Hello Mr. Gardner, Thank you for the opportunity to tell our side of this story. I understand that this is a complicated issue. I do not really like blogs, and have found it to be fairly ineffective because people just read between lines and hear what they want to hear. With that being said I do really appreciate you asking our opinion and I will do my best. I do not want to slam anyone personally and I only want to be positive and constructive.

Our message is simple. We do not believe outsourcing our local fire department to the state is a good idea for the firefighters or the community. We believe that HMBFPD has always done a very good job of serving the community and treating each emergency as if it was their own.

That is what I am afraid of losing. We have over half of our firefighters living here on the coast. If the fire department is outsourced to the state we will lose the ability to hire our own. I believe this will lead to fire fighters who come from all over the state and have no vested interest in the community. Right now we provide Community Emergency Response Team training (CERT) and CPR.

The board will argue that CDF will provide these. I in turn would argue back- how many CPR and CERT classes does CDF teach in the county now. They have 5 engines in the county now. How many of there fire fighters live in their districts. My guess to both those questions is zero. If the fire department was outsourced to the state than I also believe there will be a loss of accountability. Your fire department will answer to the state government. Our board will argue there is no loss of local control. Well if we lose t he ability to hire then right there is a loss of control. So there is already loss of control. So to say no loss of control is misleading at best.

As you can tell I am a fireman and not an author. I much prefer getting together in person like Captain Delay and I did a few months ago.

Thank you, Chip