As the Fire Chief for the City of San Juan Bautista, I would
like to respond to something that was printed in the
”
Citizens Voice
”
last week. The person who wrote about asking me for an inventory
of the fire department’s equipment seems to have a quite distorted
view of what actually took place at the City Council meeting. When
asked for this inventory by this citizen (who by the way identified
himself as residing on Merrill Road, which is not in the City of
San Juan Bautista, nor is it serviced by our fire department), I
stated to him and our council that I am
”
working on it,
”
which I am, but that it does not rank very highly on my list of
priorities. Providing for the safety of our citizens and for my
firefighters comes first!
As the Fire Chief for the City of San Juan Bautista, I would like to respond to something that was printed in the “Citizens Voice” last week. The person who wrote about asking me for an inventory of the fire department’s equipment seems to have a quite distorted view of what actually took place at the City Council meeting. When asked for this inventory by this citizen (who by the way identified himself as residing on Merrill Road, which is not in the City of San Juan Bautista, nor is it serviced by our fire department), I stated to him and our council that I am “working on it,” which I am, but that it does not rank very highly on my list of priorities. Providing for the safety of our citizens and for my firefighters comes first!
As I informed this person and the Council, we do have a new software package that has recently been installed that includes incident reporting, personnel and training records, hose and hydrant testing, and equipment and apparatus inventory. But, this all takes time to input the data, and as the “one-man band” so to speak (I am the only paid employee and only part-time paid, all the rest are strictly volunteer) it is not something that would happen very quickly! This person, who constantly states “we,” yet stands alone, offered to bring seemingly hordes of people to my station to help me do this inventory. I informed him that while his offer sounded good in principal, I was not interested in his help since it would still require someone (which would likely be me) who knew what everything was to be there! We have a unique situation in that we have equipment that belongs to the city, equipment that belongs to the San Benito County Fire Department and Federal Excess equipment, which all must be accounted for separately. So, a lay person cannot just come in off the streets and conduct an inventory, at least not one that would make sense and be of any usable form, without having someone (again, likely me) there to guide them every step of the way.
I informed this person that I was just simply not prepared to do this, nor would I consider it with my already busy schedule! I am a part-time employee who already spends way more time and effort than I am compensated for, and I do have a life beside the fire department (occasionally!). As I have repeatedly told this person, we do not have anything to hide, as he suggests, and that anyone is welcome to come by the station during my normal business hours (7 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday through Thursday) and I will gladly show them everything I can about our department.
I would like to share with you some excerpts from an editorial that was written by fire chief, Dan Jones, who is the editor-in-chief of National Fire & Rescue and chief of the Chapel Hill, N.C. Fire Department…
“The toughest job in the fire service is a position held by thousands of men and women across the United States. I’m talking about the Fire Chief of any rural volunteer fire department. As a career chief, I’m in awe of the responsibilities and burdens that my colleagues carry when they hold that job. If you think I’m exaggerating, you’ve obviously not stepped out into the real world of fire and rescue services as it exists in many regions of this nation. I’ve always believed that the smaller the fire department, the more difficult it is to lead. Smaller department and volunteer fire chiefs don’t have the secretaries to handle their administrative workload – but that doesn’t reduce the paperwork load any! These chiefs don’t have staffs of training officers, fire marshals, operations chiefs, public education specialists, arson investigators, apparatus maintenance technicians, research and development officers, public information officers, purchasing agents or administrative assistants – but they must still handle the same variety of tasks that have to be performed by any department, large or small. These small and rural volunteer department chiefs must be able to do it all! They have to recruit and train firefighters, keep records, manage the books, raise funds, find affordable equipment, buy fire trucks (if they are lucky enough to have the money), maintain the apparatus and firehouse, respond to and command all incidents, enforce the fire code, determine fire causes, write reports, deal with dwindling water supplies, direct the cleanup, answer to the community, and be ‘all things fire’ to everyone’s satisfaction. The remarkable thing is that many of these dedicated fire-service leaders hold their positions for many, many years without receiving a dime of compensation and no recognition at all, except for the title of fire chief.”
While this is not entirely my case here in San Juan, I think it is a very representative depiction of what I go through as the chief of this department. I am truly sorry that we cannot please everyone all the time, but you have my assurance that both this department and myself are doing the best we can, and will continue to strive to improve!
Rick A. Cokley,
Fire Chief
City of San Juan Bautista
