Doogie
04-08-2008, 10:47 PM
***Warning, Long Diatrabe****
Ok, tonight we had the election tonight in my local volunteer fire house for officers and for the most part they are normally people running for President or Recording Secretary things of that magnitude. But tonight we had a guy run for chief of our department which is the head mukity muck of the fire house. The stinger?! The man who ran against him was a line officer back during the Carter Administration...Ok where does this all tie in. I shall explain, hence the need for my banner
My fire company has a set of by-laws that are for the most part a chunk of monkey spank necessary for finding new sources of fuel. But within them we have a clause that people can run for chief so long as they were once previously fire capt of the fire department. Now for a little history lesson; there are 26 departments in my county (Rockland County), 24 of them established well before 1930. The last two were established in 1958 and 1960 respectively. I say all this cause when the man who ran for chief was last a captain was during the Carter Administration (1977-!981). He resigned from the department in 1983. Rejoined in 1999.
Now to the other guy, he came in 1988, and has been nothing but a fireball as far as volunteering his time. Sure the department and the county underwent a change in the meantime, but he remained consistent as a guy who dedicated his time to the department, in spite of all the changes that have occured. ALWAYS doing things for the betterment of the department. Eventually working his way to the position of asst. engineer ( and through a few bad hair do's as well.)
How to explain that last statement about becoming an engineer...well my dept has company officer positions which run day-to-day non-firefighting operations of my department. Starting with positions of trustee all the way up to president. They are usually non powerful depending upon the relations between the chief and presidents friendship. And we have line officer positions which go from Asst. Engineer to Chief and the line officer positions go in order from bottom to top of 12 to 1. 1 being the highest of course.
Well getting back to the point of the story, the first guy I mentioned came back a few years back to take advantage of our pension system (Yes, even volunteers have a pension system) but was found to be a skilled guy. But he tended to be a bit of a rabble rouser, knowing the right buttons to play, etc. He was denied an appointed position so he became hell bent on getting a position. Hell he even ran against my brother for Assistant Chief cause he was protected by this blind by-law of allowing anyone to run for chief if they were once Captain. He lost that bid.
Now back to the second guy, my friend Brian. He worked his was up as an officer while the 1st guy was gone all those years. Working on committees that benefitted the company from top to bottom, both for the company and gaining new members. As of this year he was poised to be chief. Rarely did anyone oppose the position of chief, and that challenge came from within the line officers ranks. This year was different...
To understand a little further to what I mean is to understand the nature of volunteerism up by me. In the 1960's when my department started, it was the thing to do. Hell it was very elite to become a member of. You were constantly in the paper and your exploits charted. The 1970's, still somewhat the same, but standards were lowered so you got ALL aspects of people joining. Some actually there to help...some there for glory alone inspite of others work. Come the early 1980's, the place became a den of decadence that punished new introspection. Yet through it all, progress emerged and into the early 1990's we were a volunteer fire department that even NYFD crew would have of been proud to call in. Yet in the very late 1990's we went into a regression where we re-accepted members who left in the 70's and early 80's who were "Dead wood." But we though they were "rehabbed." God if we only knew.
These people were still the same type of non-firefighting jerkoffs that they were in the 1970's when they were in their prime. Taking what they can, giving nothing to the department. Yet we accepted them back. And as of tonight, they allowed one of their guys to legally run for chief in spite of the fact that since he was back he ran over a hose in a structure fire when guys were in a building cutting off their pressure wasn't suspended. He wasnt suspended for that. Yet he was allowed to run for chief this year. Against the second guy Brian, and to make matters worse...won. The elections are internal. No tax payer votes on it...and the best part is, the guy who won just had a triple bypass two weeks ago. There was a lot of internal betrayal in the department and a lot of bad blood. Lord knows I wanted to grab my rifle, but I was the voice of reason...I even talked THE MOST calm of guys out of kicking the shit of backstabbers.
Hell they allowed a guy to go from the equivelant of private to the rank of 5-star general overnight and all off his piece of shit flunkies to vote for him. God we all needed to go out and vent in and lord knows I lost a chunk of that venting here in the recap. I am extremely distraught over this, yet I was the voice of reason to them all. In post script though all his subbordinate guys that were coming up have resigned...they will not serve that incompetent ego-centric man. And the worst part is there is no one to replace the guys who resigned. The bylaws have such a restraint on who can move up and who cant....
The worst part is that Brian, the guy who lost is a guy who has done nothing but sacrifice himself for this department. Hell he even went out of the way for this department in spite of bein passed over for fireman of the year several times...once including to yours truly. The man is a consumate professional. Yet enough schmucks came back and elected him out cause they didnt like the way he talked to him. Hell lets throw away 20 years of fire tactics and hope for the best...good policy.
We have had the most docile of guys go out on rebellion against his loss...and the part I am not explaining right here is the fact that a lot of guys that elected Brian out, havent fought an interior fire since 1983, if they were lucky that late...young people got fucked over....all over politics. I feel like getting my rifle...
Ok, tonight we had the election tonight in my local volunteer fire house for officers and for the most part they are normally people running for President or Recording Secretary things of that magnitude. But tonight we had a guy run for chief of our department which is the head mukity muck of the fire house. The stinger?! The man who ran against him was a line officer back during the Carter Administration...Ok where does this all tie in. I shall explain, hence the need for my banner
My fire company has a set of by-laws that are for the most part a chunk of monkey spank necessary for finding new sources of fuel. But within them we have a clause that people can run for chief so long as they were once previously fire capt of the fire department. Now for a little history lesson; there are 26 departments in my county (Rockland County), 24 of them established well before 1930. The last two were established in 1958 and 1960 respectively. I say all this cause when the man who ran for chief was last a captain was during the Carter Administration (1977-!981). He resigned from the department in 1983. Rejoined in 1999.
Now to the other guy, he came in 1988, and has been nothing but a fireball as far as volunteering his time. Sure the department and the county underwent a change in the meantime, but he remained consistent as a guy who dedicated his time to the department, in spite of all the changes that have occured. ALWAYS doing things for the betterment of the department. Eventually working his way to the position of asst. engineer ( and through a few bad hair do's as well.)
How to explain that last statement about becoming an engineer...well my dept has company officer positions which run day-to-day non-firefighting operations of my department. Starting with positions of trustee all the way up to president. They are usually non powerful depending upon the relations between the chief and presidents friendship. And we have line officer positions which go from Asst. Engineer to Chief and the line officer positions go in order from bottom to top of 12 to 1. 1 being the highest of course.
Well getting back to the point of the story, the first guy I mentioned came back a few years back to take advantage of our pension system (Yes, even volunteers have a pension system) but was found to be a skilled guy. But he tended to be a bit of a rabble rouser, knowing the right buttons to play, etc. He was denied an appointed position so he became hell bent on getting a position. Hell he even ran against my brother for Assistant Chief cause he was protected by this blind by-law of allowing anyone to run for chief if they were once Captain. He lost that bid.
Now back to the second guy, my friend Brian. He worked his was up as an officer while the 1st guy was gone all those years. Working on committees that benefitted the company from top to bottom, both for the company and gaining new members. As of this year he was poised to be chief. Rarely did anyone oppose the position of chief, and that challenge came from within the line officers ranks. This year was different...
To understand a little further to what I mean is to understand the nature of volunteerism up by me. In the 1960's when my department started, it was the thing to do. Hell it was very elite to become a member of. You were constantly in the paper and your exploits charted. The 1970's, still somewhat the same, but standards were lowered so you got ALL aspects of people joining. Some actually there to help...some there for glory alone inspite of others work. Come the early 1980's, the place became a den of decadence that punished new introspection. Yet through it all, progress emerged and into the early 1990's we were a volunteer fire department that even NYFD crew would have of been proud to call in. Yet in the very late 1990's we went into a regression where we re-accepted members who left in the 70's and early 80's who were "Dead wood." But we though they were "rehabbed." God if we only knew.
These people were still the same type of non-firefighting jerkoffs that they were in the 1970's when they were in their prime. Taking what they can, giving nothing to the department. Yet we accepted them back. And as of tonight, they allowed one of their guys to legally run for chief in spite of the fact that since he was back he ran over a hose in a structure fire when guys were in a building cutting off their pressure wasn't suspended. He wasnt suspended for that. Yet he was allowed to run for chief this year. Against the second guy Brian, and to make matters worse...won. The elections are internal. No tax payer votes on it...and the best part is, the guy who won just had a triple bypass two weeks ago. There was a lot of internal betrayal in the department and a lot of bad blood. Lord knows I wanted to grab my rifle, but I was the voice of reason...I even talked THE MOST calm of guys out of kicking the shit of backstabbers.
Hell they allowed a guy to go from the equivelant of private to the rank of 5-star general overnight and all off his piece of shit flunkies to vote for him. God we all needed to go out and vent in and lord knows I lost a chunk of that venting here in the recap. I am extremely distraught over this, yet I was the voice of reason to them all. In post script though all his subbordinate guys that were coming up have resigned...they will not serve that incompetent ego-centric man. And the worst part is there is no one to replace the guys who resigned. The bylaws have such a restraint on who can move up and who cant....
The worst part is that Brian, the guy who lost is a guy who has done nothing but sacrifice himself for this department. Hell he even went out of the way for this department in spite of bein passed over for fireman of the year several times...once including to yours truly. The man is a consumate professional. Yet enough schmucks came back and elected him out cause they didnt like the way he talked to him. Hell lets throw away 20 years of fire tactics and hope for the best...good policy.
We have had the most docile of guys go out on rebellion against his loss...and the part I am not explaining right here is the fact that a lot of guys that elected Brian out, havent fought an interior fire since 1983, if they were lucky that late...young people got fucked over....all over politics. I feel like getting my rifle...