I have spent the past couple days visiting the Courthouse, library and other information centers. These hubs of knowledge have enabled me to become much more enlighten pertaining to the subjects of the Fire Tax and suspicious actions of our “Pontius Pilot” head commissioner. Gentlemen, this snowball has traction and soon you will be presented with an immense iceberg.
Boys, the balls in your court and I advise you not to wash your hands of these issues. It’s your serve, and you should start with 4eyes prior post. Man up.
The issue should not be about the conduct of individual volunteers in Kentland or Cobb Island. It should continue to focus; in my opinion, on wether or not the Fire/EMS system and the way it is funded needs to be overhauled. The answer I believe is yes.
I too agree that including the link to the Channel 5 Kentland’s Fire Department news article link was in poor taste. I offer my deepest apologies for a sincere attempt to initiate conversation on this matter. I have dismantled the link. There are many noble and hard working individuals in the volunteer and professional systems, many of whom I call friends.
However, Abu Ghraib reminded us all that individuals often receive tacit approvals by those in leadership positions turning a blind eye to their actions. I will resist providing the “dozens” of links to St. Mary’s Today articles identifying many “clubhouse” antics of specific organizations in our own county that our local papers seem to timid to present.
On July 17 the CIVFD will present its request to the Board of Fire and Rescue to build a new fire house on Cobb Island. 12 years of professional, nationally known consultants, and peer reviews have validated building this facility in a trapped flood zone is a reckless spending of our tax dollars. As a tax payer and someone who is keenly interested in our collective safety, I am trusting the Board will review all of the facts and long term prospects for the Cobb neck region. With the most recent heated fiscal debates (or dare I say rubber stamps) such as County Tax Increases, the Capital Clubhouse, and the Regency Stadium , Charles County can ill afford to allow another $4-$5 million dollar clubhouse boondoggle.
As I understand how the BFRC works the public does not have any say in how the Fire Tax monies are spent. Not to disallusion anyone but I don’t believe that attending the meeting will accomplish anything. The BFRC basically has the authority to disperse the funds in the way that the volunteer corporations want. (That is if all of the VFC agree). I firmly believe that the way to bring change is through legislation that does two things. First, establish one Department headed by ONE Fire Chief. Second, repeal the Fire Tax. Funding for the agency should come from the General Fund and be subject to public scrutiny and Governmental oversite.
I believe the current head of the Board of Fire and Rescue is a man of integrity and if you review previous BFR meetings one will note he has been a dissenting vote on several expenditures. However, the BFR is made up of several Volunteer Fire Department members or supporters who have worked their way onto the BFR. For example, Sam Bowling is a Charles County Commissioner appointed member of the BFR and a 50 year member of the CIVFD. You connect the dots. For too long the BFR has been allowed to exist in obscurity.
Departments must first present to their peer group called “The Executive Committee”. In the movies they call these individuals the heads of the family, but I digress. This is a member committee made up of individuals elected by popularity. They vote on matters before them which then allows the submitting member the right to present their request before the BFR. Since the members of the executive committee do not want to endanger future plans they might have for their individual department an affirmative vote is routine. My apologies for making an assumption here. But remember, the last meeting in which visitors where in attendance, including the new head of the BFR, they were voted out of the room, assuring a closed and secret process. I’ll resist the movie analogy again. The BFR distributes the “Fire Tax” assessments semi annually to the EMS and FD stations in shares and they fear the “Fire Tax” pie runs the risk of being diluted. This is why the paid EMS service comes from the County’s general fund. The backlash and political pressure the commissioners would endure won’t currently allow them to tap the “Fire Tax” fund to pay for the paid service. This is another tax boondoggle. The cost for the paid service has run into significant cost overruns for the county and a part of why tax increases on each of us became necessary. So now we actually have two “Fire Taxes”. One called a “Fire Tax” and the other buried in your regular taxes. For those companies that are fortunate enough have EMS and Fire units they get to double dip. They get two shares of the pie making them more powerful. (Keep connecting those dots in the case of the CIVFD building and the funding of elections support) The BFR, however, has the veto authority on projects and its meeting is an open meeting. The current head of the BFR is committed to allowing public comment in an attempt to provide a more transparent approach to spending of our tax dollars. However, the member make of of the BFR promotes a rubber stamping process without truly questioning the facts presented. If you watch the televised BFR meetings one will note that the presentations by the Volunteer system are taken as Gospel and without validation of the facts.
The County has always responded, when asked about the direction of a vote, no one attended the meeting thus it was assumed there was no problem. To not attend and be silent is just what the county wants so that debate is held to a minimum. Home rule has allowed this group to runamuck. When one examines how Home Rule got its start you will find that the Commissioners at that time used county funds to pay for promoting this change in government, which brings up many legal questions. That however is the topic for another post in the future.
I suggest letters to the BFR
Mr. John Conlon
Chairman
Board of Fire and Rescue
P.O. Box 2150
La Plata, Maryland 20646
The retaliation possibilities you risk once this group puts a face with a name enough to scare anyone.
I have already drafted my letter to the Board of Fire and Rescue. I urge all of you to not just use this forum, but actually contact the Board and voice your displeasure of the current flawed system.
This is a very good point about the trapped flood plane. The location of this facility is a Land Use issue, and thus determined on the local level. Do we NEED an new fire house here? Is it to better serve the community in case of emergency or to provide a more elegant location for social activities?
Can language be written into Code Home Rule to establish one Department and eliminate the Fire Tax? I hate to keep beating that horse but I believe the solution is eliminating the Fire Tax and establishing one Department.
4 Eyes, As I understand the EMS Service it is pay for service based and not funded through any tax. Is that correct?
I don’t believe we will ever eliminate the “Fire Tax.” Regardless of the means by which emergency services are delivered, they are necessary. The problem rests with Charles County’s inability to manage these “non-profit contractors” and once the money is distributed the Volunteer groups have have no requirements to give it back. Like most groups given a large sum of money…........it must be spent! Look around you when you are out and about, there is a lot of shinny new equipment in this county that hasn’t always been necessary purchases. These groups continue to make decisions that are for the benefit of their membership and not necessarily for the benefit of the public. They get to keep coming back to the BFR for as long as it takes to get their way. In the case of the CIVFD, for 12 years they have been trying to sell this pork project and it makes no more sense today than it did 12 years ago when the Volunteer’s own review group said stop trying to build on the island and move inland. Today we have more sophisticated tools like SLOSH modeling put out by the Army Corp of Engineers which validates the danger building on the Island represents. Especially when the department owns 5 acres of land in Tompkinsville which is the epicenter of its first due area. Here is the link again.
As for the tax question your Commissioners have created a little slide of hand with the hidden tax approach to finding income. The paid EMS service is paid for through the Charles County’s general fund, which is totally separate from the “Fire Tax” fund. It was the only way to keep the Volunteer groups from complaining about the dilution of the “Fire Tax” fund.
In fact, the paid EMS members are already shining. Statistics shown on this past months televised BFR meeting show that the paid service made over 85% of the ALS (Advanced Life Saving) calls during the period reviewed.
Because of tremendous cost overruns brought on by the introduction of a paid career staff, especially in the overtime category, the county introduced a user fee charged to each person who rides in an ambulance. This fee is charged whether you ride in a paid or a volunteer EMS ambulance. The county is extremely proud of the fact that it now collects this fee in more than 45% of the cases from our insurance companies. This is now a supplemental hidden tax. Now we have two systems paid for through the “Fire Tax”, the general fund, and insurance company billings. (This of course does not include the State and Federal Grants our departments have received) As tax payers we now pay for the Paid Career service and a system of Volunteers so they can keep their traditions. No wonder we needed a tax increase recently with this kind of financial mismanagement.
These statistics are approximates and I have attempted to err on the low side. To get the exact statistics watch this past months BFR meeting on the Charles County cable channel and you will see the actual stats shared with the BFR.
I believe you are correct. Code Home Rule needs changing for the Volunteer system to change. Didn’t we leave England over 230 years ago over similar issues?
1. The career system does in fact get a portion of the fire tax. A one cent increase was implemented for the emergency services in 2003.
2. You are correct that the career bills for service, but the volunteer units DO NOT bill for service, ALS or BLS and do not see one dime of that money, (and they shouldn’t).
You must give credit to the volunteers, Fire service is provided 100% by Volunteers personnel, at no cost to the public (pay, overtime, benefits, etc), think about that, and yes the career system is doing a good job providing ALS, but one must remember that the Volunteers are also providing BLS care more than 60 % of the time. YOU CAN NOT IGNORE THE COST SAVING THIS IS TO THE TAX PAYERS. The system you envision would bankrupt the citizens of Charles County. The career system was implemented to supplement the volunteers; however it has become quite clear that DES is trying to build an empire on the premise of Public Safety. Because of your one sided assessment you have fail to see the same uncheck spending that is going inside of DES, most of it through grants for unnecessary equipment. Its obvious to this reader you are being fed mis-information to make the volunteers look bad.
As far as CIVFD, maybe putting the station on the island is a bad idea, I don’t know. I’ll have to look into that. But I wouldn’t classify building a fire station as a “Pork Project”. Have you seen their current station? Please come on. Its very obvious to me that you do in fact have an agenda. Could it be they want to build a pier next to your summer vacation property in Cobb Island?
smcitizen: I believe that most on this thread had supported Carl Seniors idea:
the establishment of a Fire/EMS Department;(lets call it the Charles County Fire/EMS Department) recognized by Code Home Rule and headed by one Career Fire Chief that would be responsible and have the authority commensurate with his/her position. This position would include training standards for volunteers to include F/F’s and Chiefs. Operational authority on all emergency incidents and also responsibility for writing SOP’s to deal with those emergency’s. Budgetary authority to include all appartus purchases and assignments. Planning responsibility to develope the location of future Fire/EMS Departments, and their staffing levels (when it is neccessary to hire Career F/F’s). Guidelines for discipline and background investigations. Most importantly; accountability. Accountability to the customers the department serves and most importantly the Tax Payers.
This department should obsorb the EMS and Haz-Mat Divisions already established. I would put someone in charge of EMS and Haz-Mat at about the rank of Major. They both would answer to the F/C as would every single Volunteer Chief.
When I speak of eliminating the Fire Tax I mean the way in which revenues are collected, the manner in which they are distributed, and the authority of the BFRC to spend Tax Money. I clearly understand that revenues must be collected to fund the Fire/EMS service. I also believe that the CIVFD station should be built; but not on Cobb Island. CIVFD is just an example of the need to overhaul the system and should not be the primary focus. The focus should be on the entire system and in a way that will bring real change and accountability.
Volunteers have been an intragral part of the Fire/EMS Service in Charles County and should be commended for their dedication to public service. It should not deter anyone from reviewing the issues discussed on this thread and moving forward to improve the fire/ems service in Charles County.
Doesn’t everyone have an agenda? Your comments are exactly what the previous writer was alluding to in their remarks. You should be ashamed of your high handed attempt to intimidate the writers and squelch honest debate.
Regardless, the facts are the facts! Building a new station on Cobb Island is contrary to prudent “professional” emergency services advice. You appear to be the one emotionally tied to building on Cobb Island as opposed to placing a new facility in a location that serves the public as opposed to you.
While 4eyes has decided to stay away from links, I cannot. Here are a few that lend themselves to uncovering a larger epidemic of poor planning and inappropriate spending of my tax dollars.
If someone starts the petition for changing Code Home Rule, I’ll sign it!
Why would you build a fire station on an island that has one way in and one way out, that serves a small portion of the response area,when they have an oppurtunity to reduce response times to ALL residents living in the Cobb Neck area, and be in a position to provide service to a planned community that will obviously require their services. As I also said the problem isn’t CIVFD, its the entire system. Sam Bowling indicated that most of the members “answer up” and don’t spend much time at the station. He also further stated that the response times would increase for the membership living on the island if the station was built in Thompkinsville ( were every single study done by “Independant Organizations” without affliation to VFD’s in Charles says it should be). Those comments were made in the Indy. If those are in fact the issues then a heated barn large enough for the apparatus would suffice. More to the point, my issues are with an antiquated system that is stuck in the 60’s and has no plan or direction for all of the citizens of Charles County. Individual Corporations have their plans and normally coalitions are formed with the stronger organizations to get what they want. No one does studies to look and see what or where stations and equipment are needed and how it will benefit the owners. The owners are the citizens of Charles County. We bought it, we should have a say in the direction of the ENTIRE Fire/EMS Service. 14 differant organizations, each going in their own direction is not the way to provide quality service with accountability to the citizens.
No, I do not think Cobb Island needs a new Fire Station. Again, studies have concluded that constructing a new fire station on Cobb Island would not be prudent. Public records indicate the department owns land in Thompkinsville. If the Cobb Neck area needs a new station, Thompkinsville is where it should be constructed.
No, I do not think Cobb Island needs a new Fire Station. Again, studies have concluded that constructing a new fire station on Cobb Island would not be prudent. Public records indicate the department owns land in Thompkinsville. If the Cobb Neck area needs a new station, Thompkinsville is where it should be constructed.
Spy Glass, so your saying that CIVFD should stay in an unsafe building?
smcitizen, please read this to refresh your memory.
When I speak of eliminating the Fire Tax I mean the way in which revenues are collected, the manner in which they are distributed, and the authority of the BFRC to spend Tax Money. I clearly understand that revenues must be collected to fund the Fire/EMS service. I also believe that the CIVFD station should be built; but not on Cobb Island.
smcitizen, please read this to refresh your memory.
When I speak of eliminating the Fire Tax I mean the way in which revenues are collected, the manner in which they are distributed, and the authority of the BFRC to spend Tax Money. I clearly understand that revenues must be collected to fund the Fire/EMS service. I also believe that the CIVFD station should be built; but not on Cobb Island.
Carl, sorry I missed that, Please accept my apologies.
The Fire Tax is collected based on property value, and that is not going to change. As far as how the tax is being distributed, Hmmmmmmmm. That’s your problem. Let me ask a question if I might.
Do you really think County Government can do it any better? I will submit to you that the Volunteers departments DO a good job of managing this money do it well and ethically, and their audited every year. I want you to consider what each department does with this money. Each department has to maintain the buildings, the grounds, the Fire and EMS apparatus (including the ones the career EMS personnel use everyday), buy fuel, insurance (workman comp, vehicle, and property), administrative cost (pens, paper pencils, tape, etc), purchase all kinds of equipment. (bandages, oxygen, drugs, gear), provide Fire prevention programs, the list goes on. On average each company gets is about $250,000.00 a year, some more some less. I bet not one county government department could do in a year, what each volunteer department does on their budget. And no one ask for a pay check to do this. What a savings to the citizens that is.
The total budget for Fire and EMS last year was about 4.5 million. If the county adopts your plan, that cost will triple. No doubt about it. Look at the surrounding jurisdictions. What’s their yearly budget for Fire and EMS. What a tax increase that would be. You really need to do your homework on this. You’re not looking at the entire picture.
It’s my understanding that their are changes being proposed and being worked on. The Volunteers aren’t going any where any time soon and the powers to be in the Department of Emergency Services must understand this and work with them not against them. The system may be old, but it is working, saving the citizens millions of dollars a year. The service the Volunteers are providing is top notch, just as good as any paid department (they receive the same training through the University of Maryland) and should be supported and encouraged.
PS: I understand that their are a few bad apples that get thru the application process, but that should not be an indictment of the entire system. That completely unfair to the 99% that play by the rules
I’ll answer your question with a one word answer if you will answer mine with one word.
Would you spend $100,000,000 of your personal money to construct a building in a flood zone that according to the Army Corp of Engineers would be underwater in a direct Hurricane hit…and ...only has one way in and one way off…and…is routinely closed when the roads are flooded…and…all of our lifesaving equipment for 12 miles is stranded on that island…and…the bridge to that island has collapsed before…but it will make a great location for poker nights?
You answer mine in one word and I’ll answer yours.
I completley understand how the VFC collect money. I wouldn’t be so quick to say the way in which VFC collect their money won’t change. It has to. If you go back and read the post’s I believe you will understand my objections to 14 individual VFC providing Fire/EMS service and the manner in which monies are collected and spent. I have never in the post and won’t now turn this into a volunteer/career thing. The way and manner in which Fire/EMS service is delivered has not changed since the 1960’s. There is no one goal, one vision, no planning, or direction that will provide service to the citizens in a manner in which they deserve. Waldorf plans for Waldorf, Bryans Road for Bryans Road (just examples) and never the two shall meet. I would also venture to say that you have a personal stake in this (volunteer) and are worried; as most of you are that a Career Fire Chief, the organization of one Department will spell the end of the volunteers. Finally, to answer your question I believe County Government could do a better job. Mainly, because citizens would have a say and a County Fire/EMS system would be accountable to its citizens.
The way its collected will not change, maybe the way its distributed could be debated. It’s obvious to me you either work or are closely involved with DES. So we will just have to agree to disagree.
Hope you have a great evening and may God bless you.
I will counter your arguement with this. The entire city of New Orleans is in a flood zone, Ohhh and we can’t build it in Tompkinsville either because a tornado might hit the building, and don’t look up because the sky is falling. I apoligize for my tone, but your arguement is no more than scare tactics. For the right amount of money you can get any Joe Blow to write a report on anything you want and make it sound offical. The kind of storm you are talking about is a 100 years event, just like the tornado that hit LaPlata. I just don’t buy your arguement.
Don’t work for DES. That department would also change and be incorporated into one department. There are too many people with too many directions and no clear goal. I appreciate your comments. Be safe.
No need to apologize for your tone. It is very endearing and some might say cute. Your style reminds me of one of my childhood educators. I realize that when one is emotionally attached to a subject tempers can flare clouding judgment and logic. Nevertheless, the facts are the facts. I enjoyed our debate! Time will tell.
Spyglass, I don’t know if I was slamed or given a complement…. Well you are right time will tell, Spyglass and Carl I enjoyed the debate. Thank you, and God bless you both.
CIVFD nominated for first “Golden Duck Award”. Public Safety and prudent spending of our Tax dollars won’t stand in the way of the “Good ole boy” system!
It is important to clarify some previous points made by “smcitizen” that were purported to be facts but actually are misleading and incorrect.
The Charles County Division of Emergency Services was formed at the request of the volunteers for the purpose of supplementing the volunteer service. At the time the volunteers were not responding to EMS calls in a timely manner. In fact in the Waldorf area calls were being responded to on numerous occasions by PG EMS career service.
The Charles County Commissioners decided to fund a supplemental service. On July 1, 2001, one paramedic and one EMT went into service housed at Charles County Rescue in LaPlata. From their inception they were very busy. Within a few months it was evident that Charles County needed to increase the career staff. All over the county people were waiting too long for an ambulance service from the Volunteer Organizations. The more the requests came in from the volunteer departments the more the county increased career staff. Keep in mind that the volunteers were doing the requesting at this time.
Regarding the suggestion that the County EMS is “trying to build an empire”, the career department was developed at the request of the volunteers because they weren’t serving the needs of Charles County citizens. In order to provide service to our citizens you need staff, equipment and supplies. The goal is to get qualified medical assistance to the patient in 8 minutes or less if possible. Everyone knows this cannot be achieved in every part of the county; however, it should be accomplished in the heaviest populated areas. At no time should the idea of extending the response time to 10 minutes, or longer, be considered. Such a plan, intended to give the volunteers more time to get out, is not in the best interest of anyone except the volunteers. If building an empire means providing the citizens timely service than I should hope that the empire is built.
Murray Levy and the Board of Fire and Rescue decided not to tap into the fire tax funds because it would be political suicide and because a number of people within the county felt the county could handle the costs associated with the service through the billing process. The volunteers at that time did not want the county to bill for ambulance rides and put enough pressure on the Charles County Commissioners that they pulled back the original billing process they were using and rewrote the rules.
First and foremost the billing is for an ALS calls only. Rides are billed for career AND VOLUNTEER rides. Keep in mind that a trip to the ER by an ALS ambulance does not mean you will be billed. Services rendered determine the cost billed. The County agreed to take what is allowed by Medicare/Medicade or the insurance allowance as full payment. If you don’t have any medical coverage arrangements can be made to pay what is affordable to the patient. There is also an appeal process if the patient feels they have been billed incorrectly, have no income, etc. The appeals process is handled by the County Commissioners. The collection rate in June 2008 was up at 67%. The .01 tax was decided on, and passed on to tax payers, by the Commissioners in 2003 to help defer the costs of the career EMS service and it has NOTHING to do with the fire tax.
According to the last report given in June to the Board of Fire and Rescue the career EMS provided the majority (88.9%) of ALS (Advanced Life Service) In addition, the career service provides less than half (40.8%) of BLS (Basic Life Service) provided when the volunteers cannot get out on the call.
Career staff is currently located at Newburg, Charles County Rescue LaPlata, Bryans Road, Waldorf EMS3, Westlake, Marbury 10th District, and Hughesville, using a volunteer ambulance. The EMS building (Audie Lane) provides a medic unit and the Medic Unit on Billingsly Road is staffed with a career crew and county ambulance. The County has now purchased 3 fully equipped ambulances and several supervisory vehicles which are equipped with all ALS supplies. At the volunteer stations the career staff uses volunteer ambulances and fuel. But ALS medical supplies are provided by the county which is yet another expense line in the Charles County budget.
The previous writer is correct in saying Charles County could not provide career fire Service County wide at this time. The Volunteer Departments are mired in so much debt the county could not begin to bail them out with the $14 million (not $4 million as suggested) collected in fire tax. This makes the funding of a $4,000,000 new station on an island that is routinely closed when Cobb Island is flooded even more irresponsible. Not all departments are as bad off as some but there are several that are in way over their heads. Commercial construction experts agree that the budget numbers presented in the CIVFD July 17 (tune to cable channel 95) presentation to the BFR, are grossly underestimated. Newburg’s department was just built by Rainbow Construction and was finally finished at tremendous cost overruns. As tight as the CIVFD budget is, there is no room for error. One can’t help but wonder who will have to bail the CIVFD out on this project. The County Commissioners couldn’t even build a little road between the courthouse and Route 301 without significant cost overruns and the CIVFD is going to come in at budget. I don’t think so.
The Commissioners are responsible for the welfare of the tax payers and must accept responsibility and carry out some tasks. The Board of Fire and Rescue must insist on an annual audit of each company, provided by an outside recognized source chosen by the Board of Fire and Rescue. Currently there is no across the board standard for this and a number of company audits are being handled in the good old boy way.
As it currently is handled, the Board of Fire and Rescue is somewhat of a joke. We also have a commissioner that is most concerned with staying on the good side of the volunteers. Then there are the 4 members of the volunteer community who even if they disagree are unlikely to vote against another company in fear of retaliation when their company puts in any request. And 2 businessmen that have no affiliation to any company. For darn sure those 2 members are only there to make it appear that this board is made up fairly.
If you watch the July 17, 2008 Board of Fire and Rescue meeting you will see a classic “Kangaroo Court” in action. The pressure to approve the $4,000,000 to build the CIVFD in a flood zone was already pre-programmed for approval. This approval was already negotiated under the cloak of darkness as you will read in the linked article. Pay particular attention to the last two paragraphs of the article. This deal was brokered with no regard to public safety or how our tax dollars would be best utilized for the entire Cobb Neck area. http://www.somdnews.com/stories/082907/indytop190459_32138.shtml
At one point during the meeting watch how Mr. Graves even re-writes history and the spirit of the fund used for starting new Fire and EMS companies. As a life long, born and bred, Southern Marylander, I have never seen so much collusion and lack of attention to the facts concerning public safety. In fact, let’s have a “Ducky” contest. As you watch the Board of Fire and Rescue meeting, count how many times the BFR members asked questions about the public safety considerations of CIVFD’s new building. Every BFR member had 12 years of reports from “True Professionals” validating these “good ole boys” should build elsewhere. We’ll keep the contest open for about a week and anyone who gets a higher answer than -0- will win the prize.
I would request that The Quack considers sponsoring the “Golden Duck Award”, affectionately named after its cousin the “Golden Fleece” Award. A section of Delusional Duck should be dedicated to an on going listing of this award. The award criteria might read as follows: The “Golden Duck Award” is awarded to those public officials, departments, or local bureaucratic quasi-governmental organizations in Charles County that The Quack, or a web site poll feels as if public money was wasted, trusts were broken, or poor decision making was part of the process. Feel free to change the criteria but I nominate this boondoggle for the first “Golden Duck Award” ever bestowed.
We’ll be watching the Volunteer system with great interest and will keep you posted on the chicanery.
It now makes sense why everyone is trying to push the CIVFD plan through. The CIVFD may not own all of the land on the site. According to the Charles County land records, deeds were concocted to include some community rights-of-ways (ROWs). There are two community (ROWs) that appear on the plats recorded at the Court House. One of those community ROWs actually bisect the very building planned for construction. It appears that those involved believe if they get started fast enough no one will be able stop them.
Does any one know the following:
How can the county issue a building permit to a citizen or business if they don’t own all of the land?
Does the County validate this information before issuing permits?
Can the bank actually do a loan on the property if the CIVFD doesn’t actually own the land?
Does Community Bank of Tri County know this?
Can the Title insurance company actually insure clear title if the deeds are invalid?
My concern is why is the BoFR giving CIVFD $400,000 to help them build the new firehouse on CI out of some escrow account they have for helping new fire departments to get started in the county, the last time I looked CI was an established fire department in this county.
Chapter 54-2 of the Charles County Code suggests that any excess funds over $200,000 are supposed to have been returned to the county.
These VFDs have been stockpiling money in an account over the years for new departments. Conveniently, the records for this original agreement have disapproved. No evidence has been found regarding the derivation of this fund. One theory is that the records were moved to a building that was demolished due to asbestos and all contents in that building had to be destroyed along with the building. The BoFR made up it own rules for the use of those funds that evening. If you watch the replay of that event it is very clear this was forced upon the BoFR to fast track the approval. The BoFR also suggested they would write rules for the next time a request was submitted for money from this fund. First thing first! Since no evidence exists for the origins of his slush fund the BoFR should immediately retract the $400,000 and determine, according to county code 54-2, whether they had the ability to build the fund in the first place in excess of $200,000.
4eyes, This is just the tip of the “ICEBERG” in the county VFD system. With Sam B. down there at CIVFD , he will get them what ever they want. The county VFD’s have the old “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” system in place. There is more then 1 dept in the county that makes interest on their “banked” tax money. The money is divided into categories, so if that cat. has operated in the black, guess what? It is put in the bank. I always thought a budget is what you will need to operate annually, not to make more money. The whole system is screwed up.Here is a few more things that you may want to know about:
- The County dive team ( Co. 13) has requested a new station. Funny, I thought it was a “Fire Tax”. Unless you have a boat or go out on the waterways, the chances of recieving services from them is non existent. They should be placed in a station already in the system, instead of having MORE TAX MONEY spent unnecessarily.
- Nanjemoy just bought a new fire boay that they can’t even traler legally because it is TOO BIG and can now only launch it from 1 boat ramp in their area. ( Remember bigger is better, right?)
- Duplication of services, Almost all of the department are guilty of this. Their mentality is to buy bigger and shiny so they can win more trophies. Everyone wants more fire apparatus, so they can run more calls. Yet they have less members every year.
- Marbury VFD has a convicted arsonist as an line officer. This is a disgrace to all of the other volunteers in the county.
I also want to let you all know of something else I’ve heard, I’m not exactly sure how this works within the volunteer system, and maybe someone here can explain it better than I, but I’ve also heard that the volunteer stations in our county also get paid for each call they run on.
Now I’m not sure of the exact pay structure, but it goes something like this, for each structure fire they respond to the company gets $100.00, for each MVA its $75.00, for each car fire $50.00, for each brush fire $25.00, like I said the numbers may be wrong, or heck I might be wrong all together, but if I’m not, where does this money come from, because I’ve heard it comes from a separate pot than the “Fire Tax”.
