Question that crossed my mind?

I was just sitting here on my couch thinking about the recent article I posted about conflicts of interests in the Hamburg Dispatchers office. What I then thought of was something that could be even more outrageous.

I posted that several, if not all, of the dispatchers are volunteer fire fighters. I have also revealed, in past articles, that many of these fire departments have ambulance services that are rarely used. Many of those Fire Department Ambulance Services are used so rarely that the medication kept on the ambulances expires frequently and that causes more expense to keep the service in the Fire Department and is a reason that increases are commonly asked for in the yearly tax budget.

What I thought of is simply this. The very people who task or call out either Rural Metro or a community Volunteer Fire Service for Ambulance Service are the very people who run and operate these ambulance services. Is that in itself a conflict of interest? Is that the  reason they call Rural Metro out more than the local Fire Ambulance service? It certainly can keep tax money in the local Fire Department bank accounts.

The very people who are tasked with dispatching Town of Hamburg Emergency Services are making decisions on whether or not their own fire department is tasked ( and ultimately has to spend money) to provide emergency services to town residents. It seems to be a fact that Rural Metro Ambulance Service gets far more calls then the local fire departments.

Is this a conflict of interest? Is it proper to have current Volunteer Fire Chiefs and past Volunteer Fire Chiefs as well as Officials of the Volunteer Fire Departments deciding whether or not to use public or private ambulance services to respond to emergencies in Hamburg?

This is something to think about as this years election comes around and consolidation of Fire services in Hamburg grows as an issue. Could this in fact be the way that these Volunteer Fire Departments are able to pocket and Bank more than half their yearly allotment of town tax dollars? Food for thought.