![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/editorial-300x236.jpg\" "\\"editorial\\"")
This publisher has said some vile and nasty things about a fire department in the last three and a half years but it\u2019s about to even get worse.<\/p>\nThis publisher has said some vile and nasty things about a fire department in the last three and a half years but it\u2019s about to even get worse.<\/p>\n
The words greedy and pathetic come to mind very easily. \u00a0The children of this fire department need to learn to play to the same sand box together.<\/p>\n
We currently have board of fire commissioners that cannot run a simple meeting correctly, a board attorney that needs lessons in Robert\u2019s Rules of Order and a Local union that has members that is so greedy and pathetic it makes the average person choke.<\/p>\n
Since November the 4th, 2014 the day of the election, Lehigh Acres voters voted by 137 votes to approve the tax assessment what the fire board wanted so badly. And firefighters partied all night long at Beef o\u2019 Brady\u2019s in Lehigh Acres.<\/p>\n
But NOW three months later the Local union is now demanding full reversal of ALL concessions which will cost the taxpayers nearly 2.01 million dollars more per year. Where is this money going to come from the residents and voters again?<\/p>\n
Matt Galewski the secretary of IAFF Local 1826 was in attendance at the February 13 special board meeting requesting that the Lehigh Acres Fire apply for the third FEMA SAFER Grant. \u00a0The board voted 3-2 not to apply for the grant because the new tax assessment.<\/p>\n
The President of Local 1826, J.P. Duncan also sent a letter to our fire commissioners it states: (Click here<\/a> to read it)<\/p>\n \u201cThis Local has a committed responsibility to assist the Lehigh Acres Fire Control District in securing funding to ensure your Fire Fighters maintain their well-earned pay and benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n Duncan also stated, \u201cWe recognize that the community and the District will suffer without the SAFER Grant.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Duncan has used some elegant language in his statements such as \u201cwell-earned\u201d which means \u201cfully deserved\u201d and \u201csuffer\u201d which means \u201csomething bad or unpleasant\u201d. Is Mr. Duncan threatening the fire district and or the voters in Lehigh Acres with his words?<\/p>\n A little FYI 91% of all the Lehigh Acres districts personnel do not live in the 143 square miles of the Lehigh Acres Fire District.<\/p>\n The union has only met the Fire Departments negotiating team one time since December of 2014 for 4 minutes and 3 seconds. (Click here<\/a> to download and listen to the meeting). And is stonewalling every time a date is set or they refuse to set a new date. Wonder why???<\/p>\n ALL the so-called concessions sunset on Sept 30, 2015, so on Oct 1, 2015 the commissioners of Lehigh Acres Fire Control District per contract must reinstate all Wages, Holiday, Longevity, Step and Education pay back to 2009 levels unless a new contract is agreed upon by both parties. (Click here<\/a> to read District 6 current contract) Costing the fire district\u00a0nearly 2.01 million dollars more per year.<\/p>\n If the Local union could just grow up stop acting a like two year child having fits and act like responsible adults, then just maybe they will be able to resolve these issues for the betterment of the residents they serve in the community of Lehigh Acres.<\/p>\n I final note, if the greedy, pathetic and bullies don\u2019t like their jobs or don\u2019t want their jobs, they can resign today!!!<\/p>\n There are exceptional and well qualified firefighters out there that would gladly come to work for the Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District and will do their jobs and would be an truly fine asset to the community of Lehigh Acres.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This publisher has said some vile and nasty things about a fire department in the last three and a half years but it\u2019s about to even get worse. The words… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35007"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35007\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe Union also sent a fire department analysis to all the fire commissioners, but according to Lehigh Acres Fire Chief John Wayne this analysis is flawed and shewed because it shows that station 105 is closed. (Click here<\/a> to read the union analysis)<\/p>\n