Philipstown has released the "Fire Rescue & EMS Service Planning Report" commissioned from RFG Fire Rescue Consulting. The report is quite a scathing criticism of the current leadership, duplicative administrative structure, and culture of fire companies in our town. I feel this is an important issue and residents should be informed. I've included some excerpts from the summary below. The full report is available from Town Hall; I've attached it below as well.

You are welcome to post your comments here. As always, please use your real names, and no personal attacks.

Aaron

This report to the community about their Fire Rescue and EMS Services is presents our findings; the analysis of those findings; and our strategic and specific recommendations to address the issues found. This report is presented as a guide to aid in achievement of improvements in efficiency, effectiveness and safety. The driving force in this study is the question:
“What is in the public’s best interest?”

There is a high level of positive activity and participation in the North Highlands fire district. This agency also appears to have an open communications with the public they serve as evidenced by the recent vote to approve funding for the current station.

In our attempts to conduct this investigation we discovered serious systemic negative issues in the leadership structures as they exist today. We observed repeated evidence of leadership failures of senior leaders in the Continental Village, Garrison and the Cold Spring fire departments and the Philipstown or Garrison EMS agencies. Both ambulance agencies chose not to participate in this study.

The leaders of each of those agencies have, in general, failed to develop open communications with the people they serve, and even have failed to communicate with and lead their own volunteers. A primary sign of this was the leaders‘ continued failure to understand the importance of this study and to lead their members to participate in this study. It must be noted that in each agency there were leaders who expressed an understanding of the importance of this study and who wanted to provide input but they were restricted in their ability to do so.

Leaders in each of the agencies have an egocentric view of ―their local fire rescue and EMS services, and those leaders have demonstrated a long term failure to work and plan in harmony with neighboring companies. There has been an ongoing lack of inter-agency training efforts and a dangerous lack of joint practical incident management training, despite the fact that multiple agencies must work together in harmony for the successful mitigation of any major incident. It was repeatedly reported by volunteer firefighters that when they are at an emergency incident they ―make it work‖ with other responders despite the difficulties in doing so due to poor communications and lack of joint training.

Strategic Recommendation 32: The most important step in review of this study and in development of strategic planning for fire rescue and EMS services is for the community and community leaders to reach out and to assure all active volunteers that they each are a vital part of this system and that the community needs them to continue to serve as volunteers.

I have seen the report WOW!! either its total BS or our Fire and EMS services are in need of a TOTAL overhaul. Communication and dialog must start with out the angst and viterol. This must happen to make this a better place to live with out the petty bickering. After all these are the people that put out our houses when they are on fire and plug our wounds when we are bleeding. So lets all take a deep breath and start the dialog.

The leadership of our Emergency Services do not operate in a vacuum, they are not authoritarians. They are held accountable by the volunteers that they serve, and the public. That being said, and I cannot speak for every volunteer member in Philipstown, but the one’s I have spoken to overwhelmingly do not support Town-wide consolidation. Just as in all matters of Democracy, leaders represent their constituency or the will of the body.

Is there room for improvements? Of course there are. In all areas of EMS. Is a Town-wide consolidation the way to go? According to the rank and file, no.

The Cold Spring Fire Company placed an editorial in the PCNR last week with a sole message; we are not a political organization. We do not wish to become involved in the machinations of local politics. Do I think this report was a fair representation of the professionalism and commitment of the members of Cold Spring, no. Beyond that, whatever political motivations are behind publishing this report, just as those behind the fire siren matter last year, I will leave to the public to decide.

In light of that, it absolutely breaks my heart to hear long time volunteers in our area, men and women who are far from anything resembling ego-centric, (and who have freely given thousands of hours of their time to the community) call, approach me on the street, and write saying that they feel like they want to walk away. How do you answer that? Other than to remind them why we all volunteered in the first place; in order to do good on behalf of the community.

In closing, I would like to invite Mr. Hall, Mr. Freimark, Mr. Publius, Mr. Warren, Mr. Bardes and anyone else from the community that have any questions about the Cold Spring Fire Company to stop by on a Tuesday evening, or contact myself, the Chief or any member on the street. We may be reached via the Company Info tab on our website (http://coldspringfd.org/).

Lets stop the rhetoric, acknowledge the issues, and work towards resolution.

Michael Bowman
CSFC

Excellent post Mr Bowman. Now that makes sense. Not like the other posts that i have been reading else where. Its hard to be civil and have dialog with people who refuse to list thier real name and feel free to berate and defile others under various pen names. That kind of weasel journalism should not be allowed as it gives a platform for people to assault others with out accountability as to what they write. I appalaud you for leaving yourself and the Fire company open for the fair exchange of ideas. On the record I and my family support the Emergency services that we have here in the village. With out the professionalism and dedication of our Fire dept members my home probably would have sustained much more damage than it did a few years ago when i had a fire. Is there room for improvement yes-- always. As in any organization that strives to serve the public especially in these trying economic times.

Tony Bardes

Very nice post MTB. I read the report and it seems very negative towards our volunteers. Very unfair when you consider all they do and give to our community. I am very proud of my husband's committment to the Continental Village Fire Department. Being a life member means he has given thousands of hours of his time. Getting up in the middle of the night to fight fires, attending training, membership and Board meetings. To read this report is to see a scathing quick glance at frustration at an attempt to obtain information that will perhaps change the way the local firehouses are run forever. Perhaps this was intimidating to the leadership maybe some of them were less than optimally forthcoming regarding requested information. This was only a first step and some latitude is appreciated. The criticism was way over the top in my opinion. The companies gladly participate in mutual aid and response time is incredible when you consider these are Volunteer organizations. The many hours of training, certification, fire-fighting and concern for the community they serve seem to have been overlooked. Can fat be cut? Looks like the Garrison Firehouse's Christmas party must have been some soire but for the most part, the companies operate very efficiently. Looking to save tax dollars? Consolidate the school systems.