Fire Departments and Politics

Politics are strange especially when you find political influences in places that you never expected to find them. Take the Local Firefighter’s Union IAFF3357 of Richmond County as an example. The Union sponsored the political forums for the upcoming mayor’s race; that made me curious. Were they backing a certain political candidate or was it just something they did? The only way to find out was to ask; therefore, I contacted the local president Sgt. Charles Lynn Masters. Sgt. Masters was very forthcoming with his answers; however, I sensed political motivations on his part leaving me to believe that he may be obfuscating his answers. He told me the union is “heavy into politics”. The 300 men and women of Local IAFF3357 vote on which candidates they want to endorse and if they choose to endorse a certain candidate they will help in any way that they can, such as purchasing the political signs that are plastered all over the county. He also told me that in this mayor’s race they were not endorsing any particular candidate as the vote was near 50-50 on who to endorse therefore they chose to sponsor the forums. This is a good idea, he said, because it keeps the fire department in political view so that whoever wins will look favorably upon them. Sgt. Masters said that this union stood on values; truth and honesty which lead me to ask the obvious question; what about Ronnie Few? Sgt. Masters admitted that he thought Mr. Few had done a lot of good for the fire department but many members of the union did not feel that way hence no outwardly obvious support. In light of Mr. Few’s recent antics, I wonder if that opinion has changed.
Sgt. Masters and I then discussed the recent cut backs announced for the Richmond County Sheriff’s Department. He told me it was a ploy by the commission. He said that the citizens of the county would not stand for these cuts especially now, in view of the fact that the crime rate has risen so sharply in recent months. He said it is reverse psychology; make the citizens believe you are going to slash funds to public safety and they will not mind the cuts to the recreation department. He told me that the fire department is immune to budget cuts because they do not operate from the general fund, they operate from a countywide fire tax. One more obvious question arose here, one that I wished I had asked. If the department is immune to budget cuts then why all the political involvement?
We also spoke about the 49-pension plan but that is for another time and another story. Too late a piece of information came to me that I could not question him about before turning in this column. I wanted to ask him about his involvement with the now defunct Commissioner Brown and just how Mr. Brown had ended up living in his brother’s house, but that too will have to wait.
With the political involvement of Richmond County’s fire department so open, I then thought I should find out just how politically involved our own fire department may be. I spent some time with Capt. Billy Lucky asking many of the same questions I had asked Sgt. Masters with adverse results. South Carolina, as far as public safety is concerned, is a non-union state. They have what is called an “at will” approach. If one does something his boss does not approve of, one may be fired on the spot, no union to interfere. Capt. Lucky was quick to tell me this rarely occurred. They are not involved in politics there is no reason to be involved. He told me that the City Council treats them very well also the beginning salary is $39,000 and goes up every year, so they do not have to beg for money as their counterparts across the river do. Capt. Lucky said, “we stay as far away from politics as we can, politics are not our function; our function is the safety of North Augusta.” Our public safety people are full time fire, police and medical and can handle most situations until EMS arrives. A few of those brave souls came from a background in EMS therefore they are well equipped to handle emergency calls of a medical nature. What a difference a river makes.