Horses and carts: The WFSA board still doesn’t get it

In a piece in last week’s Pilot, Dave Kauffman, a member of the Whitefish Fire Service Area Board of Trustees, stated that the biggest challenge that the WFSA faces is lack of funding. This board still doesn’t get it and they have a serious “cart before the horse” problem. 

The board has tried to increase their funding twice and it has failed both times. You, Mr. Kauffman, and your fellow board members, have it backwards. You don’t ask for a funding increase and then only afterwards develop a coherent plan to support your request. You need to develop a well-thought-out strategic plan that addresses your constituents’ needs first, and then maybe you’ll be able to get a funding increase approved. 

There’s an item on the WFSA website called “plan”. However, it bears no resemblance at all to a strategic plan that an organization such as the WFSA needs to produce. This is not a board that deals with performing arts or sports centers. The WFSA board is, instead, responsible for protecting people’s homes and even their lives. This is a board of “trustees”, not a board of “directors.” As such, it’s held to a much higher level of responsibility. The board needs to develop a thorough and well-thought-through strategic plan that covers at least a 5 year period and that includes financial projections for that 5 year period and a thorough vetting, with all of the pros and cons,  of the rationale for each project.   

The so-called “plan” on your website is nothing more than a wish list. 

Here’s what should be a clear message to the WFSA board:
The voters in Bigfork recently approved both a bond issue and a mill levy to build a new fire station.
The Creston Fire Department is planning on building a new fire station with funding that includes donations, and it’s not a trivial amount. They’ve already received $1M in donations and they expect to be able to secure another $1M.
The West Valley Fire District voters recently approved an operational mill levy of just over $262,000. 

How is it then, Mr. Kauffman, that the WFSA board failed miserably to get enough signatures on a petition to become a “district” rather than an “area” so that they could increase their funding by mill levy, and that they then went to the county commissioners to ask for an increase and were turned down by them as well? All of this while the voters of all three of the other fire departments in our area successfully secured approval for an increase in their funding.  

The reasons are twofold. Those other fire departments (1) have been responsive to the needs of their constituents, and (2) they’ve been fiscally responsible.  

Your board is insisting that additional funds should be used to spend up to $1M of our taxpayer money to improve the facility at Hodgson and Whitefish Stage Road. A station at Hodgson is the last place that a board of directors would locate a fire station. It’s located in the far eastern part of the fire service area, which means that it would have the longest response time to the rest of the area. As important, however, that area is already well-covered by 3 other fire stations!  

One reason that I’ve heard for spending all of that money on Hodgson is that it would serve a denser area than would a station out west. So, let’s see, it should serve a denser area that is already very well-protected rather than a somewhat less dense area that’s totally unprotected! Does that make any sense at all? 

The public, through their unwillingness to sign your petition, seems to have already voted on that idea. 

Mr. Kauffman might note that in the recent board election, the two incumbents were reelected. However, don’t take that as, in any way, an affirmation of the board’s actions. It’s very difficult to unseat an incumbent and, regardless, it does not change the facts. 

Where, then, is the priority location for a new fire station? It’s in the vast unserved area between the city of Whitefish and Farm To Market Road, a huge area with no fire station! Moreover, not having a station west of town creates a significant risk of a fire west of town endangering homes in the city of Whitefish.

There are several reasons for a fire station being built west of Whitefish: (1) the prevailing wind in our area comes from the west. If a fire starts west of Whitefish, the embers (the primary cause of structure fires) could seriously endanger structures in the city of Whitefish. Just ask the residents of Palisades, California. A station out west would be the first line of defense to protect structures in the city. (2) Residents west of Whitefish need, and deserve, adequate fire protection, just like the Hodgson area already has. (3) Residents living in the area west of town are having their homeowners insurance cancelled, which places a huge financial burden on those taxpayers. The reason is that there is no fire station in that area. 

Regarding “fiscal responsibility”, the other fire service districts in our area are proud to be fiscally responsible and they note it on their websites. The WFSA board, however, is spending an enormous amount of our taxpayer money on executive directors and PR firms that have produced absolutely no results. I think that the voters would be more amenable to the board’s requests if that money would, instead, be used to enhance the organization’s finances. 

In short - the WFSA board needs to get the horse back in front of the cart! 

Marshall Friedman, Whitefish