The way I see it, the sitting fire board IS REFORMING the fire department by undoing all of the evils that (you) Dible, Blauert, Christensen and Erik had done and letting the new (well not any longer) Fire Chief DO HIS JOB!

M. Brown, you won’t find Willy’s name because he doesn’t exist.

I didn’t know that you work for SFD and have inside knowledge of the call at La Posada. Oh wait you don’t, you drove by and that makes you an expert on the situation. Did you know the firefighters were able to locate the source of the fire and stop any spread before the whole development was impacted? The hook and ladder (there are no hooks) was instrumental in the early location of the issue which meant no water needed to be discharged into the building causing no further damage. Next time the US launches a satellite into space could you comment on that, I’m sure your valuable expertise and insight would be helpful to all.

I would pencil in $2.2 million for the Fire Department for the city and magically everyone’s tax bill will go down by at least two thirds. Let’s start a petition to get our own fire department.

I apologize if you think that I’m nasty and personally attack people. There are people in this town who purposely disseminate the wrong information just to get attention or want to look “smarter then a second grader”; those are the people that I will and do confront head on.

You on the other hand seem to ask some very real questions and I have a very simple answer. Our fire chief is the point of contact and he is very open to questions from the community. In the case of the incident at Judi’s, like you said, you may have missed something. But, if you really want to know, CALL THE CHIEF to get real answers.

As to your questions about the mil rate and taxes, I know that during the budget workshops Chief Kazian gave a great presentation addressing those same questions. So if you really want to know, the Chief really wants to tell you. All you have to do is call him.

The problem was the decision about who should respond became the important issue: CITY of Los Angeles or COUNTY of Los Angeles and it was, after all, Christmas day, a holiday. (of course it was legal to use “Christmas” back then.)

Just be happy we don’t have that argument here within our own fire DISTRICT (yet anyhow.)

Did anyone happen to notice the activity at La Posada Shopping Center where Judi’s Restaurant is last Thursday afternoon around 4 p.m.? There were two ambulances, 1 Hook and Ladder Truck sitting on the street between Geo Moore’s office and Judi’s, 3 fire trucks, 4 Sedona police cars and NO SMOKE! No water in the parking lot or road. There were two water hoses extended that were flat, 1 actual ladder going up to the roof above the flower shop, and people just standing around. Granted I’m sure I must have missed something yet I didn’t miss the Hook and Ladder truck near the site and just sitting there costing $$$$$.

Hummm how expensive was all that over kill of responders?

SFD is a fire DISTRICT and is its own government and has its own budget separate from the city. All of those other agencies are fire DEPARTMENTS who’s budget is under the city that employees them.

In a fire DISTRICT they have to pay for everything that they use or own such as insurance, utilities, infrastructure and such.

With most fire Departments (and all police departments) they are under a budget from the city that employees them. So the city will pay for everything except for the staff that is dedicated to the department. This includes insurance, utilities and such.

So those figures are not as we say, “apples to apples”. But, I’m sure that YOU KNOW THAT, you just like to stir the pot. Sort of like shouting FIRE in a movie theater.