Nobody has ever done an unbiased comparison (Monterey did a study that is clearly biased in its favor) of whether Carmel would be best off merging with Monterey, joining a Joint Powers Agency for Carmel, Monterey, Pacific Grove and possibly Seaside and others, merging with Cal-Fire or contracting with Cal-Fire for supervisory services and maintenance allowing Carmel to continue to have a stand alone department. Monterey is trying to rush Carmel so it won't have enough time to consider what's best for the city. Maybe a revised merger with Monterey is the answer and maybe some other possibility will serve us better. Let's not rush into something because 6 of our firefighters want it.
A silent majority support our firefighters in their advocacy of the fire contract with Monterey. Mostly because of the professionalism Monterey will bring to Carmel and firefighting. Carmel's dirty little secret is it is a town with a history of not being well managed. I have lived here over 25 years and the town had not had very capable city employees or very capable representatives. Things have not been consistently budgeted for, our forest, beach and streets and roads have not been well maintained going back many, many years.
The firefighters understand professionalism counts and contracting with Monterey will noticeably increase Carmel's professionalism. I say welcome Monterey firefighters to Carmel.
Carmelites like Mayor Sue McCloud doing their best to stall and derail a fire services agreement with Monterey cannot hide behind a call for another study. One person already prejudged any study by saying such and such organization has GPS. As if GPS is superior to local knowledge of Carmel firefighters. We should demand these folks put forward their preference for fire services and go head-to-head with our Carmel firefighters. All this concerted, behind the scenes organized effort to halt this agreement at the last minute is reminiscent of the mayor’s past machinations of a power hungry mayor deposed to getting her way on everything and anything without thought or consideration for what is best for Carmel.
The city had scheduled a meeting on April 30 and now I guess the agenda item about the contract and/or the future of the carmel fire dept. is on the regular council agenda on Tuesday, May 5. Time is ticking down and it is time to bite the bullet and sign on the dotted line.
Enough is enough. We need to feel secure in our homes and confident the city has a sustainable fire protection agreement in place and one the firefighters support and champion.
Time is ticking down to what? The end of the world?
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