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Volunteer department politics
I just got through reading about a VFD that suspended a bunch of guys because they ran a fund raiser without the blessing/permission of the board of trustees
Some examples of internal politics i have heard of are:
A department that disolved their volunteer association at the beheast of the paid chief of department because (he said) the way the association operates makes them a liability to the department and "a lawyer" said that they could be sued if the fire chief was not put in charge of it at once. The association president asked to speak to the lawyer personally and the chief said he couldnt because he represented the district not the volunteers. They disolved the association then discovered that it was a power grab by the chief because the volunteer association had a lot of money that the chief and the board didnt control and saw the association as a threat
Another departement disolved their asociation when the department went combination and chief announced that they were going to be hireing some paid FF's soon and if the association disolved, the former members of the association would recieve hiring preference and this had to happen because under the bilaws, the assocoation had to approve of all new members and under state hiring law it was wrong because the district does the hiring. So instead of amending the bilaws, they disolved the association and that ended up being a power grab because the chief got "amnesia" at hiring time, none of the former volunteers got hired and the associations money went to the district because the chief said it had to
I recall a department that got rid of all of their volunteers in favor of a paid force and the volunteers took everything except the building because the district owned that forcing the district to "lease" the engines and equipment from the firefighters association until the district could buy their own. There was a court battle and they sided with the association who did indeed legally own the equipment
One of my favorites (because i was president at the time) was when the association voted to buy some equipment that the chief didnt want us to use and the only reason he would cite was because as chief he has say over operational matters and as chief he could veto the descision. This was not in our bilaws and he made it clear that if we bought it, it would never be put into service. The membership voted to do it anyway and he tried to suspend us for insubordination. I cited that in our bilaws, the chief or board of commissioners have no greater authority over the association but is free to attend meetings and does have a vote. The equipment sat unused for about a year and he forbid us to store it on department property. After a while he had no choice but to use it when we had to call mutual aid for a tool we had in a storage facility and everybody knew about it
I also recall a department in NJ where a chief refused to put a new piece of appratus in service because the association voted against his choice of color
Anybody else have rules or situations like this in their department and what problems has it caused?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Don Catenacci on
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Stupid nonsensical turf wars that have absolutely nothing to do with the mission. Frankly, every example you posted made me want to puke. Not only for what was done to the vollies, but more than likely the situation caused by battles that forced it to happen.
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Permalink Reply by Russ on
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i agree because i was so glad when my term as president was up. i remained involved in projects but the BS... i stayed away from. my best achievment was taking the association out of the red in under a year and restoring "some" morale
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Permalink Reply by Moose on
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I have one for you...
A year ago, our front line engine failed pump test, and the tester said it was probably the impeller. We had a local guy (member of mutual aid company and mechanic) look at it and he said the same, the impeller was bad and it would cost to fix. I reached out to a bunch of people on these forums and others for any assistance or advice about used engines we could grab near us. One department GAVE us a 1986 Ward Lafrance 1000/1000, 5 man cab, equipped with 3" hose and hand tools, good condition and well kept, we only had to drive the hour and a half to pick it up, and I did that in my personal car with the assistant chief. We brought it back and it sat for weeks and weeks. Our commissioners voted against the truck and to spend the $30,000 to fix the current engine, a 1988 Ford Front mount 1000/1000 2 man cab. They ended up signing the ward over to me (I was going to restore it and show it) and fixed the engine. This year it failed pump test again and there is a chunk of impeller missing...now we have to use our engine tanker 2000/1250 KME 2 man cab as our attack engine with no back up. I ended up donating the other engine to my boss's department who also needed an engine and they only spent $3,500 on that, and it was mostly for hose, ladders, radio and parts for the pump like gaskets and stuff, and it now pumps like a dream. Yet we have no engine now and have to call for tankers immediately in order to keep water on the fire.
I dont like firehouse politics.
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Why did your commissioners vote against the engine?
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They are a prideful group, and the '88 Ford was the first Brand New Engine they have purchased themselves. Instead of taking their loss and having an engine that works they opted to try and resurrect the Ford.
It broke my heart to see that truck drive away the day my boss and his chief drove away with it, I get to see it when I am out his way, but that truck could have given us another 10 years service if taken care of...oh well.
Now they have to find a solution to their problem and get us another engine. I have already exhausted my contacts and will not ask for something so big from them again for a while.
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I understand completely. I have used the contacts I have made over the years more than once to get things for my FD others have told us were no longer available. It takes time to build those and a second to lose them.
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Permalink Reply by ashfire on
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Our present chief walked in and put in a waver to be voted in years ago. He had not been active on the volunteer side as a member of our dept for years and had retired as a career deputy chief from the county and we were told the vol chief we were going to re elect was a problem in the eyes of the county fire service because of rekindles at fires he had command of. We went from a 60 member, two station dept to close to a handful of volunteer members career staff around the clock. We gained and lost many ways. He has made deals with the county fire service on many things which the membership couldn't turn down or prevent.
Many tried to work against him but they up and left and did better somewhere else or just gave up all together.
I have heard some stories about chiefs in other areas that you couldn't believe.
I heard a vol chief had lost his house and moved his family into his fire station forcing other members to leave so his family had room. The chief and his wife had control of the station's finances because she was the depts treasurer.
The county stepped in and forced the family out and the vol corp out and put career in the station which made the other vol members question why they had to also lose their station because of their chief's actions.
There have been stories of the entire vol fire company leadership run by the same family and questions of missing funds or actions in the station or fire ground that drew notice for investigations and takeover by county operations.
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Permalink Reply by Derek J Sinesi on
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I'm glad we don't have this problem. We are a Village owned department and have a great working relationship with them. They own both pumpers and the tanker. We own the the rescue and squad and building. They pay for the maintenance on our equipment and we buy a lot of equipment out of our own funds. I'm thankful we don't have to deal with commissioner's i feel for departments that do from some of the stories i hear.
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