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Sunday, April 19, 2015

Mayor Ireton Grandstanding Over Nuclear Option With Fire Department

While some are wondering WHY County Executive Bob Culver has remained quiet over the flamboyant Jim Ireton and his hissy fits over demanding the County pony up money for the alleged City's responding to County calls, allow me to further explain.

First of all, Ireton's treat is a load of crap. YOU should know that the County has already PAID the City for the fire service up to October of 2015, so Ireton can't stop anything. It's a BS threat.

More importantly, ever since day ONE, Bob Culver has been eyebrow deep in working on the County Budget. Bob is brand new to this extremely difficult budget and Jim Ireton knows it. For Jim, after all these years, it's a no brainer for Jim.

On the other hand, Bob has had to micro manage every department in the County from day one to get a clear understanding of their wants and needs. He has worked diligently doing just that and on behalf of the taxpayers you have NEVER seen such an in depth learning curve. Bob isn't depending on former staff to complete this task and he professionally dedicated the past 5 months getting a firm grip on things and as of yesterday delivered the final budget to the County Council. 

So where does that leave us. As of TODAY, Bob has the time to concentrate on all of the other concerns and Jim Ireton is simply taking advantage of Bob Culver, knowing he hadn't had the time to put up a fight. Ireton has been grandstanding against Bob just like he constantly did to Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen.

As for what we might see in the Fire Department in the future, well, Ireton better be damn careful what he wishes for. I say that on my own behalf because this is what I see. I see Delegate Carl Anderton as our new representative in Annapolis. I see the FACT that the County is in charge of the 911 service, NOT the City. IF the Fire Chief's choose to redistrict and expand their maps to cover the entire County, (which I believe is extremely possible and safe) the City will LOSE all County funding. I believe that comes to around $600,000.00 a year. That will force the City to once again increase taxes to pay for all of the PAID Firefighters.

I don't know how Executive Culver will handle this situation but let me assure all of you, Culver is NOT ignoring this situation by any means. He has had a LOT on his plate and as I stated above, the County has until OCTOBER to rectify this manufactured situation by Mayor Jim Ireton. The Press knows this as well, so they too are doing a disservice to the public as well. 

Bob is no dummy. While I would have enjoyed Bob having the free time to counter what Ireton has threatened, I understand and respect his priority choices, especially knowing there's an agreement until October. 

There, now you know why Bob Culver has chosen to remain quiet about this. While I'm at it I'm going to add, ALL of  the RUMORS about the Employee Handbook are a load of crap too. Some have stated Bob is taking away all kinds of benefits from the employees, TOTAL BS!

The changes are for FUTURE County Employees. When you are making $100,000.00 PLUS a year, you should NOT be getting COMP TIME! You either use it or lose it, period. Now I'm a FIRM believer that ANYONE on salary does NOT get comp time at all! Comp time is designed for the lower paid employees as an incentive. NOT at the executive level and I'm extremely confident ANY business owner reading this will firmly agree. 

So understand, not one employee currently working for the County will be impacted. Let the comments begin.

23 comments:

Jerry said...

What goes around comes around...
If Jim get his way he will be getting invoices from the County
Fire Departments for services rendered regarding Fire & EMS
services

The truth hurts. said...

Joe

Bob culver has been trying to work on the budget for over a hundred days to straighten out the fiasco the the idiot Rick Pollitt left behind for the 8 years of tax and spend everybody elses money and the mayor knows this So now i think its time to call the PT Mayor OUT on this BS Nuke option and watch him squirm like the little girl that the mayor is.

Anonymous said...

Expand the Volunteers in the county SCREW the city.

Anonymous said...

Man don't you hate it when people grand stand over issues ?

Anonymous said...

I had no idea the county funded the city till October. Ireton is a fool. Thanks for bringing this to light.

Anonymous said...

From outside of Wicomico country looking in, what I see as Salisbury's biggest difficulty is a mayor who is more interested in showing off than anything else. This city/county fire service "problem" didn't just develop recently. This is the perfect example of why Salisbury is quickly becoming The Crotch of the Eastern Shore.
A prudent mayor would have the forward thinking skills to have known this "problem" was going to happen and would have had it solved years ago. There is no debating this.

Anonymous said...

why didn't ireton have as much to say when rick (git'n ma belly") pollitt was executive? ireton had 6 years to challenge pollitt on the exact same matter. party politics is getting nauseating and awe too obvious. not being able to work well with others has always been heavy baggage for ireton

JoeAlbero said...

I'll add, when the Fire Department and the Mayor were blasting the taxpayers with millions of dollars worth of new fire stations and equipment, fire safety and public safety were priority #1.

Now all of a sudden the Mayor is pitting the Firefighters against the taxpayers and now public safety is no longer priority #1.

Jim Ireton is no different from former Governor O'Malley in the sense that these LIBERALS will throw out these BOMBS in the hopes of getting ANYTHING. An example, $18.00 to cross the Bay Bridge, settles for $8.00 in the end.

Again, Ireton never challenged Rick Pollitt like this and it's ALL based on how the Council restructured the City's borrowing and Ireton screwed the City taxpayers by doing so. The City's rating will drop in the near future and Ireton has to get money anywhere he can now.

The PRESS has a responsibility to dig into this MUCH further and because it's too much work they're simply following Ireton's lead.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Expand the Volunteers in the county SCREW the city.

April 15, 2015 at 10:27 AM

That's what I say. Let the vollies at Stations 1, 2 and 16 volunteer in Hebron, Delmar, Parsonsburg, Allen and Fruitland. Give them the territory and then bill the city the $1,000 ambulance fee that the city charges insurance. Charge the City $1,000 every time an ambulance resonds in the city limits whether they transport or not.

Charge $5,000 everytime a fire truck has to respond in the city limits whether it's a fire or not. Medical assist, car accident false fire alarms, etc.

After all Jim wants an equitable fire service agreement.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
I had no idea the county funded the city till October. Ireton is a fool. Thanks for bringing this to light.

April 15, 2015 at 10:30 AM

Every October at the Annual Fireman's Association Annual Banquet the County Exec and Council hand over a check to each and every fire department in Wicomico County. Salisbury is in Wicomico County.

Now it might not have an active date like October to October, but that is when the checks are dispersed to the fire companies.

Anonymous said...

1109 pass the word ASAP.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Expand the Volunteers in the county SCREW the city.

April 15, 2015 at 10:27 AM

Remember when Station #2 tried that under the Barrie Tilghman administration. The volunteers almost got that passed. Then Barrie and Lazy Ass wannabe fire chief David See did everything in their powers to make sure that didn't happen. They took the titles and the deed away from the vollies. They tried to get the county funds paid directly to the city.

Now that was a fiasco and that is exactly what Jim Ireton is starting right now. The volunteers at Station 2 are not trying to seceede, but the County should meet with the volunteers of all 3 stations and come up with a plan. Maybe they can find a location within the city that is centralized and start a new Wicomico County Volunteer Fire Department and give them the funding they give the city to get them started. I'm sure that could happen. The paid firemen and Jimbo would be squirming then. LOL.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
why didn't ireton have as much to say when rick (git'n ma belly") pollitt was executive? ireton had 6 years to challenge pollitt on the exact same matter. party politics is getting nauseating and awe too obvious. not being able to work well with others has always been heavy baggage for ireton

April 15, 2015 at 10:52 AM

That is exactly what was going on. Jimbo hates Republicans and he gave Rick Pollitt a pass on the so called fire service agreement. Now all of a sudden it has to get done immediately with scare tactics. Jim Ireton and Chuck Cook despise Republicans and some idiot Republicans try to kiss up to them. (J. Wellfonder, M. Boda, Anderton, etc.)

Jim Ireton and Rick Pollitt both thought they were going to get political positions under the Anthony Brown administration. (LMFAO). Thank God that didn't happen.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
why didn't ireton have as much to say when rick (git'n ma belly") pollitt was executive? ireton had 6 years to challenge pollitt on the exact same matter. party politics is getting nauseating and awe too obvious. not being able to work well with others has always been heavy baggage for ireton

April 15, 2015 at 10:52 AM

LMAO. I thought you were talking about Rick (git'n ma belly") Hoppes. Same issues. LOL.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget that Jim Ireton gladly accepted those Federal Tax Dollars to pay for that $1 Million fire boat. Guess what folks, that boat sits in the County limits and the agreement was to send that boat anywhere it is requested. Do you think Jim Ireton is going to violate that contract with the Feds?

Guess what Jim Ireton gladly accepted those 12 paid firemen through the Safer grant and even got an extension on funding. Although the grant has expired do you think Jim Ireton will go against the statistics they put down to acquire that grant?

Playing with peoples lives with a political football will flag the City of Salisbury for any future grants for the fire department. The city will be black listed forever because of Jim Ireton and Rick Hoppes. Someone should send a copy of that threat to the Governor's Office and to Andy Harris' Office to make sure they are aware of what those to clowns are doing to the citizens of Wicomico County. Send it to any and every Congressional Committee member who oversees the SAFER Grants. Especially the Republican members.

I hope they do!!

Anonymous said...

Don't forget that Jim Ireton gladly accepted those Federal Tax Dollars to pay for that $1 Million fire boat. Guess what folks, that boat sits in the County limits and the agreement was to send that boat anywhere it is requested. Do you think Jim Ireton is going to violate that contract with the Feds?

Guess what Jim Ireton gladly accepted those 12 paid firemen through the Safer grant and even got an extension on funding. Although the grant has expired do you think Jim Ireton will go against the statistics they put down to acquire that grant?

Playing with peoples lives with a political football will flag the City of Salisbury for any future grants for the fire department. The city will be black listed forever because of Jim Ireton and Rick Hoppes. Someone should send a copy of that threat to the Governor's Office and to Andy Harris' Office to make sure they are aware of what those to clowns are doing to the citizens of Wicomico County. Send it to any and every Congressional Committee member who oversees the SAFER Grants. Especially the Republican members.

I hope they do!!

One thing to keep in mind is that FEMA Grants have to go through Wicomico County Emergency Management. Who runs Wicomico County Emergency Management? Wicomico County. Rick Hoppes is pretty stupid playing games with the citizens of Wicomico County.

Anonymous said...

Salisbury Far Cheef Rick Hoppes lives on 5325 Wastegate Road in Parsonsburg, Maryland. Previous address was 624 Homer Street, Salisbury, Maryland. The Parsonsburg Volunteer Fire Department should give Rick Hoppes a Nuclear Option and not respond to his address for an emergency. Oh yeah Dummy Hoppes we just remembered that your mommy and daddy live in the County on Zion Road. How is your Nuclear Option going to work out for them? Are you going pick and choose calls to respond to if it's a family member? You can print his address because it's common knowledge and it's on Google.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget that Jim Ireton gladly accepted those Federal Tax Dollars to pay for that $1 Million fire boat. Guess what folks, that boat sits in the County limits and the agreement was to send that boat anywhere it is requested. Do you think Jim Ireton is going to violate that contract with the Feds?

Guess what Jim Ireton gladly accepted those 12 paid firemen through the Safer grant and even got an extension on funding. Although the grant has expired do you think Jim Ireton will go against the statistics they put down to acquire that grant?

Playing with peoples lives with a political football will flag the City of Salisbury for any future grants for the fire department. The city will be black listed forever because of Jim Ireton and Rick Hoppes. Someone should send a copy of that threat to the Governor's Office and to Andy Harris' Office to make sure they are aware of what those to clowns are doing to the citizens of Wicomico County. Send it to any and every Congressional Committee member who oversees the SAFER Grants. Especially the Republican members.

I hope they do!!

I've got an idea. Let's send this to the ISO so that every business in the Salisbury Fire District would have higher insurance premiums because of this childs play.

Anonymous said...

What exactly is comp time? I've never understood how that works.

Anonymous said...

Comp time is like overtime, but instead of money, you get the extra time you worked as time off at a later date. So, if you work four hours extra today, you can take four hours off on another day. Comp time hours can be accrued to a limit set by employer, and many employers also have rules that if you don't use your comp hours within a specified time, you lose them.

Anonymous said...

It was stated that the Salisbury Fire Dept would lose $600,000 from the County. What is the figure the State gives for Volunteers? I know that Conway always presented the Volunteers a yearly check for the State.
That was another reason See and Gordy was pushing Barrie Tilghman, Conway and Pollitt to get rid of the Vollies. I thought it was strange since Conway was supposedly a Vollie. So does anyone know the total of Wicomico and the States monetary total that Salisbury will screw itself out of. In which I hope they do. The Vollies were always respected until this fiasco happen and their moral was high and they would always act professional. I don't see that at all from these egotistical people wearing the Fire Fighters uniform. I am not including the small percentage that are professional and I respect highly.

Anonymous said...

Does Conway benefit from the volunteer retirement? That would amount to triple dipping!

Anonymous said...

Where is Rick Hoppes in all of this? The biggest problem here is and no one is even picking up on it. Jim Ireton is to stupid to know what is going on in his departments so he is tooting the horn of this mastermind.

That mastermind I am speaking of is Rick Hoppes. All of this comes from the inside and Rick Hoppes and John Tull are the real masterminds of this plan and they both need to be fired over this.

Jake Day are you paying attention?? Those two will be your problem and you need to fix that cancer before you become part of the problem as the next mayor!!