DUVAFILES REDUX - PART 2

We recently ran one of Bill Duvall's memorable "Firehouse Follies" comments, posted on his blog during the summer of 2004, dealing with "the efforts of the Firehouse No. 2 volunteers to force the City of Salisbury to cede control of [their] operations." In that episode he put the spotlight on the shenanigan being orchestrated by Harold "the Blade" Scott, John "Dr. Doorag" Bartkovich and Norman Conway. The comment covered a meeting of the City Council, which shortly thereafter reached a compromise deal with the rebels at Station 2 that resulted in this comment in the "Transchoptankia Gazette," a/k/a Duvafiles:

AUGUST 11, 2004
FIREHOUSE FOLLIES CH. V

Yesterday's story concerning the Salisbury City Council's approval of amendments to the City Fire Code is full of hints concerning what the real issue is between the secessionist members of the Doorag Sandbox and the Czarina; i.e. money.

The secessionists are accustomed to receiving no questions asked handouts from the County Council. Like other Volunteer Fire Companies in the County, they are not required to account for the handling of these funds, to provide the most elementary level of assurances that the funds have been expended for public purposes, or otherwise adhere to basic accounting and public finance standards.

The new City Code requirements mandate, among other things, that safeguards be instituted to assure that public funds allocated for fire and emergency services actually be used for those purposes. When a non secessionist Volunteer is quoted as saying "It's not their money, it's the taxpayers. You are not supposed to be out there spending that money on fancy new barbecue grills, lawsuits or other personal gains", reasonable people perk up, and ask "Hey, what is going on here?" We know about the lawsuits, the financing of which does indeed appear to be improper. Does the problem run deeper?

The most scandalous aspect of this whole bizarre situation is the County Council's absolute refusal to even contemplate audits of volunteer fire companies. Usually, the most effective way to get local government off dead center is to point out that someone else is already doing what is being proposed. In this case, that doesn't work. Other Counties routinely require volunteer fire company audits.

The secessionists apparently calculate that they can find sanctuary in the County, where they seek creation of a new fire district for themselves. Given the fact that they only have six actual volunteer firefighters ( as opposed to old geezers), in a rational world it would be unfathomable that they would get that authority. However, a prudent man, knowing what the public knows ( to say nothing of the rest of it), would not bet against them.

If the County thinks it has a big lawsuit on its hands over its mismanagement of the Detention Center, wait for the fallout over this developing fiasco. Suffice it to say that if I were a member of this County Council, my calculation would be that there is not enough governmental immunity under God's sun to make continued service tolerable, and my resignation would be hand delivered to the Chauffeur In Chief, copy to Svengali, in front of at least two independent witnesses of impeccable veracity, before sundown.

WGD

The "Doorag sandbox" is a jibe at Bartkovich's notorious headgear at PRMC; "the Czarina" is Barrie Tilghman. The "Chauffeur-in-Chief" is then Assistant County Administrator, Ted Shea, whose boss at that time, Matthew Creamer, is "Svengali." Duvall's use of codenames to lampoon local "leaders" was brilliant – his moniker for Mike Dunn ("Howdy Doody," strings pulled by the Czarina, of course) is priceless.

As Bill often reminded his readers about the events and matters he reported: "I didn't make this up."