(February 28, 2013) -- My wife and I just returned from our vacation, a trip to Tanzania to watch and photograph the great migration of the Wildebeest. February is the month that the Wildebeest, Antelope, and Zebras calve and that attracts all of the big Cats to the Serengeti and that is why we were there. While I have seen many documentaries on both the National Geographic and Smithsonian Channels, they do not come anywhere near doing justice to the sheer magnitude of this amazing spectacle. Between my wife and me, we took well over 9,000 pictures along with a couple hours of video. Going through all of this will keep my spare time occupied for the next couple weeks I am sure. If you have an interest in animals and in the outdoors and have not added this adventure to your bucket list, we highly recommend that you do.

During our absence, the saga of dismantling the Long Beach Fire Department continued and as I have been following this for the past several months I want to continue with my coverage and provide for LBREPORT.com readers my insight, knowledge, and observations on this issue. The dishonesty of this whole proposal is what really bothers me, perhaps more than the actual proposal itself. It is being sold as an IMPROVEMENT in the services currently provided, but in actuality it is nothing more than a cost saving measure that will NOT improve either the service or quality of the paramedic services that we have enjoyed for the past five decades here in the City of Long Beach.

What it really does is cut the budget by eliminating more than a dozen firefighters from a department that is already woefully understaffed. I am still looking for a single person on our fire department, past or present, other than our newly appointed fire chief and his immediate command staff who think that this proposal has any merit whatsoever.

To bring all of you up to speed on the issue, there is a proposal by our new fire chief to reduce our paramedic squads from two firefighter-paramedics to just one. The proposal would replace the second paramedic with the equivalent of an ambulance driver. If this were to happen it would give the City of Long Beach the dubious distinction of being the ONLY city in the entire County of Los Angeles to have only one paramedic on our paramedic squads.

Further background on the state of our fire department is that the staffing level today is less than it was in 1960! If you compare populations, calls for service, the complexity of fighting fires today versus fifty years ago you would know that the differences are huge.

Our fire department has enjoyed a reputation for decades of being among the top two or three anywhere in Southern California. What has happened in the last fifteen years with respect to the fire department’s budget, funding, and staffing is pathetic.

If you compare the number of high rise buildings in our city today with what we had fifty years ago you would know that the number has increased ten-fold. If you counted the number of cars on our streets today versus fifty years ago you would know that we have two to three times more vehicles per family today than we had when I grew up in East Long Beach in the fifties and sixties. More automobiles on our city streets just translates into more automobile related incidents, which are a significant part of what our paramedics do. Reducing our squads to one paramedic is about as big a step backwards as could possibly be proposed for our once great department. Once again, if this was such a major step forward why don’t we see this system anywhere else in Los Angeles County?

During the time that I was gone, there was another meeting at the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency (EMS) offices. This was either the second or third time that they have met where this issue has come up. Oh, it has to be approved by this organization before any changes in paramedic services can be made because that is the law in our county. This commission sets the standards and controls the paramedic programs in every city in our county. Last week the commission met on Feb. 20, webcast live on LBREPORT.com by the way and reported here, and the proposal hit a roadblock or perhaps a wall.

I suspect that given the nature of the discussion and the reaction of the EMS Commission members, this issue is hanging by a proverbial thread! I said this after the last commission meeting and this one doesn’t change my mind or my prognostication on this issue. Here is hoping that the fire chief’s stupid idea dies a swift and very painful death. This program, if implemented, would be an affront to all of the men and women in the fire service in this city and would be a huge step backward for the citizens of our city who depend on this system for the safety of them and their loved ones.

One thing that always irks me is when politicians run on being "strong on public safety" and then just take it for granted that the voters out there will take them at their word. This city council has done a pretty good job of stretching the truth in this area more so than any that I can remember in a long time. Talking the talk and walking the walk are two entirely different things and our current collection of elected officials need to start walking the walk, or at least need to start being honest with the residents of our city first and foremost instead of spending the majority of their time working on their next political position within local, state, or national government.

I will continue to bring LBREPORT more information on the fire department issue as it comes forward.