Save Chula Vista’s Firefighters
By Tom Lemmon
The middle of a crisis like the one we’re facing right now is no time to point fingers. But we’d be crazy not to start thinking about how to protect ourselves in the future, to keep our families, our homes and our neighbors safe from another devastating round of wild fires.
In addition to smarter development planning and safer construction materials, Chula Vista needs to maintain a fully-staffed and well-equipped fire department. Now that the city is facing a $7.3 million budget shortfall, Mayor Cox is going to need to make some tough decisions about where to trim costs.
Unfortunately, her plan to lay off about 20 firefighters and maybe even close a fire station to save a few bucks is the kind of short-sighted decision-making that got Chula Vista into this financial squeeze in the first place.
Over the past few years we’ve seen more and more disasters that could have been prevented, or at least better handled, if our elected officials would have had the brains to recognize the warning signs and the guts to demand serious action. It was no secret that the levees in New Orleans weren’t fit to handle a hurricane, but the government didn’t make it a priority, and we all saw what happened. After the bridge collapse in Minneapolis last summer, word got out that there are bridges all over the country that are falling apart, but there’s supposedly no money to fix them.
As Southern Californians, we know that we’re living in an area that has a high fire risk… which is why I simply can’t believe that Mayor Cox is proposing to cut jobs from the fire department. Instead of giving a $300 million dollar handout to Gaylord Entertainment, maybe it’s finally time for Mayor Cox to reevaluate her priorities. Chula Vista deserves better.
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