Back to David E. Rosenbaum Case main page
Columns DCWatch
Archives Elections Government and People Budget issues Organizations |
From: Federation of Citizens Associations [mailto:GRClark@GeorgeRClark.com] Sent: Friday, March 09, 2007 3:46 PM To: Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (amfenty@hotmail.com) Cc: Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (adrian.fenty@dc.gov); Dan Tangherlini (Dan.Tangherlini@dc.gov); Nell Richardson (Ananda001 @aol.com) Subject: FEMS Task ForceDear Mayor Fenty: We congratulate you on your novel settlement with the Rosenbaum family and the appointment of a long overdue task force to study the delivery of emergency medical services in DC. And the relatively short timeline is an added bonus. This should be a major advance in this long struggle that the citizens of DC have had to get first class EMS. As you know, the Federation has been a leader in calling for EMS reform. It was one of three issues we raised with you in our meeting in December. We have testified countless times on this subject, and literally screamed for the proper attention to be given to recognize and solve the problem. The task force hopefully will do just that. You have called for "working with the community, listening to the community," as a hallmark of your appointments. There is no better way to do that than to appoint citizen representatives to the task force. A task force of outside experts with no citizen input would fail your standard. We believe we have substantial expertise and knowledge to serve on the task force. Anne Renshaw would be ideal in that role. And one or two more citizens from across the city would also contribute mightily to the task force's work. Citizen representation on the inside of the process will give citizens confidence that their interests are being presented and championed, and instill confidence in the result. As you may know, the Federation has not just testified and held meetings. We have been at every meeting of the EMS Commission created by Councilmember Mendelson -- and pushed hard for that to be created. We have been frustrated (as have many Commission members) by its slow progress, caused by the lack of information from DCFEMS (pulling teeth is far easier). And that argues for no DCFEMS personnel, or union reps, to be on the task force - they should be witnesses and close liaisons providing information, not the judges of what should be done. We know this is on the fast track. Please put the citizens on board the train, and not just observers from the platform as it goes by. Our newsletter goes out in ten days; hopefully we can help spread the word of a citizen represented task force. The task force will be incomplete without knowledgeable citizen representation. Thanks for listening. George R. Clark |
Send mail with questions or comments to webmaster@dcwatch.com
Web site copyright ©DCWatch (ISSN 1546-4296)