Photograph by Paul Myers

Saratoga Fire District candidate Dave Dolloff addresses the crowd at a League of Women Voter's forum Oct. 25 at the Saratoga Senior Center, while running mate Barry Ford (left) and current fire district commissioner Jay Geddes (right) listen.




Election bringing unbridled debate among District's four candidates

Politicking overtakes issues at forum

Nov. 5 outcome uncertain

By Oakley Brooks

As the Saratoga Fire District commissioners candidate forum began to unravel Oct. 25, and members of the audience shouted their disbelief at comments by candidate and present commissioner Jay Geddes, Frank Lemmon turned from his second row seat to face the crowd.

When somebody in the audience said with a huff, "That's a lie," Lemmon, a former public safety commissioner responded, "I've heard a lot of lies tonight, so be quiet." Lemmon is a member of the fire district's committee that oversees the bond money voters approved in 2000 for a new fire station.

"Lies" may have been a bit strong, but not far from the spins, half-truths and dirt-dredging that came to dominate the forum.

Saratogans who had hopes of separating the issues from the politics for the Nov. 6 commissioners' election were disappointed at the Oct. 25 forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters. What started as a chance for the four commission candidates to more clearly establish their positions on fire service in the city, degenerated into accusation-slinging that put the Firefighters and Citizens Task force candidates Barry Ford and Dave Dolloff and their supporters on the defensive.

A little more than an hour after the forum began, League of Women Voters President Marge Bunyard finally put an end to the event before the animosity escalated.

The public may have sensed that the discussion would be marred by politicking: The event drew a little more than 30 people to the Senior Center's main hall. Fire Commissioner Bob Egan, who is not up for election until 2003, and Chief Ernie Kraule even stayed away; and only a handful of the district's firefighters attended.

Throughout the candidates' opening statements and a question-and-answer period, two familiar but opposing pictures emerged of the Saratoga Fire District.

Ford and Dolloff painted one of a district running below the standards of surrounding fire departments, and one that would need a considerable amount of reevaluation in the near future.

Geddes and Joe Long stated that the district was in good shape and that their election for the two open commission seats might keep Saratoga's independent fire district from drastic changes.

"This election is not about change," said Long.

On the subject of building a new fire station, Long and Geddes urged quick action using some version of the plans the city council rejected last month.

Ford and Dolloff suggested that the district move into a temporary station while plans are finalized on a Village public safety center, which is to include fire, sheriff's and U.S. Postal Service facilities.

Ford alleged that current district commissioners had been less than forthright about the district's operations and had even violated the state's Open Meetings Act by holding gatherings in secret.

As in the past, Geddes denied that the district had ever closed its doors to the public. And Geddes even brought a copy of the district's latest certified financial statement to prove all of the administration's budget matters were aboveboard.

The biggest point of contention was whether Ford and Dolloff were advocating a merger with the Santa Clara County Fire Department. The department runs fire operations in northeastern Saratoga and throughout the West Valley.

The two task force members have repeatedly said that they might explore joining the county department, but would only sign a contract if they could maintain some local control of fire operations and after district voters approved a merger.


Photograph by Paul Myers

Jay Geddes (right) and fellow candidate Joe Long (left), Saratoga Fire District candidates, address the crowd at the Saratoga Senior Center on Oct. 25.




Long said he feared that the very exploration of a merger might jeopardize local control.

"Any discussion with the county means our needs come second," he said.

It was Geddes' comment about resident Don Whetstone's disapproval of the district's fire station plan and support of the task force that sent the crowd, heavily supportive of the task force, into fits.

Whetstone, who owns a building across Saratoga Avenue from the current fire station, left the fire station bond oversight committee this spring and then hatched a new public safety center plan in July.

But Geddes said he believes there's a hidden motive behind Whetstone's plan.

"He wants to see a park across the street from his office," said Geddes, to many sighs.

And when Geddes later commented that Ford and Dolloff's bid for commission seats "had all the trappings of a union takeover," the gasps grew louder.

After the meeting, Capt. Bill Morrison, president of the International Firefighters Association's local chapter, flatly denied that the union wanted to take over the district and join it with the county fire department, as Geddes and other commissioners have publicly suspected in the past.

Morrison said that the union's past desire to join the county for better pay and more chances for promotion has waned. Morrison said that the Saratoga firefighters' benefit package is currently better than county firefighters' and that nine new promotions are scheduled in the Saratoga district as the result of a recent agreement signed with the county department.

Whetstone, too, denied Geddes' claims, by saying he simply thought the district planned an oversized station that required too many variances from city code.

Task force supporters were put off early in the week when they got a hold of a mailer from Joe Long asking residents to support him in remembering the fire-fighting victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The mailer featured an American flag and prayers from St. Francis of Assisi.

"Joe Long's mailer ... attempts to capitalize on the tragic deaths of 300 brave firefighters," wrote Saratoga firefighter Mike Buress to the Saratoga News. His letter, which has yet to run in the newspaper, was joined by a handful of others last week protesting the mailer.

The increased polarization of the two sides, however, overshadowed the mostly silent voters, whose decision most people close to the fire debate can't predict.

"I have no idea how it's going to come out," said Morrison.

But whatever the outcome of the election, the new fire commission will have a tall task restoring tranquility to the fire district.

Said Buress: "It'll never be the same."

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