It has become truly sad to listen to the Homer fire department respond to emergencies – there’s almost no one left. Response times are increasing and all too often there multiple pages to try and locate minimum crews. For a while now Homer has been trying to compensate for the loss of volunteers by having staff cover more of the off hours emergency calls. In January when the “vacant” Assistant Chief’s position is eliminated and the extra contract position is ended this will no doubt become more difficult.

When Kachemak Emergency Services ended the contract with Homer did it hurt Homers budget? Sure! And right now having Kachemak Emergency Services operating and providing emergency services independent of HVFD is the best thing that the residents of the entire southern peninsula, including Homer, have going for them. KESA has pulled together over four dozen volunteers, and don’t believe for a second that because the department is new that the volunteers are inexperienced-in fact it’s the opposite, many of them have years of experience.

Many of KESA’s volunteers live and work in and around Homer and are available on a moments notice. KESA has already shown that it is ready and willing to help when HVFD is overwhelmed, but it can only happen if Homers chief allows that call for help to be made, something chief has made it known that he is opposed to. I sincerely hope that no one is unfortunate enough to find out first hand that he is gambling with their lives.

As for the former fire department employee, he never should have been retained-be thankful he’s gone. Unfortunately I suspect the ineptitude of the fire chief will again show, the former employee will win, and the residents of the city will be left paying out for this mess as well.

Roll HVFD out of the city and into KES. City can shrink their budget, HVFD will be under good management and you won’t have this island in the middle of the KES service area.

HVFD isn’t the 101st in Bastone after all.

KES has I estimate four times the volunter base HVFD current, mainly because HVFD didn’t treat their volunteers like volunteers. Funny thing about volunteers, if they think they are getting a raw deal they walk. Make it more of a hassle then it is worth, they walk. What this has translated into is a continuous need for HVFD to call for mutual aid on calls in their service area because the lack the manpower to handle multiple calls and significant fires such as that east hill tri-plex a few weeks ago.

And if you see the guy who is appealing is sacking get his job back, look for that department drop even more personell, he was that incompetent.

The former employee deserves every bit he wins,in damages from the City. City Management has, for many years, covered up wrong doings by the Directors. Example: More than one employee has gone to the management with documented evidence against one employee…this has included proof of lies and trumped-up evidence against employees…it has all been covered by upper management. Council is aware of the problem – they don’t want to deal with it. Perhaps, if these issues had been dealt with, we wouldn’t be looking at a lawsuit now.

The current budget shortfall should never have happened. Management knew they would have a large reduction in sales tax. So, why did city employees get a COLA raise? Why hasn’t spending been reduced? Why hasn’t the City been working on a limited budget since the beginning of the year? Maybe, its because management spends more time on pet projects. Why are finance employees having to read Disney management books and give book reports on their chapters – all on city time? Why was an audit called on payroll last year and then kept secret until a former employee forced the city to release the findings? Was it because thousands of dollars were spent to show that nothing was wrong and her allegations against a current employee were false? And finally, why do we have an accounting employee that doesn’t even have a degree in accounting, and has, instead, been taking “accounting” classes at Phoenix University – and the city taxpayers are paying for a good part of the cost.

Proper management of the each department and the city as a whole needs to be a priority for the council. Lets see if they can do it and use our tax dollars wisely.