I live within Bexar County. I am a Third Generation Fire Fighter, that has happened upon a problem that it seems my ancestry has left for me to clean up. In our county there has been a multigenerational discussion on the iplementation of a county segregation and formation of ESD's. The problem that I see with the ESD is that it allows the county to appoint a board to control those ESD's in the fashion that is deems fit. This scares me for the reason that I am not totaly confident (as is the concern with many other Fire Fighters) in the integrity of those who would be allowed to appoint the board. The Two questions that I have for the individuals within this group are: 1) Is there and precedant for an ESD board to be elected
2) What would be the appropriate course of action in creating a method of reasoning so that the County would be persuaded to take on a portion of the resposibility in relation to the funding of VFD's around the county.
When you break the situation down it is the funding that is the issue, anyone that has any ties to a VFD understands that money is the biggest issue.

Thank You For any Input that can be offered.
Scott Stutes

First a VFD is a VOLUNTEER organization. It exists to perform a service that county government is not required to perform. I'm all for supporting VFD's through their fund-raising activities, etc., but where do we get the idea that county government should fund VFD's?

We also have an ESD, but they don't make operational decisions with respect to running the rural fire service and ambulance service. The ambulance service is a multi-county operation with a Commander who makes the operational decisions. The ESD just contracts with the ambulance service through whatever sources of funding they can scrounge up. Maybe it works differently in other places..... If I'm way off base or misunderstood the question, just ignore.

Perhaps you have misunderstood, or maybe I was not clear. In either instance, in our county we have a problem with funding. This is the major issue, yes we ar ea volunteer department, however we cannot support our families and successfully keep our department running not while staying within NFPA and ISO ratings. Not to mention the pressure that our insurance companies place on us. No here is the big deal. there is no way that the county could function effectively without VFD's. This is made abundantly clear to me as I grow into my department. I feel that they should recognize that and take a little responsibility for its citizens and help make them safe. Seeing as how they do not want to then the ESD's could help everyone, my Main issue (and this is the Big Number One Issue) is that they want to appoint the governing body of all of these districts. I feel that is is all of inapropriate for these individuals to be appointed. They should be elected. I am curious if there has been any ESD's instituted in this fashion, Elected Taxing Bodies as apposed to Appointed Taxing Bodies.