|
|
|
While flailing around for something to write about this week I suddenly realized my piece had already been written for me. It had been done in the form of an eight-chapter study of the operations of volunteer fire departments on Long Island. It was done by Newsday, the paper enjoying a near-monopoly of the news market here. Usually Newsday keeps busy with Bush-whacking, cop-baiting and circulation-faking, but this was different. It was the kind of thing most of us would write if we had some colorful facts to relate about some usually untouchable people whom you could get tough with for once, but please, not too tough. There were a lot of them after all, and they had a lot of friends.
So there’s a lot of muckraking here, but also lots of disclaimers of ill will toward firemen and their friends. Revelations are made more in sorrow than in anger, but they’re made. Here are some:
Costs are high, more than $319 million for the 179 departments serving two counties with a population of 2.65 million. New York City has a population of over eight million and has one fire department, not 179. Its expenses are audited, but Long Island’s are not, or at least not very much. The Roslyn educators stole $11million that way.
Buildings and equipment. Gold-plating is the rule here. One example is the way in which three old firehouses totaling 23,500 square feet in area were replaced by three new ones totaling 80,000 square feet. They have to be big, is the argument, because they have to have room for gyms, bars, restaurants, pools and other frills designed to attract more volunteers for the departments. They have not succeeded so far.
To be fair, a lot of the extra firehouse room is needed for the massive numbers of massive trucks being acquired by the departments. The pictures in Newsday are very impressive. Some of the machines look like they could be used for strip-mining or possibly lunar exploration. They cost up to a half million dollars each and can do everything but cook dinner. For many of these purchases there is no competitive bidding, just as there is very little oversight of building costs. If there aren’t some juicy scandals waiting to be uncovered here, then Long Island isn’t Long Island any more. I mean, does L.I. really need 1,029 fire trucks against New York City’s 347?
In their dedicated efforts to attract more volunteers to the service, the ingenious fire chiefs and superintendents have come up with some unusual fringe benefits that seem to have been derived from Hollywood contracts as reported in the media. Actually no one yet has been guaranteed limo service round the clock or a fully air-conditioned dressing room at all times, but the ideas are there. How about paid summer travel, members-only parks, ten-course banquets, and even complete outfits of civilian clothes to wear to one of the tropical training courses on Caribbean cruise ships. Not only do these things attract recruits, they also help to confirm the loyalty of the chiefs to their companies. So it appears anyway, as the chiefs insist on putting these attractions to the test of use before making them available to the rank and file. They appear to be very satisfied with them.
All this was very enlightening to a cit like me, who grew up where volunteers were only rumors. The first time I heard them mentioned was during my Army stretch when one of my company was a young man from Pennsylvania who told me one day that he was a volunteer back home and he resented the idea that all the vols ever did was sit around the firehouse and drink and play cards. I’m afraid that this revelation affected my whole slant on vols from then on so I wasn’t completely floored when I read that the local smokeaters were luxuriating in the wide range of amenities provided them by the taxpayers.
The taxpayers are likely to turn out to be the firefly in the ointment for the volunteer establishment as it now exists. The burden is rising to new heights; the taxpayers are paying three times as much as those in the rest of the Northeast. More and more voices are being raised in favor of paid departments in place of volunteers. This replacement has been progressing quietly all along, even as volunteerists deny anything is happening or that anything is wrong that a new bowling alley for recruits won’t fix. In reality a lot of cheating is going on with so-called “volunteer” departments hiring chauffeurs and cleaners who somehow also turn out to have EMT training enabling them to respond to medical emergencies that the vols avoid. The betting is that paid departments are the coming thing, meaning that 179 Chiefs will lose their jobs and their cars. Not without a fight they won’t, though.
The series brought a flood of correspondence to Newsday, some of which I reproduce below:
"These handouts at the expense of hard working taxpayers are a disgrace and I hope it stops. These men volunteer to do this job and they should not receive such perks."
"Long Island is not one city or village or town like New York or Los Angeles. Look at the square miles. New York City has 309 sq. miles with 347 trucks, slightly more than one truck per square mile. Nassau and Suffolk counties have 1,199 sq. miles and 1,029 trucks, slightly fewer than one truck per square mile. Does the phrase "yellow journalism" sound familiar? "
"So, I think I'm reading that fire districts have the power to set tax rates and to spend tax payer dollars pretty much any way they wish -- including on lavish travel, custom-made clothing, and members-only camps and vacation homes? Am I missing something or does this practice of using tax money to benefit what seem to be private clubs seem just a little bit improper? If this isn't improper, then perhaps we need to look to allowing school boards to set their own school tax rates, so they could spend as lavishly on our children as the fire departments spend on themselves. Also, since our taxes fund both school districts (where tax payers can apply to use the facilities free of charge) and fire districts, it seems only fair that tax payers should have the right to use the fire facilities also free of charge. ... or am I wrong in thinking taxes should be used for the public benefit? "
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
