Babble on Albero--Babble on

Albero has once again ventured into the forest of misinformation and has been struck squarely in the face with every low hanging branch. Indeed his feeble mindset concerning quality reporting will not allow him the luxury of standing above the hyperbole of his equally weak minded informants and therefore he must be condemned to ever stoop beneath the facts and truth as it so surely exists.

Chief See has not taken a vacation at the taxpayer’s expense. As I have stated and have proven in the past the fire service in the United States is an ever changing, ever evolving, ever challenging prospect to the safety and security of the citizens it serves. Be it New York, Phoenix, San Francisco, Baltimore, Salisbury, or Parsonsburg. Be it total career, combination, or total volunteer department, the need for continuing education is clearly evident and the monetary cost of that education is not necessarily cheap. No one---absolutely no one can expect the training, innovations, products, or shared knowledge and experience of all those in the service to be delivered directly to the doorstep or desktop of the individuals and departments wishing to remain current in today’s world of emergency service. Above all else, this lesson is strongly reinforced by the events of 9/11, and the worldly events that have occurred in the years hence.

With that in mind it is vitally necessary for those in management of such fire, rescue and EMS services to attend seminars and conferences sponsored by professional and recognized entities committed to bring pertinent information to the leadership of these said services. These conferences and seminars must be held at a regional level and central locations in order to provide an equitable opportunity of attendace to interested parties. It is the responsibility of the organization or county government or municipality to provide entrance fees, travel expense, and accommodations to the chiefs, managers or directors of emergency services for their diligence in the attempt to provide the best possible service available to the citizen.

Such a recognized entity is the International Association of Fire Chiefs, (IAFC).
A subordinate of this organization is the Volunteer & Combination Section (VCOS) of the IAFC. Salisbury Fire Department falls squarely in the realm of VCOS, as it is a combination department. VCOS has apparently asked Chief See to serve on their committee. I see this as an honor for Chief See as the IAFC is a national organization. It is an opportunity for the voice of a local manager to be heard nationwide. It is not a position to be taken lightly.

Before I continue I will offer you this. It is a cut and paste directly from the IAFC website:

Overview
Established in 1873, the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) is a powerful network of more than 12,000 chief fire and emergency officers. Our members are the world's leading experts in fire fighting, emergency medical services, terrorism response, hazardous materials spills, natural disasters, search & rescue, and public safety legislation.
Mission
To provide leadership to career and volunteer chiefs, chief fire officers and managers of emergency service organizations throughout the international community through vision, information, education, services and representation to enhance their professionalism and capabilities.

If you are further interested in the mission, I invite you to visit this:
http://www.iafc.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1Feel free to explore the entire site.



Now I shall continue to answer Albero’s anemic pretension of Chief See’s qualifications.
Chief See came the SFD in the Mid 70’s. He was hired as a “grunt” or front line fire fighter, as we all were. His duties, included fire fighting, vehicular extrication (what’s that Albero?), general water rescue, (this was before the dive teams and special ops), limited but general hazardous material recognition and mitigation, investigating of smells and bells, (alarm activations), assisting local police agencies with resources not available to them, i.e. lights, electricity, boats and manpower, getting cats out of trees, (yes we did that) and low and behold----EMS.
As a firefighter Chief See was required to obtain and maintain a level of EMS certification that required a constant and continuing certification process. Not a one time short class and be certified for life type of education, but didactic and practical evolutions within given time limits had to be met to retain certification. Without proper certifications ones job was in jeopardy. This certification was required to be maintained by all firefighters and line officers. I cannot honestly say what the current requirement is above the rank of Assistant Chief, but I can say that failure to maintain the certification at a lower level would surely prohibit advancement to administrative status. Obviously Chief See has met that requirement.

I will personally vouch for the fact that Chief See has spent as much time in the back of an ambulance as anyone. He and I have ridden together on more occasions than I can remember, and I will say he was an excellent provider to the patients.
The last three letters of problems is in fact EMS. This is an ongoing and friendly pun within the service. Certainly note an issue of malcontent.
Where is it proven that Chief See hates volunteers? His roots are in a fine volunteer organization. His willingness to participate in the VCOS of the IAFC more than proves he is willing to promote the mission and expertise of a well-organized and efficient volunteer force.
Did Chief See have a “mare endorsed vacation”? Prove it Albero. Without a doubt Chief See was required to provide to the city a reasonable synopsis of what was to be accomplished by his attendance to the conference in question, and upon his return a comprehensive report of goals attained and a plan for implementation within the SFD was executed. Without such I doubt funds would ever have been approved in years past or be considered for the future. Please note once again—this is an ever changing service.
Did Chief See take advantage of the opportunity to indulge in some recreational beverages and camaraderie with other chiefs and officers attending the conference? Probably. So What? The National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg MD maintains a bar and lounge on campus. The logic is simply this, in a relaxed and casual atmosphere the participants of seminars are more apt to share ideas, thoughts and concepts that will be brought later to the classroom in order to share for the scrutiny and perusal of all students in order to discriminate the positives and negatives of an issue.
I have seen it many times. I have done it myself.
Now I pose this to you Albero. Where do you get off with your absurd accusations of wrongdoing under the misassumption of city-financed vacations? Can you provide financial records to prove your preposterous claims of malfeaceance?
What would you propose Chief See do with his time? Watch the news each day at noon and hope a 30 second convoluted news story from the Utah Mountains about rockslide be converted into a major training exercise for the SFD? That would be valuable, would it not?
Why don’t you do this? Take about 3 minutes of your time with your inside source to the SFD and list all of his/her qualifications as an expert to the administrative duties of Chief See. I say 3 minutes because this will give you 1 minute to listen, 1 minute to formulate, and 1 minute to write your essay. An educated guess is you will have time left over.