First of all, I am a bit late on this story due to my other duties over the last few days. The Fire Critic, Firegeezer (Bill goes deep on this one, giving us lots of background) and Firefighter Close Calls already have posted this video from Xenia, Ohio. In it, two council members, John Caupp and Dale Louderback, speak out and vote against buying seven sets of firefighter turnout gear through the Ohio Cooperative Purchasing Program. It is their belief that firefighters should buy their own PPE and cops should buy their own ballistic vests. Especially in the tough economic times that caused Xenia to lay off firefighters this year.
Looking at the video is it clear to me that it’s more than just the X in both Xenia and Xinos that’s the common element between this video and our other big fire department budget story of the last two weeks. As I am sure most of you recall, Connie Xinos wants to balance the Village of Oak Brook, Illinois budget (a wealthy community with no property tax) by firing one firefighter each month until the union agrees to modify its current agreement to allow staffing and pension cuts. Xinos added, referring to the wife of a fired firefighter:
“Maybe they’ll sue us. Maybe they’ll win something three years from now. She’ll leave him. He’ll be out of the house. The dog will be dead and the kids will be out on the streets.”
Warning: The rest of this column is kind of a personal message from me to Mr. Xinos, Mr. Caupp and Mr. Louderback. There’s no need for anyone else to read it.
Mr. Xinos, I imagine a man with your soft-spoken and easy charm is not lacking friends. But just in case you are, I want you to think of STATter911.com as your own personal eHarmony.com. No upfront fees. In fact, the service is completely free. And I believe STATter911.com has already found your soul mates for life (strictly platonic, of course).
Really what I am offering is kind of a video service for those who don’t have a best friend. Connie, just click above and I think you’ll agree that you could be looking into a mirror rather than a YouTube video.
So Connie, meet John and Dale. John and Dale, meet Connie (click here for his cool video). My gut tells me you three will get along famously.
I even have a suggestion for a first date for you fun loving guys. How about a trip to Emmitsburg, Maryland? It’s a gorgeous little town in the Catoctin Mountains. It’s just south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The people there are lovely.
Fall is a great time to visit this area. How about the first weekend in October of next year? A year from now. I promise you the wait will be worth it.
I know how thrifty you three are, so why not carpool it to Maryland?
Connie will pick up John and Dale. Connie it’s on your way, but I already know what’s bothering you about this. No need to worry, I am sure they will chip in for gas (actually let me rethink that part).
Either way I am certain you guys will have plenty to talk about. I imagine by the time you turn south on Route 15 in Pennsylvania you will have solutions for many of society’s ills.
I have good news for you budget conscious men. I will be glad to pick up your hotel rooms in Maryland. I mean it. My treat.
I have more good news for you to save some money. While you’re in Emmitsburg I will be your personal tour guide.
The first stop has to be Gettysburg. There’s lots to learn there. Talk about being a leader during tough times. But you guys have shown those aren’t lessons you really need. Connie, I guess you would agree that John and Dale have inspired their own troops by toughening them up. Letting them know if they really must have protective gear going into battle, they should just buy it themselves. I am sure that’s what many of them did during the Civil War.
And John and Dale, I think you both will be greatly impressed with Connie’s leadership when he was in that fierce battle with the 11-year-old girl. I can assure you it wasn’t Connie who went home and cried that night.
By the way, while we are in Emmitsburg there’s a big event in town that weekend that I would love for you three to see. It draws about five or six thousand people each year. But there’s more good news. It’s free of charge. It won’t cost you a dime. I know money means more than anything to you guys. You’ve made that clear.
While there you should really take take the time to meet some of the men, women and children who will be at that gathering. I’ve been going for years and I always find it an extremely impressive group (but in a much different way than you three impress me).
Just do me one little favor. It’s simple. When you meet them, take a close look into their eyes.
That’s it. Nothing more. Just take a close look into their eyes.
Also on STATter911 …
- Arrangements for Hal Bruno, NFFF Chairman Emeritus – November 9, 2011
- A column from Las Vegas shows why the IAFF & IAFC gathering in Phoenix was important. A must read for labor & management. – January 31, 2011
- Raw video: PGFD house fire on Wingate Drive in Glenn Dale, Maryland. – March 29, 2012
- Memorial Weekend roundup. Videos & pictures. – October 17, 2011
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Great Piece Dave……nice job.
I wonder if Councilors John Caupp and Dale Louderback, would feel the same away if the school busses needed to have their brakes replaced…..
Some more rock heads for the “moron” pile.
Great job….you really ought to send it to Miss Xinos….
Are those 2 councillors on drugs? Its freakin turnout gear, go give them a set of broken down old gear that’s 10 years old and stick them in a burn building, see how they go…..
I think its a crock of BS! We can’t do our job with carppy turnout gear. i think 2000$ is a small price to pay to protect someones life. its certainily alot cheeper to buy turnout gear than it is to pay a lawsuit from a firemens family after he or she is killed in a fire due to out dated turnout gear.
More of the cream……..errr crap…..rising to the top.
How and why is it that we as citizens, keep electing these IDIOTS??????????
There is another common issue between both of these videos Dave, they both bring up how much firemen make. Heres an idea, when salaries are always brought up, lets bring up some corrupt city officials salaries. Im sure if the roles were reversed, they would be humming a different tune.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people.
What a bunch of tools. I guess the next step is to make them buy their own axes and halligan bars.
I hereby dub the City Council of Xenia the Xenophobes.
Two words from me…. No. Make that two dates.
April 3, 1974
September 20, 2000
Karma is a bitch. What goes around comes around.
gain a classic example of Douche-bags performing acts of douchbaggory . And as far as the salary question. Enough with the crap. I work right outside NYC. I have numerous friends that work in the private sector for financial and technology companies. In the late 80′s and through the 90′s these friends received bonuses every year. I have a friend who works for a large computer company that got no less than 90k in a bonus every year in the 90′s. We didn’t get a bonus during those boom years. Just our inflated pay as the politicians like to say. I didn’t hear any mention of increasing my salary during those years. Just my regular negotiated raise. It works both ways Dirt bags.
I think alot of you are missing the message here. I’m a Firefighter frm Ohio who is living in this world of economy driven rhetoric. These people are no longer on the fringes and considered lunatics. This message is being digested by the masses and reflected back to us as reality. Once regarded as heros, we now are called leaches on society. Getting mad and name calling doesnt help our cause. We need to realize this movement is growing and multiplying as we speak. The Governor’s race in this state is a prime example. The Republican has a lead and he is spewing negative messages about public servants. There is a move to take our state pensions and pay off a eight billion dollar shortfall in the state budget. Then we will go into the social security fund! The masses agree and think we are expendable. Once heros now leaches. Lookout it’s coming to a town near you!!
Dave, I really don’t think that them 3 could handle looking into the faces of the young children during the fallen firefighters weekend. Besides the free tour of the area, how about letting them sit in on one of the grief counsuling sessions and let them explain themselves. My bet is that they wouldn’t make it out of the room. Oh also dave don’t forget to bring them by the B building and make them stand there and read each message that familys write about their fallen loved ones. I like yourself have been going the NFFF weekend for some time and still can not read all of the messages without becoming a little emotionally struck.
Ohio Firefighter I second your comment. I spent over two years in Ohio fighting city hall about staffing of apparatus and all the other issues.The bureaucrats are interested in two things.Number one is their egos.The second is cutting the budget no matter what the end result will be.These people are not capable of making educated decisions.They could care less about the citizens of their respective jurisdictions.
Good luck to you and your brothers you have a tough road in front of you
I don’t know. If I had to buy my own gear I might think twice about running into a burning building and taking a chance and damaging my gear knowing I would have to pay to replace it. I wonder how they would feel if I made decisions about rescuing one of those a-holes based on money. Kind of like what they are doing. Just can’t justify the cost of a new coat trying to save you.
While I think the firing idea is ludicrous, these other two from Ohio might not be way off base.
There are plenty of otherprofessioms out there that must purchase the tools of their trade.
The one that comes to mind immediately is mechanic.
I am not advocating making us purchase our own protective equipment, but rather, my point is that historically we have been very fortunate in receiving some of the things that we do.
Remember that the next time you run a “BS” call and give the citizens a hard time about calling.
I think those freaking idiots should by the desks they are sitting behind, and the chairs they’re sitting on and the microphones they spew they’re garbage with and the video camera that allows normal people with common sense to watch this trash and the paper the print that crap on and the pens the use to write that crap with and while we are at it make them by the hammer, chisel and slab of stone to make their proclomations with since they are acting like neanderthals we might as well treat them like it. One consolation about something like this, at least I could buy the best stuff money could buy , the color I want and the leather New Yoker I prefer rather than the stuff I am issued since I would be paying for it….
Thank you Dave, as the former #2 at XFD I can tell you that this sort of thought process was constant from city hall. The turn out gear was APPROVED by council in the 2010 budget as it was in 09, 08, 07, 06, 05, 04, and 03 maybe longer. None of these council memebrs are new and all are fully aware of past practice. The real issue is for YEARS (decades really) Xenia City Council has depended on its safety services to help pass tax increases and then has consistently cut those service a few years later. Now the fire and police have put a charter amendment on the ballot for November requiring tax money to be used to restore public safety staffing and require minimum manning for the future. Council, especially Louderback are VERY angry that their employees may be successful in forcing them to spend money on fire, not where/when they want. See more on XFD and their plight at http://www.xeniafirepac.com
Instead of whining about how mean these commisionsers are why not teach them why you cannot mandate a firefighter buying his own gear. From a strictly utility point of view the discussion makes sense. The mechanic analogy is kind of a good one on it’s face. It’s a real dumb idea for a bunch of reasons and I feel the Fire Chiefs pain but this can be a teaching moment.
This is completely different than Connie Xinos which is s payroll/gargaining table issue.
Dave, good job as usual
Great letter, I hope the 3 make a hook up. I am sure a bunch of us would like to go and help you show them around. We could get special “street people” shirts so no matter where they looked, they would know who their escorts were.
When did public safety become so disposable?
Funny those two council members voted to spend twice as much on trees and landscaping just 5 weeks prior, its a revenge tactic because the firefighters are supporting a ballot issue that the council opposes
Everyone seems to be missing a point. Would ANYONE advocate members of the military having to purchase their own equipment? The argument of tradesmen purchasing their own tools of the trade is apples and oranges. There are no regulations on what each tradesman has to have in his toolbox. He can purchase whatever he feels is necessary in order to enhance his career or whatever he feels will make his job easier. The very nature of the work of public safety (Police, Fire, and EMS), and the military requires these men and women to place themselves in harms way on a daily basis, something tradesmen generally aren’t required to do. So if you hire someone who is willing and able to do this, in other words, serve the greater good, are you gonna tell ‘em that they have to supply their own equipment (tools) to do the job? I don’t think so. I am shocked that this kind of thinking is taking hold in this country simply because money is tight, WTF?!? How did we get to this point where public safety is simply a commodity that can be voted down by people who hold the purse strings? And for everyone who is gonna jump on the bandwagon and yell that it’s the unions that are dragging us down and got us to this point let me reiterate that it’s the yo yo’s on Wall Street, the mortgage brokers/ lenders, and banks who have driven this country’s economic system to the brink of collapse, all of whom need to re-enroll in a course of second grade arithmetic. To those who say that the monster salaries and pensions of my brothers and sisters in public safety and the military have put our country in the dire straits we are in, come walk a mile in our boots. I don’t think you’ll be yelling about our pay and benefits nor will you be yapping about cock-a-maimy ideas like us supplying our own equipment to keep you safe 24/7, 365…
To the guys in OHIO, just come down to PG Maryland and join a local VFD for a couple weekends.
You will get a brand new free set of gear, there is no accountability. They will even give you a free mask and regulator. When you don’t return it, the volunteer commission will just charge it to the county paid station funds account and it will still be free, paid for by county taxpayers. lol.
Perhaps we can save money by getting rid of useless politicians and then putting that money elsewhere in the budget where it can be of actual use
My 2 cents from California on these three characters.
Offer them the opportunity to participate in a IAFF “Fire Op’s
101″ Training day.
I believe it encompasses among other things, a series of Fireground/EMS skill sets that includes; Auto extrication, Ventilation/Forcible Entry/Fire suppression operations and so on.
Call their “Bluff” and if they decline the offer, there you have it. You can then show them for what the uninformed people/politicians they are.
old story I think not……..These council members seats are up this year and there is one new person running for council. JOSH LONG understands the importance of public safety and will ensure the city does what it can to keep their police and firemen safe!! If you live in Xenia please check out what Josh Long has to offer.