Reply to a comment

I will not identify anyone as an island-idiot. What I will ask the citizens of Marco Island is to make evaluations of risk and look at the suggestions that the city is recommending.

Look at the how Mr. Murphy evaluates risk and watch council cringe when safety is at stake. Safety is typically used at council meetings to justify expenditures without discussion of risk management. They use great talking points but never actually show real Marco Island data. Ask if there are changes on Marco Island, since it became a city, that make it more unsafe? In other words, since 2000 we have had fire hydrants that were placed per specifications detailed in the layout of water lines that were approved by the state of Florida and Collier County.

Now in 2010, in a economic climate that is placing undue financial strain on many residents, the city is embarking on expensive projects and expansion of personnel. (Review the initial request for a tanker truck last spring). And the tanker with 3 additional firefighters, one per shift for support. And this "solution" is an interim solution to inadequate water distribution. Unbelievable.

Given this economic backdrop, I watch a city address catastrophic risk by requesting 1.2MM contingency fund for a oil spill and now a tanker and all its trimmings. This is the "outside the box" strategy from those responsible for safety.

In returning to the term island-idiot, Mr. Murphy from my perspective behaves more like a politician than a safety professional. He constantly claims safety is the issue but he disregards the professional nature of the men and women he represents. He diminishes the capability of the equipment and personnel he currently has and simply laments that he needs more.

I am sorry but I lost confidence in Mr. Murphy when I watched him actually claim that a shell driveway was a safety hazard. He in essence, made the indirect claim that his staff was not adequately prepared to handle emergency situations and ran the risk of increased back injury. Quite a perspective for a Fire Chief.

I am not a firefighter nor a policemen, but I grew up listening to stories around the kitchen table of fire incidences and the occasional breakdown of command or equipment failure or loss of life. Our family was immersed in this climate and I became intimately aware. But to create a sense that this island is compromised from a perspective of safety, is far from what I heard listening to those that told their stories so many years ago.

If you wish to continue to use the term island-idiot, I suggest you redirect the term to those that are responsible for managing the city or departments for the welfare of its citizens and choose to misinterpret the responsibility.

Or maybe I expect too much in those that I rely on to protect me from harm, both financial and incendiary.