THE GOOD OL' BOYS ARE AT IT AGAIN

What are citizens to do when their elected officials play games and attempt to cover up serious matters. The Salisbury Fire Department has been notorious for playing politics and getting their way time and time again.

It goes back to Bill Gordy and the days when a new Deputy Fire Chief was being selected. Gordy was completely dropped from the list of applicants, yet the former Mayor Tilghman, (out of nowhere) put him back on the list and out of nowhere he was selected to become the new Deputy Fire Chief. Again, he was removed from the list and then put back in and ultimately got the job.

Today we're dealing with yet another very serious matter that includes the exact same game.

As many of you know the SFD has been searching for a new Fire Chief. 40 applicants have been considered for the job. A committee was established involving seven individuals to oversee the selection and ultimately choose a new Fire Chief.

Last Tuesday they broke the 40 applicants down to a final seven people in which they held telephone interviews with the committee. When all was said and done, THREE people were chosen out of the seven and ONE of the seven was NOT qualified.

Take a WILD guess as to who the ONE person was they felt was NOT qualified. Rick Hoppes was the one the committee chose was not qualified and was removed from the final decision, just as Bill Gordy was years ago.

Now wait a minute! Bill Gordy was behind creating the selection committee. We're told most applicants never did a face to face interview and out of nowhere when Lore' Chambers learned that Hoppes was removed from the final three, she threw such a fit, Hoppes was some how, some way, brought back into the final three and is now being considered to become Salisbury's next Fire Chief.

That's right, the City pulled the exact same stunt with Hoppes as they did with Bill Gordy and let me tell you Folks, the Salisbury Firefighters are absolutely pissed off, as they should be.

I implore Mayor Ireton and the Salisbury City Council to open an immediate investigation as to the possible illegal activity here and it is important for those QUALIFIED applicants to be aware that ONE of the final THREE qualified people has been bumped from the running simply because John Pick and Lore' Chambers are still perhaps working for Barrie Tilgman.

The majority of the committee did not want Rick Hoppes to be considered and once again, (because of the Good Ol' Boys) we'll probably see an unqualified person get the job.

When will the citizens of Salisbury ever take back their City? Will the current Mayor ever prove HE is qualified to manage Department Heads and this City? Running a business is NOT all about shaking hands and photo ops. Running a multi million dollar business is a serious matter and having a Staff who is honest and behind you 100% is vital. We can no longer stand for 1950's style politics and we can no longer afford to have people using the Good Ol' Boy System as our Country is failing in a big way because of such tactics.

The only way we can move forward is by taking baby steps and changing our LOCAL form of politics and lead it into an honest and fair direction. We watched all too many times former Zoo Director Jim Rapp hire drinking buddies to care for animals at the Zoo when hundreds of qualified college graduates in animal husbandry would have loved to move to Salisbury and work for the Zoo. In the end, thousands of animals died over the years and the Zoo simply fell apart.

Do you really want to see the same thing happen with the new $14,000,000.00 Fire Department? Help Is NOT On The Way Mr. Ireton. Will you too go down in history as a Part Time Mayor who ignored such serious matters and continue to allow Lore' Chambers and John Pick run the City of Salisbury for someone else?