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© St. Petersburg Times, published March 6, 2001
Editor: As president of the Professional Firefighters of Spring Hill, I have the pleasure of working alongside and representing the most talented, dedicated emergency workers this community, if not this state, has to offer.
Regrettably, and much too often, we find ourselves embarrassed and having to defend ourselves for being embroiled in the firestorm of negative publicity usually attributed to our Board of Fire Commissioners.
Most recently, their purchase of portable radios for a few select board members helps to illustrate my point.
The Professional Firefighters of Spring Hill are preparing for collective bargaining discussions with the district. We are not professional athletes, demanding nine-figure salaries. We are, however, professionals who take a special, dangerous risk for 24 hours, every third day. For this, I feel we have the right to expect an amicable process, which should result in fair wages and the preservation of current benefits.
The fire commission, led by Chairman Bob Kanner, and on a motion made by Commissioner Jeff Hollander, has taken an unprecedented step to see that bargaining in good faith is not adopted. The board voted unanimously to hire an outside labor firm to conduct these negotiations.
Six years ago, a previous board hired an attorney for the same purpose. This decision proved adversarial, early and throughout.
Ultimately, this attorney quit, and negotiations eventually concluded. The end result was a drastic change in labor-management relations and a cost of thousands of dollars to the district.
The board has chosen to hire an outside labor lawyer to handle these negotiations. When reminded of how this failed miserably in the past, the board chose to ignore the advice.
This board has, in my opinion, taken fiduciary negligence to another level. Kanner asked for and received a figure this attorney expects to require for his services: $25,000-$35,000. The board budgets $4,000 for labor attorneys. This fee would represent as much as a 775 percent overexpenditure.
The board's labor attorney says he will be charging $175 per hour. Taking his estimated total figure ($35,000) divided by his hourly rate ($175) shows me that not only are most of us in the wrong line of work, but he will need 200 hours of billed time to get this process concluded -- this amount of time for a document that was totally rewritten and passed legal scrutiny six years ago, and remains relatively unchanged.
It makes sound budgetary and collective bargaining sense to negotiate directly, management to labor.
At the conclusion of the process, both sides present a working document to their attorneys for review. Naturally, if talks digress, attorneys could and should be brought in sooner. Never have talks deteriorated to this point.
Now Kanner will say, and has said, no employees will be hurt by this process. When I pass this comment on to my members, I must follow it by reminding them that some board members have turned talking out of both sides of their mouth into an art form.
In a Times article March 4, two board members said they would be willing to drop the attorney once talks began. If they would be willing to do it, then why not start the process without the attorneys?
I implore this board, on behalf of my members, to rethink this decision. Allowing management and labor to meet directly will expedite the process, keep costs down, and reinstall some trust that, quite frankly, is gone.
-- John Ferreiro, president Professional Firefighters of Spring Hill
Editor: I am absolutely amazed at the number of auto accidents I see in the Spring Hill area, some of which result in very serious, life-altering injuries. However, most of these accidents are never heard about.
Perhaps you could start writing a few sentences about each accident. If that is too much, start a weekly listing of all the accidents and injuries. This would serve as a reminder to everyone to be careful.
The newspaper is a very powerful medium. I am making this suggestion because I can't help but think perhaps a better awareness of all the accidents and injuries would help to heighten each driver's attention to the rules of the road.
-- Kathy Stanina, Spring Hill
Editor: After reading the article about the 13-year-old boy who died in Bradenton because of bacterial meningitis, and the numerous students who have contracted this disease, I am compelled to share additional information with the more than 121,000 residents in Hernando County.
Two years ago, I read about nine students contracting bacterial meningitis in Putnam County, one dying from this and many others suffering horribly. It prompted me to do extensive research on bacterial meningitis, mostly from the Internet and contacting several health departments on the west coast of Florida.
After reading many letters from parents (on the Internet and some in the newspaper), I was shocked to hear that bacterial meningitis can be prevented because there is a bacterial meningococcal vaccine available. This disease mostly affects adolescents 13 to 21 years of age, but also can affect older adults. I have read that in many cases when this disease progresses, limbs need to be amputated, and how those who have had this disease suffer horribly.
After researching what I thought to be enough information about this, I called the Hernando County Health Department and asked for the serum for my children and me, as I had one child in high school and several years from now will have another in high school. I was told the county does not have the serum, and could not get it, but to go to my family physician and obtain shots for my children.
I went to our family physician and was told it is not in our budget to obtain the serum. After much running around, I called WFLA-TV Eight On Your Side, and was told there haven't been enough fatalities on the west coast of Florida, and that they did not feel it was newsworthy enough to investigate my findings. At about the same time, our Health Department was supplying the serum for hepatitis shots to be given to students entering the seventh grade. These shots are a series of three given over a 4- to 6-month period. These shots are a requirement for students entering the seventh grade. Florida has a law that all immunizations for children are free.
Several weeks ago, upon hearing about the cases of bacterial meningitis in Tampa, I again called our Health Department and again was told the same information as two years ago: We do not have the serum, and there are not enough cases to do anything about it.
This time I called state Sen. Ginny Brown-Waite and discussed it at length with her. Brown-Waite is a mom and grandmother and also has children that this disease could affect. I don't have any doubt about the love she has for children, hers or yours. It has been reported that Florida has more than 200 cases a year of bacterial meningitis, but these cases are isolated and appear not to be important enough to ensure every one of our children is immunized against this disease, even though the vaccine is available.
I also am disappointed in the reasoning of the Health Department, looking at the cases in which students have died from this, instead of preventing just one death.
Please write or e-mail Brown-Waite in Tallahassee, and flood our newspapers with your concerns about getting this vaccine put on the list for our children.
They should not die from an unnecessary illness that can be prevented.
-- Mary Jo Artura, Spring Hill
The Hernando Times welcomes letters from readers for publication.
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