Galland is wrong on fire district; re-elect Fossos | Letters

Published 10:48 am Friday, October 14, 2011

I am writing as an individual citizen and am not speaking for the South King Fire and Rescue board of commissioners.

I am one of your elected fire commissioners, having first been elected in 2001. I currently serve as board chair. I am writing to refute a totally false statement that commissioner Jim Fossos’ opponent made in the Oct. 12 issue of the Federal Way Mirror.

His opponent, Jerry Galland, stated that there has been “no loss of firefighters or essential equipment” because of the failure of Prop. 1 in 2010.

This is a totally false statement. The truth is that we now have 17 less personnel. The breakdown is 13 fewer firefighters and four fewer administrative people to help our citizens.

In terms of essential equipment, one aid unit is out of service completely and a second aid unit is only available on a part-time basis.

I urge you to re-elect Jim Fossos and also to re-elect Mark Thompson. They are both high-quality individuals with integrity who are serving our citizens very well.

Bill Gates, Federal Way