KNOLLWOOD
and the Sanctuary
fire.pxxq.com
Don Russ
Candidate for Trustee, Rockland Fire Protection Tax District
Married, adult children not living with us
Retired, CPA (1976), MBA (1983)
Shields Township Clerk (2016), Lake Bluff School Caucus President (2016)
Currently 20 years Knollwood, previously 15 years Village of Lake Bluff
Two dogs, three cats
Dear Neighbor,
To my neighbors who
nominated me for the fire board, (some on faith, having not met me before I
appeared at their doors) thank you! I
am honored by your trust and feel the full weight of that responsibility.
All district residents will vote on April 2, 2019 to elect a fire board for the first time ever. Perhaps it is ironic that the Knollwood Fire Department has just been dissolved.
But, even if the fire department has ended, the fire department tax district lives on. The Rockland Fire Protection Tax District (RFPTD) collects real estate taxes from an area of less than one square mile primarily for the purpose of purchasing contractual services from two neighboring fire departments.
Since May, 2015 the RFPTD
has contracted with the Libertyville Fire Department for ambulance service.
(Ambulance
calls far outnumber fire calls.)
Libertyville Station Three is located on Atkinson Road where
two Advanced Life Support Ambulances (the highest
level) are located. The RFPTD has
never provided its own ambulance service.
As of October 1,
2018 fire service and ambulance service has been provided to RFPTD by the
professional departments of Lake Forest and Libertyville, to areas south and
north of the railroad tracks respectively.
The 20-year contract provides for year-to-year service after 2038.
Considering
all the foregoing, I offer a platform of three planks: oversight, taxes,
community.
OVERSIGHT
Going forward, I
see the primary role of the fire board as steward of the contract, monitoring
the performance of Lake Forest and Libertyville.
Transparency demands that the fire board post its
website promptly every month with “time-to-respond” and “resolution” for each of four
types of calls: Fire calls south of the
tracks (Lake Forest), ambulance calls south of the tracks (Lake Forest), fire
calls north of the tracks (Libertyville) and ambulance calls north of the tracks
(Libertyville.)
Our new, 20-year
contract can be abrogated at any time for cause.
If I serve on a board that is unwilling to post these call logs, I will
post them on this website. While I
expect the two professional departments to provide a higher level of service
than the volunteer department they have replaced, vigilance is a virtue.
TAXES
The District exists
to serve the interest of District residents which, in this context, are three:
(1) first-rate fire service, (2) first-rate ambulance service and (3)
such services delivered at the correct price.
The huge permanent tax reduction of some $200 thousand per year should be
reflected in the real estate tax bills of
756 households (579 Knollwood plus 177
Sanctuary.)
Our fire
department, serving just one-square-mile, which had been heavy with expensive overhead costs,
has been transformed into a zero-overhead, important client of the Lake Forest
and Libertyville Fire Departments.
In addition to the permenent efficiencies (amounting to some $200 thousand per year) the
sale of equipment and other surplus assets should provide additional real estate
tax relief. That is what serves
district residents best.
COMMUNITY
For the decades I
have lived in Knollwood there has been a Fire Department Pancake Breakfast
every year. And every year, Santa
toured our streets on a firetruck with “Knollwood Fire Department” printed on
its side. Even more than Shields
Township, the RFPTD is the unit of government that most closely conforms to the
unincorporated part of Lake County known as Knollwood, though the district also
includes the Sanctuary which is incorporated in the Village of Lake Bluff and with
which Knollwood shares a zip code.
But a fire
department is not a homeowners’ association.
The fire board should not collect taxes from district residents for any
purpose other than fire service and ambulance service.
I believe it is the earnest duty of district trustees to assure that our
high level of emergency services is maintained while RFPTD taxpayers reap the
benefit of our new arrangement.
As with the other
trustee-candidates, and in the tradition of the volunteers of the Knollwood Fire
Department, this is an unpaid position – I seek this office purely as a matter
of public service. I can help the
RFPTD through this transitional period by setting sound precedents.
I thank you for considering me for your vote.
Don Russ
don dot russ at
sbcglobal dot net
My wife and dogs at
the end of our driveway as Santa is chauffeured past by the Knollwood Fire
Department, December 2017.
My wife and dogs at
the end of our driveway as Santa is chauffeured past by the Lake Forest Fire
Department with a Libertyville Fire Department ambulance escorting, December 2018.
(Nota bene:
I met Amy for the first time at the LWV forum.
We had several conversations just prior to the event – just two LFHS
grads talking about our shared neighborhood. I
found her very pleasant and unassuming.
I had not found any
campaign literature prior to the event, nor did she bring any.
In the week since that event I have discovered her yard signs but I still
know about her positions only what she said during the forum.
You can know about
me from reading this webpage but you must watch the video to know about her.
Personally, I find watching such videos tiresome.
So, as a public service, I present my understanding of the Amy Bernstein
5-point Program for the Rockland Fire Protection Tax District, as follows.)
Point ONE:
The grass is always greener on the other side of the tracks.
Amy Bernstein:
In her closing
comments, Mrs. Bernstein complains about our new contract saying, “Its divisive
by using the railroad tracks and allows for different response time between the
two halves.”
While it is true
that the tracks divide, her complaint is that they are “divisive.”
Does that mean she envious?
As a southsider, does the assumed “different response time” make her jealous of
northsiders?
Don Russ:
The divisiveness of
the tracks is not a legitimate concern of the Fire Board.
Response time is not about hurt feelings.
The tracks do divide, however.
The Canadian
National Railway (the “CN”) bought the
Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway (the “J”) in 2008 so their trains could go
around Chicago, instead of through it.
The long freight trains come down from Canada to Roundout, just west of
Knollwood, and turn west onto the J.
So we don’t have big, lumbering trains on our section of the J.
Barrington does.
Back in 2008, that city
worried
“that ambulances aren’t stymied from getting to emergencies.”
The CN spent hundreds of millions of
dollars for the right to run 6,000-foot trains on the J.
They could run them across Waukegan Road as they do now through
Barrington.
Hence the
brilliance of the contract provision for ambulances based north of the tracks to
service the area north, and ambulances based south of the tracks to service
areas south.
Mrs. Bernstein is
flat wrong (sorry Amy) when she said that our new contract “allows for different
response time between the two halves.”
There simply is no such provision.
There is however an absolute guarantee that no southsider will ever
suffer a response time burdened by a freight train blocking a Libertyville
ambulance.
Point TWO:
So as through a glass and darkly.
Amy Bernstein:
Asked about
personal qualities she would bring to the job, Mrs. Bernstein used three of her
90 seconds to say, “I sort of think transparency.”
The LWV moderator
invited her to elaborate and Mrs. Bernstein said, “Well transparency, you know,
always involves the residents of the district.
Listen to the residents of the district. Listen to them, answer their
questions and just have their best interests.
One of our top priorities, just do the best thing for our residents.”
Don Russ:
Well, bless her
heart. Unfortunately,
www.merriam-webster.com says that “transparency” in this context means, “2d: characterized by visibility or accessibility of
information especially concerning business practices”
So either she
doesn’t understand what her yard sign is saying or we must wonder if she still
intends the standard definitions of “Honest” and “Responsible.”
In contrast to Mrs.
Bernstein, I used the traditional meaning of transparency in the proposal I have
advocated on this website for a half-year.
In the “Oversight” section above, I promised the prompt website posting
of response time for every 911 call from Knollwood and the Sanctuary.
When I say
“transparency” I mean that everyone in the Rockland District should have a clear
view of the raw data.
Point THREE:
Let’s not overthink this.
Amy Bernstein:
In her opening
comments, Mrs. Bernstein said, “We can find out what the real expenses of the
district will be going forward.
We’ve heard everything from people saying our taxes will go down to the district
will go bankrupt.”
Question 11 asked
about our payment obligation for our new contract and Question 12 asked about
our mortgage obligation for the firehouse.
Mrs. Bernstein
answered 11 and 12 this way: “I’m sorry.
Honestly, I’m not sure I know how to answer that question.
I will do research and get back to you.” and “Again, I’m sorry, I just
don’t know how to answer that. I’m
just not too familiar with the levy as of right now.”
In her closing
comments, Mrs. Bernstein added, “And for a contract that doesn’t expire until
2038, the true long-term costs are unknown…”
Don Russ:
The true long-term
costs of our new contract are specified clearly:
It starts at $450 thousand p.a. for an initial period for which there is
a one-time inflation adjustment, and then increases according to the Consumer
Price Index to allow for inflation over the years.
And that’s all.
The mortgage will
be extinguished by the sale of the mortgaged property, ending any budget impact.
For those two
reasons, the real estate tax levy will go way down.
In spite of that, we will have no difficulty with our payment obligation
because our budget will be so much lower than the $650 thousand p.a. that we
would have to pay without our new contract.
It is absurd for
her to suggest that the district will go bankrupt.
Why doesn’t she know that?
Since Mrs. Bernstein was not prepared for the LWV forum can we expect her to be
prepared to participate in any meaningful way at the Rockland Board meetings?
Point FOUR:
Micromanagement by armchair quarterback.
Question 10 was
about the McCormick’s fire on February 24th.
I answered first, including the comment that, “This was a structure fire.
It was a lightning strike. It
happened to be an uninhabited building so the firemen were not aggressive since
there was not life-at-risk and that’s why the fire was allowed to burn big.”
Mrs. Bernstein
answered next, including the comment:
“Contrary to what Mr Russ said, allowing it to burn big because there
were no life at stake…you just don’t let a fire burn big, it should have been,
you fight it, you put it out and you just, be aggressive as if there were people
in the building.”
Don Russ:
This is incredible.
On September 11, 2001 343 firefighters rushed into the World Trade Center
AFTER the planes had struck the towers.
They all died. All of them.
I have a step-son
who is a firefighter/EMT of such great skill that he has been designated to ride
with the Dallas, Texas SWAT teams. I
shudder to think that there might be someone like Mrs. Bernstein gambling with
his life.
My response to
Question 10 was to endorse the on-scene commander in his transition
from an offensive posture to a defensive one as
matter of prudence.
Mrs. Bernstein wanted the firemen to rush
into the collapsing building to save – what? The furniture?
As a matter of
policy, I think the Fire Board should be circumspect in second-guessing the
split-second, life-and-death decisions made in the field.
In this case, in the middle of the night, in the middle of the winter,
the commander pulled his people back.
Fine with me.
In fairness to Mrs.
Bernstein, I not sure she meant to be so reckless.
But in fairness to
me, that is what she said.
Point FIVE:
Just vindictive.
Amy Bernstein:
In her opening,
Mrs. Bernstein said, “The Board can try to improve the contract with
Libertyville and Lake Forest.”
To Question 1 she
said, “Well they talk [written in our new contract] about having, of providing
‘to the best of their ability…same basis as they provide for their own
communities’ and that to me is just very vague because if for some reason they
don’t follow it, that there are no penalties in here. And that, I think, needs
to be looked at.”
To Question 18 she
said, “I’m familiar with the contract and there are things in here that can be
changed to better protect our district.”
And in her closing
she said, “The contract now in place does not have in place or define or measure
what’s good enough.”
Don Russ:
Did you ever get
stuck in line at Heinen’s behind some guy who wanted to argue with the cashier
about the store refund policy for fresh produce?
No? Well, that’s probably
because most of us understand how grocery stores work.
I don’t think Mrs.
Bernstein understands how first-responders work.
Apparently she
believes that, when the alarm is raised in the Lake Forest fire station, the
lieutenant shouts, “Drop your sandwiches and mount the trucks!” but then, a
moment later, he might correct himself saying, “Oh, wait.
Its just Knollwood. Finish
your sandwich and then we’ll go.”
The McCormick’s
fire is instructive here. Dispatch
first summoned Lake Bluff, Libertyville and Lake Forest to the scene, but a
mutual aid alarm was activated that brought crews from North Chicago, Highland
Park, Mundelein, Northbrook, Countryside, Zion and Lincolnshire.
No one asked if it was too late and dark, or too cold and dangerous.
They just came running.
And because Lake
Forest had command responsibility, Buffalo Grove, Newport and Deerfield covered
fire calls in Lake Forest. And not
because they had some contract that would assess penalties if they didn’t.
Our new contract is
a cooperative agreement with our neighbors in Lake Forest and Libertyville.
It is written down on paper just to formalize how much we have to pay.
It does not specify how many gallons of water should be sprayed on fires.
Instead, it contemplates the spirit of the first-responders who charged
into the World Trade Center. And it
reaches beyond the signatories and extends in spirit from Zion to Northbrook.
If Mrs. Bernstein
thinks we should try to reopen contract negotiations for the express purpose of
installing sanctions against our neighbors, then her influence would undermine
the spirit of first-responders.
Our new contract
was the result of a two-year process that involved extensive research, tedious
negotiations, emotional public hearings, a failed temporary restraining order
and a failed ethics complaint. We
have now achieved the enviable status of a valuable customer for the services of
two large neighboring ISO-3 departments.
Just two years
after Chuck Goudie of ABC7 reported on “the distress of a small,
financially-strapped North Shore fire department” we have the full attention of
two large, gold-standard departments that immunizes all of Knollwood and the
Sanctuary from any possibility of freight train delays, and secure solvency with
an outlook for a permanently reduced real estate tax levy.
Numbers do not
confuse me. And from years of
engagement with various units of local government, I am well versed in the
Illinois Freedom of Information Act, the Illinois Open Meetings Act and
parliamentary procedure.
It would be my
honor and pleasure to serve my neighbors as a member of the Fire Board and I
thank you for considering me.
