Penny wise, dollar foolish
To the editor:
I read in the Breeze “Cape Coral Fire Department has suspended the practice of unit brown-outs effective immediately.” I for one am happy to hear this but I also question the decision to institute the brown-out POLICY in the first place. Policy is set by council and this decision was based upon a majority of council wanting to cut the budget as expressed in the same article; “Councilmember Pete Brandt was surprised by the change Thursday. I thought we were doing it to keep overtime down, he said.” Some could interpret Mr. Brandt’s comments as meaning that he places money over the safety of our residents.
I want to thank Firefighter Brendan Fonock, VP of the Cape Coral Professional Firefighters, for publicly bringing forth the concerns of the department at the council workshop last Monday. I also find it interesting that the city manager felt the need to respond “Fire Fighters, Brown Outs and Your Safety – The Facts” from his blog page where he states among other things: “Cape Coral has used brown outs as a method to control costs for some time now.” When asked about the issue at Speed Politics on Tuesday evening he offered this same rationale while berating Mr. Fonock’s positions. Mr. Fonock was not present to defend his positions. I have to wonder why the CM didn’t directly respond to Mr. Fonock after his presentation, while they were face to face.
It seems we have those on council who are more concerned with the budget than they are with the public’s safety and welfare. While some may think they are saving money the question must be asked, at what cost? Over the past decade Cape Coral has enjoyed the benefits of having a wonderful Advanced Life Support capability thanks to Chief Van Helden and previous councils whose vision was to fund the program which in all probability has helped save lives.
In March 2009, Chief Van Helden informed the members and guests at the Cape Coral Civic Association meeting of his concerns about the department falling short of the desired standard 5 minute response 90 percent of the time. With the current city boundaries that would require 19 fire stations. We have nine fire stations and a house in Gator Circle. He cited statistics where in 2001 they could meet the response standard 61 percent of the time and at that time the standard had fallen to a concerning 44 percent level. He also informed Civic of the 17,000 calls last year (2008) approximately 70 percent (about 12,000 calls) were for medical emergencies.
When it comes to the budget, it’s not very comforting to see public safety programs, which contribute to our quality of life, being compromised in our city.
Ralph LePera
Cape Coral