RichardSpackmann.com

Rest in Peace Chief Windsor Cote

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 16:57:49 -0500

It is with sadness that I must write with notification of the passing of Charter Member and Chief Windsor Cote.

Chief Cote was the first Chief of the Greenfield Fire District and it is believe that Chief Cote was the last living Charter member of the GFD.

I had the distinct honor and privilege of speaking with Chief Cote during our 55th GFD Banquet. I wanted to talk about how he was feeling, and how he liked the retirement home, but he wanted to discuss nothing other than our fire district. Chief Cote told me that "he was very proud of the Greenfield Fire District" - a feeling that we all have in common. He said, "I would have never have imagined how big this thing (GFD) could have grown, I thought it (the idea) was never going to take off."

I remember listening intently to all the stuggles and stories that Chief Cote told me about getting the fire district established, and what it was like trying to get equipment and monies to buy tools and trucks. There was certainly no shortage of stories from the Chief, but I remember cherishing all of them.

As fellow firefighters of the GFD, we owe gratitude to our Charter members, the men and women - like Chief Cote, who helped create the organization that we too have all come to love and serve. As community members, we owe a much larger debt for it is they who created the organization that keeps our homes safe and our families protected. And that is a debt that we can never repay.

Chief Cote, may you rest in peace sir.

Ladder Truck Reserve Vote Passes

Wed, 8 Jun 2011 12:11:20 -0500

I wanted to extend a big "thank you" to all who supported the fire district's resolution to create a ladder truck reserve fund.

As per the referendum, the reserve account will be used to "finance the cost of the purchase of a ladder truck." This is a huge step forward and I hope a final solution to prevent financial oversights by the Board in the future regarding the replacement of the ladder.

The unofficial results are: YES: 53; NO: 10; VOID: 0

These results (and the official results) will be posted on the fire district's website in the near-future.

R.I.P. Bryan King

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 19:42:49 -0500

I received sad news today that brother Bryan King lost his long battle with cancer.

During his career, Bryan played a huge role in the Greenfield Fire District.

Bryan rose to the rank of Lieutenant in the Maple Avenue Fire Company. He was later elected to the Board of Fire Commissioners, where he also served as Chairman of the Board.

Bryan served as the district liaison during the construction of the Maple Avenue firehouse. There is no question that the success of that major project was due to the countless hours that he personally spent on site working with all the contractors day in and day out.

While I have a great many fond memories serving with Bryan, I like to share a particular one with you.

Shortly after moving into the new firehouse, some members and I were hanging new pictures and plagues in the meeting room. That afternoon a call came in for a motor vehicle accident - a car into a house. It just so happens that this accident, and the house the car hit, was Bryan's neighbor's house - in fact, the car drove across Bryan's front lawn.

The passenger compartment was actually filling up with heavy black smoke and there was a small engine compartment fire - and to make matters worse, the patient was trapped. I was ordered to grab a hose line and simultaneously extinguish the fire and ventilate the passenger compartment.

The extrication was hampered because the car was a third of the way into the house. That was one of the more intense calls I’ve responded to, and I remember thinking "please God, don’t let this man burn up." I remember hearing Bryan say "I can get my loader, and we can pull the car out of the house - then we can cut him out." I knew then, that everything was going to be okay. I have no doubt that our efforts that day saved a man's life.

And that was the type of man Bryan was, always there to lend a helping hand, whenever it was needed, and he served our great community with honor and distinction.

He was a community servant, a great father, a loving grandfather, a loyal friend and a brother firefighter.

Through this tragedy I take comfort in knowing that Bryan's servitude will live on through his son Nate (who himself is a past Deputy Chief) and his grandson Zack, who I have no doubt will join our brotherhood in good time.

May you rest in peace brother, you will be missed.

February Purchasing System Presentation

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:41:20 -0500

I had to move the purchasing system presentation to the February Commissioners meeting - we have had a packed agenda every meeting since January 1st.

So this presentation was given at the February Commissioner's meeting at the Porter Corners.

The presentation itself was only about 10-15 minutes with questions, but the demonstration lasted probably another 15 minutes - so everyone who attended the meeting got a pretty good look at what the system can do.

Purchasing System Presentation (143kb - powerpoint)

All in all, there was alot of positive feedback regarding the system - and I hope that this system will greatly improve the business workflow of our fire district!

As always, contact me with any questions that you have.

Proposed GFD Purchasing System Unveiling

Sun, 2 Jan 2011 11:12:24 -0500

So it's been a long time coming, but I can finally start to reveal the GFD Purchasing System that I have been developing since March of last year (2010).

I started working on the system after identifying a variety of issues in how the GFD has historically purchased equipment.

Officers would run out of requisitions, and sometime it would be hard to meet up with the purchasing agent to get new paper forms.
Orders that were "back logged", or "out of stock" when processed by the purchasing agent were often perceived as left in "limbo" simply because this information wasn't relayed back to the people who requested the equipment.
Like above, there really wasn't any way of "tracking orders" after officers handed them off to the purchasing agent. For example, there was no way of knowing how long it took the purchasing agent to order the equipment, and then once delivered, how long it took for the officers to actually receive the equipment. Sometimes the equipment was in the office (for lengthy periods of time), but this information was miss-communicated.
Signing of purchase requests (for the most part) really only happens at Commissioner meetings - when Commissioners are present to sign the purchase orders. That's not a *horrible* practice, but its inefficient because that gives a 1 month overhead to getting orders processed, ordered and delivered - because that process can't begin until the request is approved.

There are, naturally, commercial grade purchasing software packages available for purchase. Unfortunately, these packages often have (1) high price tags and (2) a complexity of business features (aimed at corporations) that simply are not required by the GFD.

So I decided to create an entirely new system (that makes it free), customized to the needs of the GFD (that makes it useful) - and all of the downfalls listed above are addressed in this system. Features of the purchasing system:

Email notification to any one who submits a requisition. These emails notify users when (1) a requisition is approved by the Board, (2) when it is processed by the purchasing agent, (3) when it is ordered, and (4) when its delivered.
Commissioners can approve an requisition submitted online - so there's no waiting to approve requisitions at monthly Commissioner meetings. In fact, Commissioners get email notifications when a requisition has been submitted for approval.
The ability to track any changes to a requisition - so if a purchasing agent puts on a requisition "on back order", the person can see that on the requisition itself
The ability to search on all previous requisitions - to see what was ordered by a particular company/officer - and therefore determine if something is required to be ordered again (cuts down on duplication of orders).

And many more...

The GFD has grown to such a size and magnitude that it has become a bottleneck in processing paperwork. Granted, this is part of being a business, but in this day and age, technology gives us the methods to make pretty much any process easier (and also cheaper).

There's no reason since it is now 2011 not to use a system like this to streamline purchasing within the GFD.

And here are some screen shots.

I plan on giving a public presentation at the January workshop (end of this month) on this system. This idea of having an easier purchasing system has been talked about for the past two years - let alone this year, so I assume that this system will be readily accepted an integrated into operation sometime (early) this year.

Any questions in the meantime, just let me know.

Rip and Run Update

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 21:28:56 -0500

I have turned the text messaging operation back on and its fully working. For a long time the text messaging functionality was non-operating due to an authorization change with Twitter.

I took this opportunity to spend a vast amount of time upgrading a variety of aspects of the system - I basically spent the better part of two weeks really optimizing the Rip and Run system's speed and efficiency.

End users won't immediately notice any changes to the functionality, but what is special about the new changes is that the system can now handle a lot more calls at once. For one fire company, that's not an issue, but its particularly important if this system was ever used to handle a county sized load (i.e. all the calls at a given time across the county).

There's certainly no lack of work to still be done on the system, but the system in the current form is in a very strong and stable version.

Any questions, let me know.

2011 Fire District Budget Thoughts

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 11:46:12 -0500

There has been many discussions regarding the 2011 Greenfield Fire District budget, and I'd like to take some time here and reflect on some observations pertaining to recent budget discussions.

It's always difficult discussing the budget - I find it probably the most challenging part of being a Fire Commissioner. I find it particularly difficult making decisions that take monies out of peoples' pockets - but its the job I volunteered and was elected to do.

If there's one thing the GFD has a vast supply off, it is dedication and passion - but we also have a vast supply of opinions. And I respect them all.

But it does make it increasingly difficult to consider another person's viewpoint when their negative criticism is unfounded.

For the record, I'm not entirely 100% happy with the budget - there are somethings included in it that I don't entirely agree with. But at the end of the day, there were many concessions made during the budget's construction (on "both sides of the isle") - and that is exactly how it should work.

I have worked very hard to bring this fire district closer together, to make it function more like a business - and its been trying at times. So when I see a process that takes 3+ months, countless discussions, and 3+ meetings to create a budget that everyone had input into - I wouldn't have it any other way, its a great example of bringing the GFD together (As a side note, you need not travel far to find examples of frivilous spending in fire districts/local government - I know of no other fire district that spends 3+ months of time to create a budget in a transparent manner such as ours).

One of the deciding points for me to run for Fire Commissioner 6 years ago was remembering when the Board of Fire Commissioners asked the fire officers for a list of items that should be included in the budget. Once this list was received, Board members literally laughed and threw it into the waste basket (as a side note, while this action is exceptionally rude, I can find no better example of poor leadership than to deflate the morale of your employees).

Talk about a wonderfully poor example of the lack of teamwork and the lack of a budget creation process.

Fast forward to today, we have a budget process that:

includes firefighters
includes fire district officers
and now (finally!) includes taxpayers
we send out newsletters informing everyone of the budget meetings (I know of no other fire district that does this)
we post our budgets online (we did this before it was state law to do so!)

So these are just a handful of examples that show how far the fire district has come - even if some refuse to acknowledge all the work and progress we have made.

There is also some complexity to creating the budget that many residents don't realize. For example, the Board can calculate the tax rate per 1000, and have it *completely* change after all the property assessments are finalized.

This is entirely out of the Board of Fire Commissioners control - its just the system that we are given to use, and we have no choice but to use it.

For example, I believe it was five years ago that the Board created a budget that was actually like less than a 1% increase, but after all the property assessments and re-evaluations were done (after the budget was passed), it actually turned out to be like a 4% increase - which was totally not the intent of the Board of Fire Commissioners.

Last year, the tax rate actually went down - due to assessments that were finalized after the our budget was passed.

This is very frustrating, but as I said earlier, its the system we are given to use, and its beyond our control.

The point I'm trying to make is that the creation of the budget is by no means a trivial task. And as I always do, I encourage everyone to participate throughout the entire budget process - not just the one meeting where we actually show the tentative budget. At that point it's arguably too late. Still, if that's the only meeting you can make - then bringing suggestions and questions to the Board's attention would be beneficial to the overall budget process. That is distinctly different than spewing frustration and boundless criticism that adds nothing to the process, but rather detracts from it.

The fact is that the Board members (myself in particular) are extremely accessible - we are more than able and willing to meet/discuss with anyone any topic - in this particular case, anything regarding the budget. These discussions/questions do not have to wait until the formal budget hearing - which as I previously explained, is arguably too late.

Another point I want to illustrate is that the 2011 budget is monumentally and radically different from any other budget in the history of the GFD.

For the first time the Board of Fire Commissioners has removed the company allotments from the budget - this accounts for $22,000 out of the budget. I have been a proponent of company allotments over the years - I believe that they give our Chief officers a "piece of the pie" - some responsibility, and makes them a teammate in running the GFD. That being said, the Board collectively thought that it is far past time to start trying to "tighten the control" on spending, and to be more critical of spending overall. While this was met with some small frustration by district officers - they eventually understood and agreed with what the Board is trying to do. They realize that we all need to change our spending considering the current economic climate.

I can think of no other time in the history of the GFD where officers and Commissioners agree on cutting spending and the need to be more fiscally conservative - and I am very happy to see this new focus and direction.

A great example of the change in philosphy is that the Board is in the process of selling off two pieces of apparatus - ETA292 (Company #4) and ETA262 (Company #1). The Future Plan Committee has recognized the very real need to downsize our fleet - and is actively pursuing options to continue to downsize the fleet.

This mirrors nicely with the recent discussions of the Future Plan Committee - which was formed after many difficult questions were asked at the start of the year. As many recall, this year started off (with what some would mislabel as a "bang") with some very critical observations and analysis of the GFD.

I took the blunt of the blame for this, even though I was only asking questions on behalf of many other residents, but I'm okay with that because I believe its always good (and essential) for an organization to look within itself and ask how it can improve, how it can be better (and don't think that these types questions will stop being asked! We must continuously analyize ourselves and ask what we can do better!).

But there was a great conclusion that came out of these tough questions - and basically (and even residents went on record saying this) it was decided that the GFD should continue to function as it is currently defined (four firehouses) and continue to look at ways to improve itself - to make it leaner and meaner.

So while some don't subscribe to the fact that the fire district should exist the way its currently defined, unfortunately for them, that's what was decided after those meetings - and (now that we have this decided for us by our public), I plan on moving this organization into the future.

I have been no shy critic of the GFD at times. I could talk ad nauseum about the various issues and problems with the GFD - my whole career as Commissioner has been focused on addressing problems (and mistakes) generated by my predecessors. And simply put, you don't solve all of these problems without funding. But I consider it my duty as an elected official to make this organization better, to grow it into more of a business, and to bring it into the 21st century.

I realize that some disagree with this, they would much rather have their fire taxes cut in half - irregardless of what happens the GFD organization. But as I observed, and everyone who attended the meetings earlier this year observed, this organization will and must move forward as one unitied organization of four firehouses. My goal will be to minimize the funding needed to accomplish this, but rest assured, the many sizeable mistakes of my predecessors will not be solved without expense.

As always, if you have any questions regarding the budget, feel free to email me.

R.I.P. Brother Akin

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 08:48:00 -0500

There have been numerous news reports about a LODD of a Ghent firefighter named William Akin.

While responding to an emergency FF Akin went off the road and struck an electrical pole. It is unknown what caused FF Akin to go off the road, but it is believed to be medical related.

It's always sad to get news like this. Here is a link to a CBS 6 story:

http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/akin-1279513-sheriff-harrison.html

My thoughts and prayers go out to our brothers and sisters in Ghent FC and Brother Akin's family.

Rest in Peace brother!

Fall 2010 Newsletter

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 23:08:19 -0500

Here is a sneak peak at the Fall 2010 Greenfield Fire District newsletter.

Thanks to all who helped, it is quite lengthy and full of great information about all the great stuff our volunteers do for our community!

The newsletter is tentatively scheduled to be mailed in the middle of September - I'll try and post back with updates.

Download the newsletter here.

Any questions, just let me know.

Porter Corners "Clerk of the Works" Advertisement

Fri, 2 Jul 2010 13:43:56 -0500

I volunteered to write up an advertisement to solicit resumes for position of "Clerk of the Works" for the exterior renovations at the Porter Corners firehouse.

This advertisement is tentatively scheduled to be placed in the paper next Thursday.

Any questions, let me know!

The Greenfield Fire District is soliciting resume's for the position of "Clerk of the Works" for a multi-month construction project at the Porter Corners firehouse located at 405 Bockes Road, Porter Corners, NY 12859.

The Clerk of the Works is expected to present verbal and written reports of the construction progress at regularly scheduled night public meetings of the Board of Fire Commissioners. The Clerk of the Works' primary responsibility will be to oversee the construction project and ensure that the Greenfield Fire District's best interests are fulfilled as well ensuring that the construction project is on schedule and adhering to plans approved by the Greenfield Fire District Board of Fire Commissioners. Additional responsibilities may be added by the Board of Fire Commissioners at their discretion.

We encourage all applicants to attend meetings of the Board of Fire Commissioners to better inform themselves of the fire district as well as to acquaint themselves to the construction project throughout the drafting phase.

Resumes and cover letters can be mailed no later than August 1st at the following address:

Greenfield Fire District Board of Fire Commissioners P.O. Box 103 Greenfield Center, NY 12833

Resumes may also be hand delivered to the district office.

Construction is expected to begin late summer/early fall and continue through to the end of fall/winter.

The scope of the work is currently being drafted where specific work requirements will be determined.

Wages and salaries will be dependent upon experience, qualifications and the scope of work.

Letters of recommendations may be requested during the application process.

The Greenfield Fire District is an equal opportunity employer.

R.I.P. Soldier David Taylor Miller

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:04:48 -0500

News just came out of the loss of another of our country's heroes David Taylor Miller - a 2009 graduate of Saratoga Springs High School. He was lost protecting our freedom in Afghanistan.

See the Post Star online article for more information.

My heartfelt condolences to his family, we will never forget his ultimate sacrifice in protecting us.

Fire Instructor I Training

Sun, 7 Feb 2010 10:03:42 -0500

I will be leaving for one week to go to the NYS Fire Academy in Montour Falls to take the Fire Instructor 1 course.

I will be gone for a week but will have access to voice mail and email - all urgent issues please see Commissioner Waite.

Any questions, please just let me know.

Acting Chairman Through April 2010

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:24:16 -0500

I will once again be serving as acting chairman of the board of commissioners while the current Chairman is away on vacation.

There was substantial support from the officers and other members of the Board to support me for the actual Chairman position, and while I am very honored by this, I can not in good conscious take the position with my current workload.

I know that there has already been some big discussions around cost-cutting measures. The Board has been discussing this for a few weeks now and at the January workshop, we will be discussing some options we have been researching for a few months now - and I hope that this movement continues forward through the rest of the year.

Any questions, please contact me.

District Year-End Monies

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:21:23 -0500

As is the norm with municipalities, when the fiscal year comes to an end, any unspent funds are usually directed to savings acounts or to other projects. The GFD has an annual "year-end close of the books" meeting to expend any remaining funds and to wrap up business for the year (this year's "year-end meeting" is on December 30th at the Greenfield Center firehouse).

As is always the case, there is a lot of discussion about what we should focus on for year end monies. Generally what usually happens is that Commissioners field requests from officers for funding for various projects that were either (1) denied throughout the year (due to a variety of reasons - which could be financial) or (2) are "outreach" projects which aren't necessarily given a priority funding - but are "nice to have".

For this year's focus I would prefer to address the following:

Apparatus Equipment Mounting: one of the things that came out of the apparatus consultant survey was that we need to do a much better job of mounting equipment in our trucks - whether it is in the cab or compartments. The labor required to redo the mounting is fairly large per truck, and the mounting parts aren't the cheapest either - considering their NFPA design requirements.

As this is a safety issue, this should be given priority funding - and I'm pleased to see many of our officers already working on this task, in preparation for the year-end meeting.
Hose Replacement: this was the first year the fire district (finally!) tested hose across the district and we found a vast amount of the district hose inventory failed the testing, and had to be removed from service.

Granted that not all this hose has to be replaced all at once, we can put it on a multi-year replacement schedule to help soften the expense - but we certainly need to replace the priority pieces - the one's that failed on our trucks for example. Naturally, I'll be looking to our officers to make that determination, and we'll try and accomodate that listing.
Fire Police Radios: with the county transition to higher-band radio frequencies, the GFD has already purchased some high-band radios, and we have discovered that they are actually much cheaper than their low-band counterparts. I have worked closely with the fire police over the past couple of years and I have discovered that they have been under-funded for many years.

Their radio inventory is quite old and antiquated, and unfortunately, has taken a second place to other funding priorities - and this simply must be stopped. Communication when you are standing in the middle of a road is essential to our firefighter's safety, and the radios that are currently utilized by our fire police are half-broken, unreliable and are in need of replacing.

I see no reason that we can't start replacing the fire police radio inventory this year.

Naturally this is not a complete listing and priority items identified by our firematic officers will of course get consideration.

In any case, I wanted to start the creative juices flowing, and to shed some light on what my preferences for year-end monies would be.

Any questions, please just let me know.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:30:34 -0500

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

I wish everyone the very best this Thanksgiving!