Sounds like sour grapes, backbiting, insubordination, and politics.
The rules of the game are that the mayor, as the elected representative of the people, gets to appoint the Chief. Firemen are free to play local politics for their own benefit(s) and usually do in most cities. There have been many clashes between city hall and fire companies, and for the most part fire companies have succeeded in this environment to greatly improve the salaries, benefits (including pensions) and working conditions for their members. The battle goes on, and so we have the letter today complaining that the Mayor (not the letter writer) is playing politics?
The letter writer would have more credibility if he could point to the firefighters track record on fighting for the needs of the Lancaster city school district; the needs of the city’s infrastructure, sewers, streets, parks, libraries; and a better plan commercial development and law enforcement.
For example, did the Firefighters oppose the Convention center on the grounds of it’s tax exempt status? Did it complain when the SDL got punished for asking for more of a school “in-lieu-of tax payment than what was being offered, by not getting anything?
Have the firefighters fought to have the communities surrounding Lancaster City, pay for the services(including fire protection) provided to the Lancaster County properties within the city?
Do the firefighters lobby to have the highly profitable LGH increase their paltry contribution in-lieu-of taxes to protect their billion dollar assets within the city?
Do the firefighters fight for more and better paying jobs for all city residents so that home ownership, property values, and tax revenues increase, or is the absentee slumlord and increasing poverty acceptable to the firefighters?
If, as the letter writer asserts, firefighters have more of a real interest in all the citizens of Lancaster City than City hall, I would like to see the evidence.
