Lacey Fire

For many Lacey resident’s the first time they ever heard of the City of Lacey Citizen Advisory Committee (or CAC) was when Mayor Sackrison added a report to the agenda from this group just minutes into the October 22, 2009 City Council Meeting. There was some earlier mention of the CAC in John Darby’s Olympian position article (mid-October) where he said he would withhold opinion on the fire department issue until he had a chance to hear a report from the CAC. We also heard about it briefly in a debate that was attended by some residents just a few weeks earlier.

But who or what is the CAC? It wasn’t exactly advertised including being brought up in a city council meeting, posted somewhere at city hall, put in the newspaper, or published anywhere in the mounds of articles and various press regarding the elections. Instead, we started hearing rumors about it from a variety of sources and when we asked official channels even with the City of Lacey we were rebuffed. Even some of the challenger candidates went to Lacey City Hall in advance of the October 22, 2009 meeting and were denied any records until one of the candidates asked through formal application (along the lines of Freedom of Information Act, type application) and received finally a sterile list of names from the Assistant City Manager, Scott Spence. Of course this was provided after the CAC was able to provide their report to the city council.

Outgoing Mayor and councilperson Graeme Sackrison described the CAC as “broadly based cross-section” of citizens. Even though this group had been meeting for “several months” we are not aware of one attempt or event in which the CAC met, looked at, inspected, or reviewed anything having to do with Lacey Fire District. In fact, to our knowledge, all of the knowledge the CAC received is sole source from the City of Lacey. It’s even remarkable when we asked members of the CAC if they were on the committee, even months ago, they denied it. And at the meeting on the 22nd, we became aware that the City of Lacey Citizen Advisory Committee had minutes for several meetings, but again an active attempt by even the city manager himself to prevent bystanders from looking at a copy of the minutes was witnessed minutes before the October 22nd council meeting.

When we got the final list of who was on the CAC, we pieced together that 36 people were on the committee yet per the report by the representative for the CAC, Mr. Tom Dozal identified only 20 members present. Yet 20 out of 36 present for the last meeting represents evidently a “unanimous” decision per the CAC report.

What was disheartening and began to explain why the existence of the CAC was kept so confidential was perhaps who was on it. The committee by our count consisted of 16 Lacey residents with half of those residents coming from the Jubilee neighborhood. Remarkable, that perhaps only a few actual Lacey residents or actual consumers of the Fire District Service may have been at the last meeting, we don’t know. The rest of the members on the CAC in many cases had pre-existing and public relationships with Mayor Sackrison and City Manager Cuoio, and perhaps others and it became clear in our opinion that intent was very likely not to be objective but to produce a substitute for “public hearing” or even “public opinion” by simply validating an existing viewpoint.

Specific groups included former fire department employees who had been laid off or terminated and since the department’s report we have been notified by one CAC member that his co-committee member ‘is just looking for a job’ through the creation of city fire department. Further other members of the CAC have even been known political supporters, assisted with incumbent candidate signs, took down challenger signs, and have potentially used their own influence in groups such as the Lacey Chamber of Commerce. Some were known to have written pro-city council letters to the Olympian Editorial Board. Other members on the CAC were also past or current appointees by the city council to other political positions in the city and there was even a former Lacey City Council Member on the group who I am sure didn’t have any past political allegiances to her past fellow council members or even endorsements. There were more people on the CAC associated with the building industry than there were non-Jubilee city residents! In some observer opinions, the builder’s membership perhaps speaks volumes about political priorities with certain Lacey city council members.

So if you hear anyone even suggest that the Citizen Advisory Committee is a representation of existing city of Lacey public opinion, you have every right to question the authenticity of the quality and accuracy of a decision, check that, a puppet validation of the city council’s action. You could also just look at the election results if you need a real public opinion and come to the conclusion that perhaps that the elections were more about transparency, openness, and political priorities than the fire department dispute.

In Southeast Washington, the City of Clarkston is starting its own ambulance service but appears to be under staffing its response. As a result, surrounding areas have been getting beat up and/or no longer interested in maintaining a “Mutual Aid” agreement with the City of Clarkston. This story sounds familiar already… I guess some people understand the need to reduce bureaucracy and improve efficiency, and yet others just see it as an opportunity to collect power.

Lewiston ends mutual aid contract
Clarkson, WA rethinking its mutual aid service
Mutual Aid Agreements End in Clarkson,WA.

For those of you who didn’t tune into channel 3 last night, the Lacey Mayor added to the agenda, just hours before the meeting, critical items that quite clearly had been planned for weeks. This determined lack of respect for the process of involving the community in important decisions for the city is demonstrative of his style of control—this could not be called leadership—of the city.

After canceling the last city council meeting (10/8), Graeme added to his mayoral report the item of his monologue on the fire district/city relationship and then a second report item on a Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) regarding fire and EMS (emergency medical services). What Graeme presented was a series of slides, depicting a very clearly one sided and even at times inaccurate picture about the performance of the fire district. He even went on and further presented two contrasting positions regarding a city proposal and a fire district proposal for a new joint service contract. Some people who are privy to these documents (remember, they’re not public) have opined that the city, or in this case Graeme Sackrison, was never intent on making it work. In the city’s request, they asked the fire district to clearly take on more work, reduce perimeter/district service, and more importantly, wanted political control of the operations. Considering the degree of funding and the matter of control, it draws serious question if the contract thing was really ever meant to work or simply a drama act to help sell the position to the council. An “I tried” argument or referred to last night as “due diligence”.

What’s telling about last night is two key issues: the matter of control, and the degree in which certain council members will go to keep power. The issue of control is that the city is demanding control of the fire department but at the same time has refused to consider to jointly manage fire protection in such a way the city and district residents would have equal say and control. The only difference between a “regional fire authority” approach (what dozen of fire departments are doing in the state now) and the city’s approach/request is that the city council would not have direct say but city elected representatives would. What Graeme wants the fire district to do is have a junior taxing district/county fire department sign over their authority. This is at least a horrible dereliction of duty and potentially an illegal act for a fire district elected commissioner to do. Would a city council sign over all control to its city manager? That might be a bad example in Lacey, but you get the point.

The other issue was the matter of the “Citizen Advisory Commission” which is being used as a substitute for public hearing and input. For weeks, people have been calling city hall regarding the CAC, and not even getting the service of a return phone call, simply wanting answers to “how is the CAC picked”, “when was the group selected”, “when were the applications posted”, “what information was made available to the CAC”, and even who was named to the CAC. All of which are and should be matters of public record but clearly are not in open violation of the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA).

On Wednesday night, the CAC met with Sackrison and they received his version of events and on Thursday night they agreed unanimously with Mr. Sackrison. There were minutes of this meeting with the city, but they are being actively kept confidential. Good thing we got to see them.

A review of the CAC membership revealed that the “cross section” of the community that Graeme described were in nearly every example a friend or a business relationship of the Graeme himself. Including public supporters, friends, dependant business partners, and those who have a pre-existing axe to grind with the fire department. The CAC was chosen to provide a specific rubber stamp and would have reached the conclusion every time especially considering the story they received. This group would have found OJ innocent a 100 times as long as Graeme was directing.

It’s beyond disappointing on how power will protect power and how honesty and integrity very clearly is not a consideration for some at city hall. The questions of fairness, equality, and personal agenda are far bigger concerns than the functions of fire service in Lacey, and without a doubt are becoming more apparent to more people every day.

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” Winston Churchill

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Lord Acton

The fact is that if you took the title, and all of the ”union” attributes and trimmings away from the Lacey Fire Fighters, you wouldn’t see an ounce of difference in current events. It would still be a group of men and women who work daily as service professionals, significantly upset about being lied to and stood up by the status quo. So the big political push or “Jihad” (remember, directly translated means effort) would still exist with or without the term of “union”.
We’re ok with the mud slinging and name calling that brands our “union” with a label that is designed to trigger political stereotypes and feelings, because we expected it. The real question comes is not whether you hear the “union label” rhetoric but do you have the wisdom and wherewithal to see beyond the label and draw a conclusion that is free from propaganda and inoculation to give you an honest impression of current events in Lacey. Judging by the donations, the positive comments, the support to the candidates, and even (gasp!) media attention, it must be working!
The important message that we want to get out however is not a “union bashing” alert, but rather to address a stereotype attached to it. Be it known that it is absolutely false that the Lacey Fire Fighters are against business and especially in the city of Lacey. If you hear this immediately question the accuser on their integrity and the validity of the story. Ask why they believe this and then follow that up with “prove it.”
The Fire Fighters of Lacey are clearly grateful for the role of business and especially small business in our community because it fuels growth. In many cases, our member’s existence is derived directly from the business presence and indirectly because our spouse and children are provided from the taxes and payroll from small business. Further, we recognize that as service providers and not directly tied to economic production, that the most important role we can provide is to protect business and further insure that it recovers quickly and with as little downtime as possible in the event of an emergency.
The United State Chamber of Commerce even recognizes (especially in economic times like these) that the majority of small businesses that suffer significant fire damage do not rebuild. And beyond that, the role of Lacey Fire Fighters in providing a significantly low fire insurance rating has undoubtedly helped attract new business. Example? Look at the Georgia Pacific Fire on Fones Road where “GP” admits had the business suffered significant fire damage, it never would have rebuilt. What’s sad is that the shut down of Lacey’s ladder truck essentially due to low staffing potentially prevents a repeat of that success! Further, the city of Lacey in their professional combat fire fighting opinion (or gross lack of) sees no value to a ladder truck!
What about taxes? In light of the current fiasco with the City of Lacey and the quality of some of the decisions being made, it’s completely understandable why many of you will be voting yes on I-1033. Did you know, that the annexation of the City of Lacey’s for fire service would immediately pocket money into the City of Lacey coffers without a tax raise? Did you know that if the city of Lacey does not provide for the same level of existing fire protection and resource capability (if not more due to insurance and state law revisions) that your fire insurance will go up? And disproportionately so against business, remember the addition of the Ladder truck to the City of Lacey alone was worth thousands of dollars in insurance cost reductions to some businesses, but the city criticizes it! How’s that for service? You will pay more for less if the Lacey City Council gets its wish! Even the Olympian identifies this and its in the City’s own fire department consulting report!
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The Fire Fighters of Lacey will always be there, regardless of the city’s intentions, to protect and serve. If you are a business owner, we are not present to beat you up on fire inspections, not there to harass you about permits, not there to reach into your pocket to pay more for less. We want to be able to say that the customers of local businesses, and the buyers of homes, that you are in our service area and a businesses environment exists that exceeds in quality and safety beyond anything comparable. Welcome home.