I read with great interest the continuing saga of the Clark County Fire Department (CCFD) dragging their feet on much needed equipment and falling back on well-worn excuses and finger pointing (Fire District Facing Long Delays In Replacing Aged Vehicles: Progress, August 3, 2011). The persons responsible for these processes get paid a fair amount of money to manage the affairs of CCFD and yet they never seem to know what is going on.

On the other side of this is the EMS and firefighters who volunteer their time and talents for free and are expected to be highly trained (they are as trained as their paid counterparts) that if they used these excuses would be in serious legal problems.

In the middle are a few persons who want to be in a position of power but refuse to exercise the legal rights the public has to force CCFD to comply with what the communities and the volunteers request to be in full compliance with the law.

By law all public entities must have, at the public request, a full disclosure of where funds are and where they are being spent. After all, this is OUR tax dollars and these people are being paid to manage and track it. To hear that they do not know, or they are going through changes, or they are not sure, is a scary thought in and of itself.

But we are talking about the safety and well being of the general public and these overpaid bureaucrats have no idea what is going on. If the current persons in charge cannot do the job, do not have the time or simply do not have what it takes to get an accounting of our local tax dollars, then step down and let someone who does have these abilities take charge.

Our local community’s welfare and safety is more important than titles and imagined power. Our volunteers deserve better and our tax dollars can be better spent than on a group of bureaucrats sitting around pretending to be too important than to answer to the very people who are paying their wages.

I have personally read the Moapa Valley Fire District bylaws and CC&R’s. The volunteers and the leaders therein have more authority than they are currently using (probably because the leaders have never read these documents).

It was realized recently that it would be financially prohibitive to be an incorporated entity, but that does not mean we cannot start controlling the small things that belong to the Moapa Valley residents. And we the residents need to demand more from our leaders.

You cannot say this does not apply to you because you never know when you will need their services. These volunteers answer over five hundred call-outs a year…the next one could be you. Do you want inferior equipment and services arriving (or not able to arrive because of the lack of funds)? It is up to us.

Scott King