Help me advise a Brother

so i contacted the media to set the record straight......wmbd and the journal star

This is what a friend on my department put on his facebook tonight as his status.  

its pretty much a given that my time at the FD is over so i figured i might as well just tell the whole story to anyone who will listen.....im so sick of this (Assistant Chief)/(Village Board Member) deal i could puke....legitimate concerns were brought directly to the mayor, not by (Board Member) , but some of us ff on the outside of their little group and they seem to be just swept under the rug...so now i feel obligated to share them with the rest of the village residents and let them decide

I'm not sure how it is everywhere else, but in for the (Suburban Village just outside of Peoria) Volunteer Fire Department, of which I'm a member of, this is becoming the new business as usual.  

(Mayor)  is a good mayor who is just trying to do the right thing, when it comes to saving lives you probably want to have licensed people working on your relatives and friends, also you probably don't want your engines or squads sitting on... the pad for ten minutes waiting for people to show up, especially when you have good qualified individuals in town who can't get on because they don't have the votes to be a member or have been driven away by the lack of respect and discipline on the part of the chiefs because its their kids creating the problem.

Yes, I have fallen victim to the chiefs' children, too.  They are at our Station 2, and if you aren't one of their little friends, you're ostracized.  The "children of 2 house" as I call them can do no wrong, they can disrespect the traditions and structure of the fire service.  They can insult more experienced (and LICENSED) people and pass judgment on their treatments of a BLS run, and can do no wrong because they're the chiefs' kids.

(FF's SISTER) it is outrageous what the good ol' boys club of (Suburban Village just outside of Peoria) is doing to the taxpayers of this town..(Suburban Village just outside of Peoria) deserves better and these guys need to be reminded that taxpayers are voters and they can be replaced..people of need to stop voting for their good buddies in the hopes of getting their streets repaired etc., and focus on voting for people who really care about the prosperity and the greater good of the town...stop wasting tax payers money on stupid crap and start using it for the good of the town

I couldn't agree more!

their attitude is they are being picked on and this town would suffer if they were no longer on the dept. but I find myself wondering where the heck they are at in the middle of the night as i run a call by myself, which has happened quite a bit in the last almost 3 yrs I've been on.

I can't say too much...I've been absent a bunch over the last few years, myself, for various reasons.

so one of our members contacted the trying to make trustee (Board Member) look bad and the mayor...in truth it was us guys who spoke with her and not , she looked into it and saw what we were talking about and decided to take ...action, but their trump card trustee (Former FF now Village Board member) , who by the way has decided to make himself the new rep between the fire dept and village hall.....did i mention he happens to be good friends with these chiefs....has effectively stopped the mayor from taking the action she thinks needs to be done. 

God I hate politics...

anyways I figured I'll be demonized and called disgruntled and a troublemaker over all of this i shouldn't go against the brotherhood, which is only there if you keep your mouth shut and don't disagree with them on anything, but really i could care less anymore.


PLEASE tell me it's not like this on other departments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Last I knew, ALL FIREFIGHTERS were BROTHERS & SISTERS


but we lost a great officer who decided he's had enough of this drama....in reality he was the only officer who really ran any calls in the 3 yrs I've been on with the exception of a few...Cap, thx for showing me the ropes and being there when i needed someone to talk to...i love ya man....so when you hear the whistles going off two or three times a call you will have an idea why.

I can't really gripe about people not running calls, like I said earlier, I've been absent for awhile for one reason or another...the most important ones being my kids (@lilssgjbroyles and  @avatarpenguin ) and my girlfriend @shell1972

I leave it in your capable hands for opinions, blogosphere.  What is this Brother's best course of action: let the smoke clear?  Run for Village Board and help instill the changes that Volunteer Fire Department desperately need?  Give up and go to another department?

Other than my captain, my department has lost several other very experienced FF because of this.  One more just may be on his way out the door...quite possibly more.

For clarification:  my type is in Arial
and names have been deleted/sanitized