EPISODE 15 OF EVERYBODY HATES FREDDIE: RED ALERT!! STAR SHIP TRUTH W/ PHASERS LOCKED ON HAMAN

Got this hot bit of news today as I was out. Someone came up to me at a Dunkin Donuts in the area, and handed me this. It was so important, I had to share.

Some very interesting information has come to us. A member of the Mayor's appointed advisory board for the Union Fire Company has made some very interesting statements to family and friends. We have also discovered some very interesting additional information.

· The information that the Union Fire Company was mishandling funds from the township was investigated and found to be not true.

· The information that the Union Fire Company refused to give water to the paid fire company at an industrial fire was not true. In fact, and independent witness came forward with an eye witness account of the incident and photos to support the eyewitness account. The Director of Public Safety REFUSED to look at the evidence. The investigation into the incident resulted in the accusations against the volunteer fire chief and the Union Fire Company to be false.

· The complaints filed by the Director of Public Safety and the Deputy Director of Public Safety with FEMA, Homeland Security, the port security grant program, PEMA and the Delaware River and bay maritime exchange confirmed that there was no wrong doing on the part of the Union fire company.

· The complaint filed by the Director of Public Safety and the Deputy Director of Public Safety with the FBI that there was NO fraud and/or theft involved in the marine unit grant application was closed with no charges filed by the FBI.

· The current Director of Public Safety and members of the Fire Marshal's Office KNEW about the marine unit project since the end of 2005. There were no objections, concerns or questions by the current Director of Public Safety during the ENTIRE project UNTIL the grant was awarded.

· The Director of Public Safety and the Deputy Director of Public Safety made untrue statements to the Delaware River and bay maritime association regarding the marine unit project. This includes, but is not limited to calling the association and claiming that the township did not have the matching funds. The township was NEVER responsible for the matching funds for this project.

· The Director of Public Safety and the Fire Marshal's office REFUSE to discuss inaccuracies in the township's SAFER grant application including inflated response numbers.

· The township claimed the marine unit grant as part of its 2010 budget which it had nothing to do with the Union Fire company obtaining the grant. Nor did the funds received pass through the township government.

· There are no additional costs to the taxpayers of Bensalem resulting from the new marine unit. The management of the Union Fire company properly anticipated costs and budgeted accordingly.

· The Director of Public Safety contacted a facility that was willing to dock the new marine unit and told them not to assist the fire company with the project.

· The Director of Public Safety and the members of the Fire Marshal's office who repeatedly attempted to sabotage the marine unit project have very limited to no marine rescue and marine fire training.

· The costs associated with the SAFER grant paid fire department were not properly anticipated by the Director of Public Safety and the Fire Marshal's office. This has resulted in massive over budget costs. In addition, they purchased a utility vehicle when they were desperately in need of a new fire engine. There are no funds budgeted for the increased personnel costs and equipment and fire engine costs by the Director of Public Safety and the Fire Marshal's office.

· The council approved the additional part time employees of the Fire Marshal's office as long as they paid for themselves with inspections. They are not covering the costs of their employment with inspections.

· The Fire Marshal's office continues to refuse to provide building inspection information to the fire companies to aid with their pre-planning of commercial facilities.

· The newly created paid fire department is in violation of the township code. No corrective action has been taken.

· The newly created paid fire department does not meet NFPA standard 1710 (standards for a paid fire department).

· Unsafe acts by the paid fire department are ignored or swept under the rug by the Fire Marshal's office and the Director of Public Safety, despite the repeated complaints by the public and the volunteer fire service.

· Vehicle accidents involving the paid fire department vehicles were kept quiet by the township and not addressed with the fire chiefs.

· The flaws in the township Fire Service Assessment and the changes in the study report requested by the Director of Public Safety continue to be ignored by the Director of Public Safety.

· There was a list of safety concerns (18) presented to the fire company by the Director of Public Safety. The Director of Public Safety refused to discuss the issues. One example of an issue is that a Union Fire Company member committed an unsafe act in September 2010. There was no further explanation of the incident provided by the Director of Public Safety to the fire company!

· It is obvious to the member of the committee that the problem with the Union Fire company is the Director of Public Safety, not the fire company.

· There are structural problems with the township training center that the Director of Public Safety refuses to address

· There are no funds or plans available to upgrade the training center to include a heat generating system.

· Prior to the tax increase, the rescue squad provided two full time ambulances and one part time ambulance. Since the tax increase, the rescue squad provides two full time ambulances. The third "power shift" ambulance has not been responding to emergency calls for months.

·The Director of Public Safety refuses to answer any questions about the lack of the third ambulance.

The rest of the fire companies have finally come to their senses. The fire officials selected by the Director of Public Safety to control the volunteer fire service in Bensalem have been removed. Now the new officials representing the firefighters are asking questions. This resulted in the Director of Public Safety suddenly having to leave the meeting.


Gee, Haman, you actually had to LEAVE this meeting!! Truth hurts doesn't it?? I highly advise every brave firefighter/first responder who had the courage to open their eyes to the travesty that it going on, to GO TO THE NEXT COUNCIL MEETING!! Union can no longer do this alone, and IF you truly care about them and your fire house, you WILL bring up these issues to the council members, AT THE NEXT MEETING, which is on February 27th at 7:30 PM.
To any and ALL BDO members seeing this, come to the meeting and have the courage to ask why your hard earned $$$ is being wasted on riotous living, such as a $5 million dollar inadequate training center, billboards, SUV's and much more. Ask them why we keep having budget deficits EVERY year, and not balancing those budgets in a proper and legal fashion.

Where Is Our $$$ Going????