Councillor wants staff to accept decision

By Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star Published: June 09, 2009

A failed plan on fire services could return to the table and that has some politicians fuming. Vernon council voted 5-2 Monday not to station paid firefighters at the Okanagan Landing fire hall, but city fire chief Jeff Carlisle states he will keep bringing the proposal back as he believes it’s necessary to provide consistent service and address safety. That, though, doesn’t go over well with Coun. Patrick Nicol, who led the charge to keep the Landing hall strictly volunteer. “Council is elected by the people to make this decision,” he said. “If an individual chose not to trust our judgement, I wonder about that.” Mayor Wayne Lippert says it’s part of staff’s job to bring forward proposals that may improve service, but ultimately council is in charge. “The job of a councillor isn’t just to take the recommendations of staff. They must take the subjective part and determine what the public will is,” he said.

Under the motion that was adopted by council, a change in the fire service will only occur when council believes it is warranted. Opposition came from Councillors Jack Gilroy and Shawn Lee.

“Start listening to the experts instead of listening to council up here being the experts for the fire department,” said Gilroy, a former deputy fire chief. Council also voted 5-2 to collect data on response times before setting a guideline. That also went against Carlisle’s recommendation. Coun. Mary-Jo O’Keefe said such a move was necessary because of changes to dispatch and firefighter training. “I want to see how those things gain us a consistent response. I want to base decisions on that.” Voting against this motion were Gilroy and Coun. Buffy Baumbrough.

“If we don’t have a goal to work towards, all we have is information,” said Baumbrough. Carlisle told the media that if data suggests enhancements are needed to response times, he will continue to bring his business plan forward. “There is no change in the direction we are moving in. I will keep providing council information on how the department is performing,” he said.

Ed Forslund, Okanagan Landing fire chief, welcomes council’s decision to leave his hall as is. “We didn’t feel it was necessary to have full-time staff based on call volumes,” he said. “Council did a good job and analyzed all of the facts.” Brent Bond, Vernon Professional Firefighters Association president, believes full-time staff in the Landing is inevitable and he defends Carlisle keeping the issue relevant. “The chief would always have to get budget approval to staff that hall and council approves the budget,” said Bond.

One contentious issue that remains is dual response, in which both Landing and downtown firefighters will respond to blazes. Carlisle says that situation will continue unless council dictates otherwise. “Dual response is just normalized operations and that won’t change,” he said. Forslund maintains dual response is “over-kill on every call,” but Carlisle insists operational decisions fall under his jurisdiction. “I’m the fire chief of the City of Vernon,” he said.

Lippert says Carlisle can be instructed to abandon dual response if council feels the program isn’t working, while Nicol questions whether it’s necessary for both departments to be at the same fire. “One hopes we will get honest reports on how the co-operation works,” said Nicol.

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Morning Star Editorial June 9: Debate should continue but...

There’s been plenty of heated debate about the fire services plan that council ultimately shot down at city hall Monday afternoon. At public forums, in news stories, and especially in letters to the editor, the merits of status quo versus having professional staff stationed at the Okanagan Landing firehall has taken up considerable space in this newspaper and dominated talk at coffee shops around the city. And for good reason.

Both sides have good arguments. The fire chief and his firefighters were trying to increase safety and service for all Vernon residents, no matter where they live, and having staff on site at the Landing hall 24/7, by design, would go a long way to addressing that inequity of service. However, the Landing volunteer hall has given great service in the past and in true “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” fashion, many argued that the increased cost of professionals and a relatively low number of calls didn’t warrant a change at this time. And when you add the reality of a recession that has taxpayers nervous about increased expenditures during a time when we’re all tightening our belts, the plan was an uphill battle from the beginning.

That’s not to say that one day, even in the not-too-distant future, a fire services plan similar to the one proposed by staff won’t be implemented. In fact, once the economy recovers, one could argue it’s likely and warranted. However, council has finally overwhelmingly said now is not the time and although that will continue to be debated, their decision has to be respected by all concerned. And hopefully with that respect in mind, we can resume this important community debate next budget period.