Alderman Brad Judd has proposed privatizing the Rolling Meadows (IL) Fire Department as a cost-cutting measure, according to a report in the Daily Herald. The matter is slated to be debated at a committee meeting in Rolling Meadows on Tuesday, March 16. A Facebook page, “Support Rolling Meadows Firefighters and Paramedics,” has been set up urging residents to attend the meeting.
The below commentary is from Fire Engineering Editor in Chief Bobby Halton:
Fire Engineering stands firmly behind the Rolling Meadows (IL) Fire Department remaining a public entity. There is grave danger with entrusting public safety to private companies. The fire department by the very nature of its mission has a fiduciary responsibility that is a responsibility that’s based on trust, a trust that, regardless of the consequences, danger, and possible risks, firefighters will respond. When one contracts such important matters as public safety to private companies, that ennobled trust is now replaced with a financial agreement.
Money is not why the men and women of the Rolling Meadows (IL) Fire Department joined, nor why they risk their treasure and give of their time. The fire department has always been closely associated with a higher moral calling, with a deeper and richer connection to those intrinsic values that make us different from other animals. In nature, most animals put themselves ahead of every other consideration. As firefighters, as public servants, we find ourselves connected with a much higher calling–doing the work we believe honors our personal values, our nation’s values. and our faiths.
There are other methods which every city should be looking at in order to decrease the financial burden of public safety on its citizens. Cross-trained firefighter medics provide the widest array of services of any modern worker at a cost which is a fraction of what a city would have to invest to cover those services from private provider. Publicly managed fire departments can function in a variety of hazardous environments seamlessly with other public safety entities. Privately held entities often do not have the same capabilities because of the need for background checks and other issues which are covered by fire department contracts and union agreements.
Now is the time for the administration of the Rolling Meadows community to be looking at ways to maximize the potentiality of the incredible men and women that make up the Rolling Meadows (IL) Fire Department. They should be looking at ways to create enterprise zones within their existing fire department. There are many examples where private entities try to replace public fire departments; all of them sounded great initially. In my opinion, none of them ended up that way.
