Disclaimer: The thoughts and observations expressed in this post and throughout my blog are my own. Although, I may have some interests and personal concerns I have attempted to represent only what I have personally witnessed (have first hand knowledge of) or I am able to cite and create links, allowing the readers to decide for themselves. I do not represent the SSVFD, Inc, or it's leadership, I am a member/firefighter in that organization. Although, a former council member, I obviously do not represent the TOSS. I am a resident and taxpayer concerned with the efficient and effective operation of local government. I hope that you have found my postings to be informative and useful in keeping up with current events.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It appears that the TOSS Town Council will be holding a closed door session with their Attorney at 2:00 PM today (ref: OBXAlert.net). I'm hoping that cooler heads will prevail in their discussions and in the implementation of their decisions. As you may see from my prior posts, the emotions are high, a lot of posturing has occurred, and almost identical facts have been batted back and forth. All this effort, over a two-plus year period, has brought us to no good result.
The options I see available to the TOSS Council:
1.Turn back the clock at least two years and revisit the SSVFD/TOSS contract that had held and served both organizations well for over 20 years. Hold an open meeting with the purpose of establishing a genuine process that would result in a fair, good faith negotiation of both the SSVFD budget and contract. Do what ever is necessary to regain the trust of and trust in the SSVFD, Inc., even if it means the public censure of their own Council members or written notification to the SSVFD Board of Directors of any transgressions of either the Department itself or of it's representatives.
2.Continue on the path of “ramping up” by obtaining court orders to: either restrain the leaders of the SSVFD from conducting department business or participating in SSVFD activities and/or seize the fire stations and padlock them. Locking out the entire membership.
Outrageous! Unthinkable! You might say. But there is a precedent to this as demonstrated in the actions of the Town of Kitty Hawk during the mid-nineties regarding the KHVFD . At the time, actual accusations of fiscal wrong doing resulted in the loss of trust on both sides. The Fire Chief was served with a restraining warrant to prevent him setting foot on KHVFD property, attend any meetings or responding to any emergency calls. The possibility of padlocking the station was threatened but, to my knowledge, was not actually done. (This possibility was
mentioned by TOSS Town Manager last year.)
After an extensive investigation by the North Carolina SBI, no charges were filed, and all allegations were dropped. But, I have always felt that this situation resulted in the demise of the KHVFD. I don't believe an acceptable level of trust between the two organizations was ever re-established, leading to the creation of the Town's paid KHFD.
3.Announce the formation of a new municipal FD as a TOSS agency, and hire a town Fire Chief This would most likely require a law suit in order for the TOSS to claim the SSVFD assets,unless the TOSS can find a legal precedent allowing government to forcibly dissolve a private corporation.
Another possibility that I would offer, and I would prefer, if all other reasonable efforts were exhausted would be:
Arbitration: Ideally this would take place before an actual courtroom judge. Assuming that a judge would be impartial, could not be influenced by either party, and the decision rendered would be binding, everyone could resume business as usual.
Unfortunately, my research in this area has turned up no precedent for this in North Carolina. You would think that some agency such as the NC Department of Insurance or State Fire Marshal's Office would act as an arbiter, but sadly there is no such possibility.
No comments:
Post a Comment