This Letter to the Editor was published in the June 8, 2012, edition of the Clinton Herald.
      For the past  six months the Clinton Fire Department has been beating the drum to operate an “Out of Town Ambulance Transfer Service for Mercy Hospital.” During the past 160 years of existence the CFD has never provided out of town ambulance service.
     The city of Clinton needs to take care of their own people and our own problems.
Mercy Hospital could solve this problem by buying an ambulance or contracting with Medic for another ambulance. They have clearly chosen not to.
     The city already has 26 lawsuits pending and has had 92 worker’s comp cases filed against the city in the last five years.
     The insurance company is not smiling and we do not need more lawsuits, more risk, or more liability problems from hauling people out of town.
     Meanwhile, the Clinton Fire Department which never takes “no” for an answer and has caused many of our problems, is using the transfer issue to expand the empire.
     Every CFD argument is always framed with emotional rhetoric such as “Lives may be in jeopardy,” “Every minute that passes may mean life or death;” this time they forgot to put in the usual “Will have to close the Lyons Station.”
     We need to move beyond threats and solve problems at city hall.
     While this out of town transfer issue is basically small potatoes and is clearly something we should not be doing, it certainly highlights financial and other related problems facing city hall.
     The Clinton Fire Department is being given preferential treatment from deep budget cuts at the expense of other city departments and this is causing problems. Plus, block voting based on personal whims does a great disservice to the voters and is a slap in the face to the taxpayers of this community.
     Numerous union and non-union jobs have been totally eliminated. Departments such as Planning, IT, and Human Resources have been completely eliminated.
The building code is non-functional with no inspectors, money or enforcement.
There are only six workers left in the Streets Dept.
     The Police, Public Works, Finance, Library, Transit, and Recreation departments have all had substantial budget cuts and elimination of jobs.  
     About 80 percent of the General Fund tax dollars are going toward wages and benefits. There are few dollars left for operations. Because of past financial mistakes and poor decisions city hall is essentially broke. City hall struggles to provide most services and there is little money left to fund much needed improvements.
     Most city departments are now operating under extreme shortages of manpower, money and equipment.
     The end result is a city government that cannot start or fund many of the projects that are needed.
     The city is operating on the principle of constantly raising taxes and fees.
     Today many cities are looking to privatizing or get out of services such as EMS Ambulance Service. The city of Davenport does not provide EMS Ambulance service. East Moline voters recently turned down a request by the Fire Department to start an EMS Ambulance Service. It is not a mandated service.
     The 2012-2013 budget shows about $2.2 million in expenses to operate the EMS Ambulance Service. This is about the largest amount of tax dollars in the budget for what is considered a non-essential service.
     Elimination of the EMS service would help solve the lack of manpower, money, equipment problems, and capital improvements that are clearly needed for police and other city departments.
     It would be wise for the city to complete a study on the potential cost savings available to taxpayers by eliminating the EMS service.
     The voters can decide by referendum if we should do nothing, contract the EMS service out, privatize it, or perhaps levy a special tax to keep funding this service.
     As an elected official I have a duty to inform you about community problems. I may be the bearer of bad news but I did not create these problems.
     Hiding from the issues and refusing to discuss the problems will not make them go away. More jobs and more people moving into town would help change this cycle. So far this has not happened.
     This community needs to encourage discussion and awareness for solutions to city problems.
     The slow death of our local business economy and the dismantling of city government by constantly raising taxes and fees is not the answer.        
John Rowland,
Clinton