I am writing this letter, in an effort to help educate the residents of Nassau County, as to the duties, responsibilities, and obligations, of Fire District Commissioners. In addition, I would like to make the residents aware of factors beyond our control that contribute to the tax base set by fire district officials.

Fire District Commissioners in New York State do their job without compensation or perks. This unpaid full-time position, requires commissioners to attend meetings, hearings, New York State mandated training sessions, teleconferences and educational seminars. In addition, countless hours are dedicated to researching cost effective vendors and products, setting policy for local fire agencies, and preparing budgets that are fiscally prudent to the taxpayer, while assuring that the highest level of fire and EMS protection is provided.

It is very unfortunate to see that those directly responsible for the high cost of living in New York, and certainly in Nassau County, making attempts to deflect their fiscal mismanagement, to that of special districts, which actually reflect the smallest portion of the tax bill. In the case of the fire districts of Nassau County, if County Executive Suozzi paid more attention to the public safety of his constituents and provided the services to the residents that the county is responsible for and taxes greatly for, fire district commissioners would be able to reduce a portion of their budget.

The Volunteer Fire Service is the first line of defense to most emergencies in Nassau County. It is the Volunteer Fire Service that not only responds to countless fires, but also provides a major portion of the EMS protection, public education, building inspections, vehicle extrication, and hazardous materials response. Many of the incidents we respond to, originate in the 911 system, and are forwarded to the local fire department, as a county agency is unavailable.

I encourage all residents to contact those in Nassau County government and inquire as to the amount of political patronage jobs on their payroll, in lieu of hiring the necessary staff in areas of great concern. Despite findings of a 2005 task force that investigated emergency medical services in Nassau County and strongly suggested the need for additional police ambulances, the county has made minimal progress, resulting in delays in care to the sick and injured. I ask that inquiries are made regarding the outage that occurred on June 14, 2008 that rendered the county helpless to receive and dispatch calls for help, by both 911 operators and the Fire Communications Bureau. While police department dispatch capabilities were restored a short time later, the ability for the county to receive and dispatch fire and EMS emergencies were not restored for weeks, and were handled by the fire districts of Nassau County. An outage secondary to a storm is an understandable, and beyond the control of county officials. An outage to a county of our population with such a high tax rate, without a back up system or plan in place is inexcusable. Is this not the same county that promotes a "Readiness" campaign in the event of a major storm or incident? The outage of June 14, 2008 resulted in the loss of property, secondary to delays in notification to a local fire department, in at least one documented incident. In addition, this outage resulted in unbudgeted additional expenses for many fire districts, as they were called upon to provide dispatch services, normally provided by the county. I commend those special district commissioners who possessed the planning, forecasting, knowledge and moral obligation to prepare for emergencies in an effort to keep our residents safe.

In closing, I welcome and encourage the media to take the time and effort to honestly report to the readers, the true elected officials responsible for the high cost of living on Long Island, who have collected taxes but diminished services and have let public safety falter. It is unfortunate that the safety of our residents goes unreported, while fire districts, and the unpaid commissioners overseeing them, come under attack. We have time and time again proven our value to those we serve. We have demonstrated a sense of fiscal and moral responsibility to our residents and will continue to do so. We are not commissioners appointed by those in political power, nor are we brought in to serve from other areas as a form of patronage; we are elected by the residents of the community we serve with pride, honesty, and distinction.

Craig Craft

President

Association of Fire Districts of Nassau County