A Lot Of Good Men And Women?

“The Fire Dept is a TOWN DEPARTMENT. It is not a separate 

institution acting as its own profit-making business. There are a lot of good men and women who volunteer there, in that town department.

However their leadership, for some unknown reason or reasons, refuses to “open the financial books”.

The State of Ct will intervene soon and when it does the books that are opened will let the sun shine into just how the town does its business and how it accounts for all monies

Tom G. has the authority to say: “let a citizen examine the financial books of that town department ( fire dept ) and don't drag the whole town into an audit.''

That's what a smart person would do. That's what a leader would 

do.

Will it happen before July 7th.? Either way we will get the information allowed by law.”

Wrong again,  the MVFD Inc. is not a Town Department.  It raises its own money and does not receive taxpayer money, so therefore Mr. DeAngelis is NOT entitled to see the books of the MVFD Inc.

No one at the MVFD is interested in Mr. DeAngelis’s backhanded compliment. He has shown his true colors, and his daily attack upon that great organization is hardly making anyone at the MVFD warm and fuzzy.   

He has become the spokesman for Mr. St. John. Mr. DeAngelis knows what can be legally shown to him and what cannot. Mr. DeAngelis and Mr. St. John want to gain access to information that they are NOT legally entitled to.  This has already been explained to them by the FOI Commission, yet they persist in trying to force the MVFD Inc. to open up books they are not entitled to see.  It is not the law that these two are interested in.

Mr. DeAngelis keeps eluding that somehow the MVFD leadership is trying to hide information. It is not the leadership that controls these funds or anyone’s access to them.  It is the voting members of the Department who decide what the money should and should not be used for.

The MVFD has already stated that all funds generated from ambulance billing go back into the ambulance service.  Taxpayers are not burdened with having to maintain the ambulance, purchase a new ambulance, or pay for all the equipment and supplies needed to operate it. The MVFD also pays for ALS service, an unfunded state mandate.  This saves Middlebury taxpayers $80,000 per year.

The MVFD Inc. has also contributed to the Town with other non taxpayer funds.  They purchased state-of-the-art, Holmatro extrication equipment to the tune of $25,000. That is $25,000 that taxpayers would not have to fork-over. The MVFD Inc. purchased four new defibrillators that will be placed at various locations around town. This was MVFD Inc. money, not taxpayer money.  They installed an audio-visual system in the training room and the Meeting room, which has been utilized by many organizations in Town, making the Firehouse the perfect venue for training and audio/visual presentations.  Again, no Taxpayer money involved.

We keep hearing overtures that Fire HQ is a Town building and the MVFD members should not really have a say in what goes on there.  But do you know that besides the apparatus and equipment related to it, the MVFD Inc purchased all the rest of what is in the building?  All the tables, chairs, kitchen equipment and supplies are purchased by the MVFD Inc, and not taxpayer money. 

So, when Mr. DeAngelis came to the firehouse to use the room for his Straw Pond meetings, he was using all equipment purchased by the MVFD INC, and nothing from taxpayer money. He was not complaining about the MVFD back then, was he?