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Do you care (Part II)?
*EMS services (primarily taking care of severe medical situations, and/or transportations to Grays Habror Community Hospital, way off yonder in Aberdeen) in Ocean Shores given glowing reviews, with many expressing their gratitude for “life saving” actions from Ocean Shores Fire Department/EMS
*Streets that were horrendous in the very-near past are now smooth sailing, thanks to the LID
*A “levy lift” would (potentially, at least) bring back the animal control officer and solve EMS billing/financing problems.
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on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 7:52 pm and is filed under North Coast News.
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Reading this newspaper, its site, accompanied with the comments on here … is like reading the Nation Enquirer. Someone needs to slap this editor back into journalistic reality. This is getting way out of hand.
All I see is the taxpayers being asked to tighten our belts but I don’t see the city doing it. They say it will only be a small amount added to our tax, the Governor says it will only be a small amount added to our gas, another small amount of tax added to our phone bills and our license fees. In the mean time our income is being cut back and these small amounts are adding up! Plus we have a huge LID to pay for. My vote is NO on any levy increase!
Just how much does our Chief of Police and the Fire Chief receive as a salary? Are they willing to cut back their salaries so they can keep their Administration Assistants? The people of Ocean Shores are giving up new books and dvds so we can keep our librarians…lets see just what the City Employees are willing to give up!
What happened between Bob Thorton and Claire. There was a gap there too.
Claire did animal control and code enforcement for the cops and before her there was Bob Thorton. That position or slot was moved from the police department to public works and now it’s been deleted.
However, if need be, the task could be added to others in different departments at possibly a lower cost than one FTE. We are already paying the individuals for their current task. If we increase their duties to include these tasks we could be filling in the empty periods in their days. With building down, our Building Inspector could be doing Code Enforcement. Not hard to miss the old car on blocks, and other issues while traveling to and from building inspection duties.
How did we do Animal Control before Claire? Has anyone asked? Loose dogs, unlicensed dogs or cats, taking in animals at the shelter were done by the Police Department before Claire was moved to Public Works. Dog bites could use Police Reports, correct?
I think our Muni Code can be enforced by both entities until we get on a better financial footing.
Maybe all the firefighters could be given scripts to help in the collection process and make calls when time allows. Maybe that would be a self help process for the Fire and EMS Departments.
Just to keep our facts straight, the Code Enforcement officer and the Animal Control officer were one and the same person…
Mr. Lizakoski was on dead center when he commented at council that the real reason this lid lift is being proposed is because the fire chief refuses to adequately bill for EMS services. If the 270,000 that Art Wuerth claims as EMS delinquent billing were in hand, there would have probably been no layoffs, and who knows how many other hundreds of thousands were never even billed by the fire chief. Believe it or not, cronyism is still alive and well in Ocean Shores. If the fire chief can’t do his job, maybe it’s time we started looking for a replacement.
I amend my comment to also give praise to Jean Snyder’s comments as also being right on target. It seems more are speaking out. These kind of comments are what I’m hearing when current city issues are discussed all over town. Enough is enough!
The comments from Alwayswatching are absolutely right on point! Those sentiments are felt and expressed by many other citizens in Ocean Shores as well.
A 50 cent lid-lift will not even potentially solve EMS billing/financial problems. Proper management of billing and measurement of potential Fire Department/EMS revenues will bring the budget in alignment with reality.
Furthermore, the 50 cent lid-lift had nothing to do with the quality nor quantity of EMS. An EMS levy of 25 cents would have more than adequately replaced the current levy amount of 19 cents and one I would have gratefully supported. Anything more than that is a money grab; a bail-out for a city council.
What I want from the city council is a comprehensive plan that outlines all the needs of the city ie street maintenance, library services, animal control. I want to know the final amount of the street LID. Then and only then can a decision be made as to the level of services that can be afforded.
I think the savings will not bring back the animal control officer. I think the billing issue should be addressed first. That would resolve the 53 thousand that still will come from the general fund. Maybe then we can bring the animal control officer back. Maybe a tigher audit of the fire department and EMS services is called for. If management can not maintain the department duties, it is time for new management.
The library gave us funds to support the summer employment of the third person. Did Public Works give up something to keep Animal Control or Code Enforcement? Maybe if Code Enforcement was better supported by the Public Works Management there would be more solutions to issues and revenue from investigations. The bottom line is that revenue is what is needed by all the departments. Then review as to how they work. Are we getting the most for our hard earned dollars? I can only hope that Art can get the new software to drill down and produce the metrics to show details regaring number of building permits, number of repeat visits to reinspect, days required to obtain a permit, number of citations for clearing without a permit, number of tree removal citations, number of hours spent per permit and other things that will show how that department is functioning. The same should hold for Police, Parks, Financial, Water/Sewer and the Library. Real numbers with real facts. Then those should be compared to both state and national statistics. From there, just like in the business world one can make decisions regarding staffing, fees, and services that make sense here.
Ricki — welcome to the End of the World (as I like to call it) — it’s a small enough place that you can make a difference.
If, as you say, you care. (and care to get involved)
I care
We recently (July 1st) purchased a home here in Ocean Shores and are slowly making the transition moving out here from Kent (painting, repairing, moving our belongings, etc.).
I find your reporting interesting and hugely informative. Thanks for all you do. And I often find myself wondering why there are not more comments?
Anyway, keep up the good work!