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WFD calls for service are up because there is no call screening going on. Every call gets a dispatch of some type. No communication and priorities set with local businesses, health care, nursing homes etc. ESPECIALLY so-called nonprofit organizations needing help with lift assists, etc. Private business should provide their own ambulance type expenses.

Another situation as an example of waste: This past year, one day on the scanner the animal control officer told police dispatch that they need just one twenty foot ladder to get a dog off a porch roof in Oakland Beach. The police dispatcher called Fire dispatch. Within one minute, the fire dispatch was heard dispatching two engine trucks and a ladder truck! What a joke. A sworn professional employee asked for one 20 foot ladder and 2 engines and a ladder truck were dispatched. A waste of resources and taxpayer money. The majority of these so-called increase in calls for service involve the use of Rescues. So cut trucks and get more rescues, instead of relying on mutual aid from other Cities. One day I was leaving Stop and Shop in Meadowbrook Plaza. The fire dispatch was requesting help from another City for a rescue need. Inside shopping at Stop & Shop was Rescue 3. That should never happen. No WFD vehicles should be shopping while on duty, but I've seen Ladder trucks and Resues there doing grocery shopping many, many times. If the administration is going to allow this waste, IT SHOULD NEVER BE A LADDER TRUCK OR RESCUE VEHICLE. Their are plenty of cars and SUV'S, WFD Vehicles, on the road cruising around. Use them for shopping, or better yet, alternate days where station employees shop before coming to work, for whatever is needed for that shift, like everyone else that pays there salaries. Many ways to reduce required funding, but no attempts being made to change old outdated, and unnecessary procedures because "WE'VE ALWAYS DONE IT THAT WAY .... AND ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY OF PERSONNEL! Spend Department money like it is your personal budget, not an open checkbook anymore!

TIME TO START DOING MORE WITH LESS, IN ALL CITY DEPARTMENTS, NOT JUST PICKING ON WFD ... EVERY DEPT. AND EVERY LEVEL OF GOVERNMENT!