Watch out! You might get what you’re after, – Talking Heads

This post may interest you if you rely on 9-11 in Upper Providence

Following the fiasco of the June 18 Board of Supervisors meeting, where it quickly became apparent that decisions and deliberation about the Rec Center and the Fire Services were being conducted outside of public Board meetings, I filed the following RTK with Upper Providence Township on June 25, 2018.

The new FEMS policy never sat well with me.  Based on what I knew to be the Township’s FEMS policy direction at the end of 2017, how the Township arrived at what is essentially an about-face in Fire Policy has always puzzled me.  I filed this RTK almost as an afterthought based on Chairman John Pearson’s publicly admitted violation of Sunshine laws regarding the closing of the Rec Center.  The scope of the RTK is pretty narrow, and I wasn’t sure that there would be many documents included in it, much less ones that would be of use.  What I actually received was a surprise.

I took delivery of this package of documents on July 31, 2018.

And then, after reading and digesting these documents….ugh. What to do with it?  Well, first, I gave the BOS the opportunity to respond:

The attachment referenced and included with my email above is critical to understanding the impetus behind this post.  That document is linked here:  020918 BRVFC History

I gave the Board of Supervisors more than a week to respond to me with what should have been an already existing policy point.  It appears that by the Board’s choice to not respond that the ball is back in my court. In fact, it’s almost as if they think they are calling a bluff; that I will be afraid go public with it, and further, that even if I did, no one would care.

Believe me, I don’t particularly relish stirring up this hornets’ nest of irrational, unexplained hate that is mostly expressed by self-satisfied, passive-aggressive braying on the internet.  There are good people involved in the BRVFC and I appreciate all of the volunteers who put their lives on the line for the mission of public safety.  The problem is that BRVFC’s leadership has a history of engaging in unsafe operations (documented here: 020918 BRVFC History ) and whenever the Township attempts to hold them accountable for this, they trot out that old Township Boogeyman narrative to their membership, and they go after another head for their wall.  This narrative has been successful for years; even though the Township leadership has undergone some significant turnover in the last seven years and the same three guys (excluding current BRVFC President Locasale) are still “in charge” at BRVFC, they somehow still manage to sell the story to their membership that their leadership is not the problem.  It’s always the Township’s fault that morale is down and the organization is struggling.

Every document contained in this post is a public document.  All material has been vetted by the Township’s Right to Know officers and redacted by the Township Solicitor, as applicable.

I do not post any of this lightly.

In the spirit of full disclosure, the entire file of the raw RTK data is linked below.  It contains all of the documents included within the scope of the RTK.  Some of these documents are irrelevant, some are duplicated, some are out of date order.

RTKBlackRockFire -Redacted 0731

Because this post is about public safety, it is necessarily detailed to include all of the relevant documentation to tell the story right.  I’m posting an abbreviated Summary version immediately below; those that want to see more detail and the relevant documents are encouraged to continue on to the Full Timeline, below that.

SUMMARY

What follows is a narrative of how Upper Providence Township’s Fire and Emergency Services Department went from a policy of correction, remediation and accountability towards the Black Rock Fire Company (“BRVFC”) to having the BRVFC dictating Township policy as the primary provider of Fire Services in the Township in a few short months.

MAJOR POLICY DIFFERENCES

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

January 2018:

• The new Board settles in.
• Township staff issue an invitation to the BRVFC President for a meeting between the BRVFC leadership and the Township Supervisors.  A “Cheat Sheet” agenda is prepared for Chairman Pearson’s use, including talking points, one of which is that the Township is “looking to align itself with a fire company for a combination department under the leadership of the Township’s Fire and Emergency Services Chief.”  BRVFC is to be asked if they are interested in being that fire company, and if so, what they bring to the table.  It is clear that no fire company has been selected at this point.
• The Township’s goals are to improve performance and response times of the volunteer companies.
• Township fire policy violations were noted on January 11.

February 2018:

• In preparation for Pearson’s Secret Monday Morning Meeting of February 12, Chief Overholt sends the BRVFC History document to Tieperman, which is a record of the BRVFC’s operating issues over the past several years.  Also attached is the then-current FEMS Future presentation, laying out the vision for Upper Providence’s FEMS for the next several years.
• Township fire policy violations are noted on February 16.
• In a public meeting, Supervisor Calci agrees to work with Supervisor Vagnozzi on a “FEMS subcommittee.”
• A meeting is scheduled with the Township and BRVFC for February 22, 2018, in which a timeline for seven specific goals for improving BRVFC’s performance are to be discussed.  This is last time performance goals are mentioned with regard to BRVFC in the RTK.

March 2018:

• In anticipation of the April 4 Special FEMS Public Meeting, Tieperman and Bortnichak now assume responsibility for articulating “Staff’s” vision for FEMS by making edits to what is to become the public slide presentation on April 4.  Overholt is not meaningfully included in the process.  A conference call takes place on March 22 to discuss the public presentation; Calci and Pearson are the only Board members included.  On March 29, Tieperman and Bortnichak send the “Staff” FEMS presentation to BRVFC for review/approval; BRVFC submits edits to the presentation.
• On March 20, per Township Policy, after numerous warnings for the same infraction, Overholt writes a written disciplinary notice to a member of BRVFC, but before sending it to the offender, he first sends it to the Township Manager and Assistant Manager asking for their feedback, due to “the sensitivity of the situation” and “the relationship between BRVFC and Chairman Pearson being what it is.”  It is unclear if the disciplinary notice was ever delivered.
• On March 22, BRVFC begins writing the policy to guide the integration of the Township’s paid firefighters (Station 93) into BRVFC (Station 99) and not vice versa, ie. the Volunteers into the Township organization.  This directive has not been discussed or approved by the Board of Supervisors in a public meeting.

April 2018:

• At the Public FEMS Special Board Meeting on April 4, the slide presentation is presented to the public as “Staff’s Recommendations.” Members of BRVFC are thanked at the beginning of the meeting, but their input into the slide presentation is not mentioned.  It is the first time Barker and Vagnozzi, along with the public, see the presentation.
• On April 10, “concerns” about Overholt’s resistance to the Pearson-BRVFC FEMS Agenda are articulated by Bortnichak to Tieperman.  A “come to Jesus” meeting is scheduled with Overholt and his superiors, Tieperman and Bortnichak.
• Just prior to the April 16 Board meeting BEFORE the new FEMS policy is approved:
  • Calci sends her “signing statement” to Pearson and Tieperman for review/approval
  • BRVFC Vice President Kasper gives EMS policy recommendations to Board members Calci and Higgins, citing the “politicization” of the EMS issue as his reason for reaching out. Kasper also admits he is “not an expert” on EMS.
  • BRVFC produces sketches for space reallocation at the BRVFC Oaks Firehouse
  • BRVFC submits an updated policy for integrating the Township’s paid staff (Station 93) with the BRVFC volunteers (Station 99).  This policy now specifically excludes Chief Overholt from the Station 99 designation and further, dictates that he must defer command at any emergency scene to BRVFC, unless there is no one qualified to command from BRVFC at the scene.  Overholt’s title will be changed from “Chief” to “Director of Fire and Emergency Services.”
• That evening, at the public BOS meeting, the new FEMS policy is approved.

May 2018:

• On May 1, BRVFC produces a “Collaborative Agreement” noting that “it is understood through discussions with the Chair of Board of UPT Supervisors and the UPT Township Manager and Assistant manager that BRVFC will be the primary fire service organization within the Township.”  There is no mention in any of the documentation of consideration for the Township’s other servicing Fire Companies:  Trappe, Royersford, or Collegeville.  Apparently, like the Township’s brand new towing policy, the only requirement is that the business be located within the Township borders.  Actual qualifications and performance?  Not so much.
• BRVFC continues to produce Township policies before the creation of the Steering Committee and without at least two of the Supervisors (Vagnozzi and Barker) ever seeing them.  When the Steering Committee is finally created, BRVFC instructs the Township that they need more representation on it.  At the May 21 meeting, this request is voted down.  Also at that meeting, it becomes apparent to the public that Vagnozzi and Barker have been excluded from any decision making on the FEMS policy, and Pearson admits he alone has been giving BRVFC authority to proceed during meetings he is having with them “on his own personal time.”
• On May 6, in an email to Supervisors Pearson, Higgins, and Calci and Tieperman and Bortnichak, BRVFC Vice President Kasper accuses Overholt of insubordinate behavior due to a Facebook post he “Liked.” Kasper avers that because of this Facebook “Like,” that BRVFC cannot trust Overholt.

June 2018:

• The Township, in collaboration with BRVFC leadership, engages an engineering firm to evaluate the needs for a centrally located firehouse.
• The Steering Committee begins meeting and subcommittees for Box Assignments and New Station Design are established and staffed.  Subcommittees for Training and Standardization, issues that have to do with actual firefighting, are discussed, but never staffed.

July 2018:

• Josh Overholt, the only person in Upper Providence Township that is trying to hold the BRVFC accountable for their performance, resigns.

THE FULL TIMELINE

January 2018: Staying the course

January 11, 2018:  In January, the new five member board went into effect and the majority belonged to the three newly elected Democrats.  Staff was working with the new members of the Board to bring them up to speed on the status of FEMS in the Township.  The Township has a long history of concerns with the operations of the BRVFC and at this point, they were hoping that the new Board would defer to the expertise and experience of Staff in setting fire policy.  The concerns about policy adherence are evident on January 11, 2018:

The policies attached to this email are linked below; relevant sections are highlighted in two of them:

DFES SOG- 400.05 Responding Direct

DFES SOG- 400.07 Apparatus Staffing

DFES SOG- 400.08 Backing

A word about Township fire policy is in order here:  Township fire policy does not exist to make the lives of the volunteers more difficult, make them look bad, or to hold them to impossible standards.  Township policy exists primarily for the safety of the Township’s residents and the firefighters themselves.  Even response standards, such as responding with the proper vehicle and making sure that vehicle is properly staffed, serve the public safety mandate.  The Township really only has one way to measure the effectiveness of its emergency response, and that’s through reporting kept through the Montgomery County CAD system.  The CAD system does not keep track of how many firefighters are staffing a vehicle or which vehicle is responding; they simply report when a response is called in.  The Township must rely on the volunteers to respond to the County only when they have met the proper response criteria (staffing levels, qualifications, etc. of those responding), as defined by policy.

So if an understaffed truck shows up to an emergency, or a truck shows up with firefighters unqualified to handle the emergency (water rescue, inside building, etc.) or a volunteer responds to a highway accident in a personal vehicle without reflective markings, it not  only endangers the volunteers that do respond (especially if they are unqualified to handle the emergency), but it skews the numbers for the reporting.  While this may make the responding company look better, it presents a false picture of the effectiveness of the Township’s response capabilities and ultimately puts the public in danger.

Another, more pragmatic consideration for the Township’s policies is Worker’s Comp insurance.  If a volunteer firefighter is injured responding to an emergency in the Township, the taxpayers of Upper Providence cover the cost of the Worker’s Compensation Insurance.

January 16, 2018:  An invitation to meet with BRVFC was issued:

January 24, 2018:  Staff moves ahead with preparing for the meeting.

Assuming that Board Chairman John Pearson is starting from Ground Zero on Fire Services, staff prepares a “Cheat sheet” agenda.

It’s almost cute they way Staff thinks Pearson has never talked to BRVFC members before.

This agenda item is interesting for two reasons:  First the firm, but cautious, way Staff is approaching the construction of the new central firehouse. This is no doubt based upon the the Township’s experience with BRVFC’s historical resentment towards a Township firehouse.  Secondly, and more importantly, it is abundantly clear that the Township’s agenda is to choose a fire company with which to align, and if BRVFC wants to be considered for this position, there will need to be some negotiation and remediation.  It is by no means a forgone conclusion at this point that BRVFC will be that Fire Company.

The chain of command structure was not part of the scope of the RTK, but suffice to say, Chapter 85, as it currently exists, gives authority over FEMS to the Township’s Fire Chief, Josh Overholt.

Agenda item number 4 is the Township’s primary reason for wanting to meet with BRVFC, as will become clear in February.  It is unclear whether this meeting with BRVFC ever took place.

It is also unclear who was present at this meeting, but there was an email exchange on January 24, 2018, in which Calci offers suggestions for improving EMS response times and curbing “cheating” by incenting them with bonus money from a pool of $120,000 of taxpayer dollars per year.  Overholt’s response notes that EMS times cannot really be improved without adding an ambulance, because the ambulances are already staffed.  He notes that her idea would be useful for the Fire Services, who suffer from slower response times due to the lack of staffed firehouses.  The entire email is linked below as further evidence of Staff’s thinking on FEMS.

012418 Calci-Overholt FEMS email exchange

Attached for reference below are the Township’s Department of Fire and Emergency Services resolution and the BRVFC signed contract for providing fire and emergency service to the Township.

012418 DFES Resolution

010118 UP-BRVFC Fire Service Agreement.Signed Copy

February 2018: The Turning Point

February 9, 2018:  February begins with Township Staff planning to meet with Chairman Pearson to discuss the ongoing Township/BRVFC friction.

Upon digesting the entirety of the contents of the RTK, it’s clear that this email, and the attachments it contained, marked the beginning of what turned out to be the 180 degree change in Township FEMS policy.  The documents attached in this email are linked below; both are critical pieces of information that are necessary to evaluate how to best provide FEMS protection to the Township.

The first document is staff’s original slide presentation, outlining the Township’s direction and vision for FEMS.  (The policy differences between this slide presentation and the one presented at the Special Fire and EMS public meeting on April 4, 2018, were discussed in detail HERE.)

020918 UPFES Future Presentation

The UPFES Future Presentation contains the following three options with regard to BRVFC:

The second document is more disturbing. It explains why the three options outlined above are necessary for moving forward with BRVFC and simply must be read in its entirety.

020918 BRVFC History

I sent the following email regarding these particular RTK documents:

I received the following response:

So the February 12 meeting was not an “official meeting,” but one of John Pearson’s infamous Secret Monday Morning meetings, in which no minutes are taken, nor are attendees recorded.  We can infer from this email that there was one other Supervisor present (but we don’t know who it was) and we can assume that the 020918 BRVFC History and 020918 UPFES Future Presentation documents (attached to Overholt’s email and also linked above) were not only distributed, but discussed.

February 16, 2018:  Assistant Manager Bortnichak starts gathering information on a stipend program for the volunteers.

Meanwhile, Township policies are still being disregarded:

February 22, 2108:  A meeting is set up with BRVFC for February 22; agenda is below:

Items A through G on the agenda above indicate that there is some work that needs to be completed on behalf BRVFC and that the Township was definitely looking for improvement in their performance.  This is the last time these goals appear in the RTK.

March 2018: Overholt’s last stand

March 6, 2018:  By March, things start unravelling fast.  Fire Chief Overholt submits a revised draft of his slide presentation to Township Manager Tieperman and Assistant Manager Bortnichak.  It is the last time Overholt will have any meaningful input into the public presentation that will outline the Township’s vision for the future of the department of which he is in charge:  the Department of Fire and Emergency Services or DFES.

March 9, 2018:  A few days later, the Board was calling in Harrisburg for their expertise, apparently operating under the false assumption that the higher up in government you go, the more qualified that individual is, regardless of the fact that the whole concept of Municipal Government is that local government knows best how to deal with local problems.  Calci reaches out to Sean Sanderson, who, according to his LinkedIn profile, is the Local Government Policy Manager at the DCED.  It is unclear who “Ron” is.  BRVFC is included in this meeting.

Note well:  At this point, Calci is making representations to State DCED officials that the Township “is transitioning towards a unified fire model” before any public meeting or discussion of this policy has taken place.  Prior to this meeting, this integration was only expressed as a “vision” for the future in Chief Overholt’s DFES Future presentation.  It was not official Township policy.  Additionally, the inclusion of BRVFC leadership in this email suggests that a decision has already been made to partner with the BRVFC, again, before any public meeting or discussion of this policy has taken place.

As noted in January and February, the purposes of the initial 2018 meetings between BRVFC and the Township were more to test the waters regarding a “partnership” as there were documented policy compliance, performance, and cooperation issues with BRVFC, as well as that list of Township directed goals, that needed to be resolved between the two entities (See 020918 BRVFC History  , 012418 DRAFT Agenda for BRVFC cheat sheet and 022218 BRVFC Agenda ). There was no record of these discussions, or indeed, of any kind of measurable accountability or performance standards for BRVFC being implemented, nor any documentation of compliance with any of the Township’s stated goals in the interim included in the RTK.

Further note:  as was discussed at the February meeting of the Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Al Vagnozzi was supposed to be included on this “FEMS Subcommittee” yet it is John Pearson, not Vagnozzi, who is included in these emails, meetings, and discussions.  (It’s no wonder that when resident Art Lebofsky asks on March 19 if this “subcommittee” is getting along, that everyone says yes.)

A week later, Calci attempted to coordinate a follow-up meeting between the “Oakes” (sic) fire company (Read: BRVFC) and Township Officials, again, excluding Fire Chief Overholt and Supervisor Vagnozzi, but including Chairman Pearson:

March 13, 2018:  The next meeting is set for the end of March.  Note this meeting well, Gentle Reader. We will come back to it.  Pearson and Locasale responding to Calci:

March 16, 2018: Township Manager Tieperman sends the following email to the Local Government Policy Manager for the DCED, Sean Sanderson.  Please note, the attachment power point is still basically the same document linked above.  Is this a “Hail Mary” pass attempt by Tieperman to get the State to convince Pearson and Calci of the problems with BRVFC?  Without notes from the meeting, we will never really know.

We can presume that this meeting/call took place, though there is no documentation in the RTK regarding minutes or attendees.

March 18, 2018: By March 18, 2018, the primary responsibility for the creation of the FEMS slide presentation has been completely shifted away from Township Fire Chief Overholt and Township Manager Tieperman and Assistant Manager Bortnichak are editing the product for presentation at the public meeting on April 4.  This new presentation, linked below, bears little resemblance to Overholt’s original presentation.

April 5, 2018 Fire Presentation as prepared b

March 20, 2018:  The RTK package includes numerous emails, most of which show Fire Chief Overholt reiterating Township fire policy to the volunteers.  As seen on the February 22, 2018 Agenda, above, one of the agenda items is for the BRVFC to provide documentation that BRVFC membership has been made aware of Township DFES policies.

The Township’s Standard Operating Guideline (“SOG”) for dealing with policy infractions, Dated January 24, 2018, is linked below:

012518 DFES SOG -102.00 – Department Infractions

This growing frustration with non-adherence to Township policy comes finally to a head on March 20, 2018.

Note well Overholt’s reluctance to issue this discipline (which is a matter of Township Policy that all of the Volunteer Fire Company Chiefs agreed to) due to the “relationship between BRVFC and Chairman Pearson:”

Policy infraction is attached below, with name redacted:

032018 BRVFC Policy Infraction 3-2018

It is unclear whether or not this discipline notice was ever delivered to the BRVFC as there is no follow-up included in the RTK packet, so this discipline notice, if it was delivered, was not delivered via email.

March 21, 2018: A conference call takes place to discuss the FEMS Meeting presentation.  At least one Supervisor, Calci, is included on the call, however, Pearson is included in the follow-up email:

Overholt submits factual edits to the slide presentation (linked below), but these edits have nothing to do with the policy the presentation illustrates.  It is the last input he will have in the presentation, but not the last time the presentation will be edited.  Interestingly, Overholt’s email comments center upon the construction of the presentation, rather than the content.

UPT FEMS Presentation Overholt Edit

This correspondence represents the last meaningful email from the Fire Chief in the RTK packet.

March 22, 2018:  An email correspondence from BRVFC President copying BRVFC leadership, including Fire Chief Jim Daywalt, and presumably Assistant Chief Jim Callahan, and Vice President Bill Kasper, talks about presenting a plan for integration of the paid and volunteer staff.

Once again, this is a major policy initiative that has not been discussed in public or approved by the Board of Supervisors. 

It should further be noted that even though Overholt is nominally in charge of the Department into which the BRVFC volunteers will be integrated, he has no say on the creation of this policy; he isn’t even copied on the email.

March 23, 2018:  Some more back and forth between only Tieperman and Bortnichak on the slides.  Also, a lunch meeting with BRVFC President Locasale takes place later in the day.

March 24, 2018:  Meanwhile, Tieperman and Bortnichak are not only accepting direction on policy from BRVFC leadership on the Fire side of the presentation, they are submitting the presentation to them for “approval:”

BTW, it should be noted that the RTK includes no references to input on from any of our EMS providers into that side of the presentation.

Regarding the Mont Clare Station:  This blog has made note (HERE) of the history of mixed signals the Township has received from BRVFC leadership over the disposition of this station. In private sessions with Supervisors, BRVFC states the need to close the station, but in public, they don’t want to take responsibility for that decision.

On January 25, 2018, BRVFC sends a follow-up email following a meeting where this issue was discussed.

On February 4, 2018, BRVFC President Locasale was discussing the disposal of the Station and it’s equipment while the Township, with the permission of BRVFC leadership, engaged an appraiser to evaluate the worth of the property by February 26:

Now here we are on March 24, and once again, BRVFC leadership balking over closing this station.  In the final April 4  “Staff” presentation, the “viability” of the Mont Clare Station is to be “evaluated” and the Oaks Station is in line for upgrades.

March 27, 2018:  Assistant Manager Bortnichak sends an email to BRVFC President Locasale stating that the stipend program will go into effect (retroactively…?) as of February 18.  Details of the stipend program mentioned below are available in the entire email, linked here:  032718 Stipend Program

March 28, 2018:  According to the email records, Calci’s “Oakes”/BRVFC-Township meeting takes place on either March 28 or March 29.  The only people invited are Supervisors Calci and Pearson, Manager Tieperman, Assistant Manager Bortnichak and BRVFC President Joe Locasale. Since the meeting was held at the BRVFC Firehouse (or “Oakes” if you prefer) and there are no minutes available for the meeting, it is unclear if anyone else attended, though we can assume that the members of the BRVFC Leadership who were copied on Locasale’s March 22 email were in attendance, especially since BRVFC President Locasale’s response indicates “we” are available.

March 29, 2018:  Bortnichak submits revisions to the slide presentation “based on” the BRVFC meeting the night before.  The marked-up presentation attached to this email is linked below.

20180329104422301

Later on, Bortnichak forwards the latest revision to Overholt—after BRVFC’s Locasale has already seen it.

April 2018:  BRVFC taking control

April 3, 2018:  On the eve of the big Special FEMS Meeting of the Board of Supervisors, BRVFC President Locasale and Assistant Manager Bortnichak get advance copies of the presentation.  Fire Chief Overholt is not copied.

April 4, 2018: The Special Fire and Emergency Services meeting takes place.  The slide presentation given to the public is presented as “Staff’s Recommendations” and though members of BRVFC leadership are thanked at the beginning of the meeting, no mention of BRVFC’s input into the presentation is given. For what it’s worth, Vagnozzi is also “thanked” for his input, though nothing of his policy vision is included in the slide deck. Indeed, April 4 is the first time both Vagnozzi and Barker see the presentation.

For a full discussion of this meeting, and the results of the RTK I requested as a result of the slides included in that presentation, see HERE and HERE.

April 6, 7, 2018:  Lots of back slapping and good-jobbing all around regarding the FEMS meeting.  BRVFC president Locasale included in the email.  This is the first email in the RTK regarding the FEMS policy that Vagnozzi, Barker or Higgins is included upon.

April 10, 2018:  Fire Chief Overholt is becoming a real problem for the FEMS policy setters at the BRVFC and their puppets on the Board of Supervisors. It’s time for a “come to Jesus” meeting:

As an aside:  Of course the BRVFC is being positive with the Township guys.  This is their policy being implemented, after all.

April 15, 2018:    Regular Readers may recall that this blog noted with suspicion the existence of “signing statements” by Supervisors Higgins and Calci that were read into the record at the April 16, 2018 BOS meeting.  The statements had the appearance of being coordinated and deliberated outside of the public eye.  An email on April 15 from Calci to Manager Tieperman and Chairman Pearson confirms this, with Calci asking for the men’s blessings/inputs upon her prepared remarks:

April 16, 2018:  In advance of the regular Board meeting on April 16, 2018, BRVFC Vice President (and former “Republican” candidate for Township Supervisor) Bill Kasper, sends the following email to Supervisors Higgins and Calci.  Though admittedly not an “expert” on EMS, that does not stop him from offering his opinion:

This is an interesting email for a several reasons.

1. Bill Kasper obviously feels comfortable enough at this point (perhaps because he is “somehow” aware of the “come to Jesus” meeting with Overholt prescribed by Bortnichak’s April 10 email, above….?) to offer policy recommendations directly to (at least some members of) the governing body, even if they are in the cutesy style of a “What I did on my Summer Vacation” 3rd Grade Theme.
2. Kasper offers his opinion that the EMS issue “has become too political” without even a hint of irony.  Meanwhile, behind the scenes and in concert with at least two members of the Board of Supervisors, his own organization has been completely re-writing the Township fire policy they’ve been ignoring for years.
3. Kasper only copies Higgins and Calci; he doesn’t even try to present his idea to Vagnozzi or Barker.  If it’s such a great idea, it should stand on its own merits, politics notwithstanding.  How does he know that Barker or Vagnozzi would reject this idea out of hand without even giving them the benefit of the doubt?
4. Kasper has already “shared” this idea with “John” {Pearson}.  When?  After Quizzo, perhaps?
5. Most importantly is the glaring flaw in this plan.  The QRS system, which was working well in the Township, was working well because the daytime staff was responding out of the Township’s centrally located Municipal Campus.  Is Kasper proposing that response times will be improved when the daytime staff is moved to the far southeast corner of the Township, where the Oaks Firehouse is located?  Isn’t the whole premise of the EMS issue in UPT the need for a centrally located station?

Also on April 16, it is apparent that the BRVFC has been busy indeed writing policy which has not yet even been seen, discussed or voted upon by the Board of Supervisors.  Not only has BRVFC completed preliminary drawings for the expanded space at the Black Rock Fire House, they’ve written up a Stipend Program and a Live-in Member agreement.

Attachment F  (which can be found here: 041618 Attachment F) contains the directive, mentioned for the first time, of rolling the Township’s paid staff and Public Works employees (collectively known as Station 93) into the BRVFC (Station 99) and not vice-versa.  It also contains this interesting bit of policy: Fire Chief Overholt is excluded from Station 99 operations and prohibited from having command over an emergency scene unless there is no one qualified from BRVFC on the scene.  This does not mean that the BRVFC officer on scene would have to be MORE qualified than Overholt, just that the BRVFC officer would have to have at least the minimum command qualifications.  Overholt’s title would also be changed from “Chief” to “Director of Fire and Emergency Services.”

On April 16, 2018, the Board of Supervisors voted the proposed Fire and EMS policy into law.  It is unclear as to whether Supervisors Vagnozzi, Barker, or Higgins was aware at that time that the fire policy recommendations for which they voted were, in large part, recommendations of the BRVFC and not those of their paid and acknowledged expert on FEMS, Fire Chief Joshua Overholt.  It is further unclear as to whether Vagnozzi, Barker, or Higgins was privy to the history of BRVFC (documented here:  020918 BRVFC History) prior to the vote.  For details of this BOS meeting, please see HERE.

April 20, 2018:  Another meeting between Bortnichak and Locasale to discuss the “Plan.”

May 2018: Rolling downhill without the brakes

May 1, 2018:  The following email was sent from BRVFC president Joe Locasale to Township Manager Tieperman, Assistant Manager Bortnichak, Fire Chief Overholt, BRVFC Fire Chief Jim Daywalt, BRVFC Vice President Bill Kasper, and BRVFC Assistant Chief Jim Callahan.  This email certainly gives the appearance that the BRVFC, and not the Township, is writing the policy.

Furthermore, it should be noted that this process is begun well in advance of the establishment of the infamous Steering Committee, which was ostensibly created to do what the BRVFC is already doing here.  More below the email.

The the project plan attached to this email can be found here:  050118 PROJECT PLAN – UPT FIRE SERVICE Revised 5-1-

This plan contains the following excerpt, outlining that the Township’s paid firefighters (Engine 93) will be rolled into BRVFC, and not vice versa, for the sole reason as not to negatively impact the “volunteer spirit” of the BRVFC.

The second attachment to this email can be found here:  050118 Collaborative Agreement

The following is an excerpt from the Collaborative Agreement, again noting that it will be the volunteer organization that is to be supplemented by the career staff and not vice versa, and that further, this authoritative structure is “understood through discussions with the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors (Pearson), the Township Manager (Tieperman) and Assistant Township Manager (Bortnichak) and that BRVFC will be the primary fire service organization within the Township”:

May 2, 2018:  Overholt responds to the meeting request, noting that he was first made aware of the meeting on the previous Monday:

May 6, 2018:  “Can we trust Josh Overholt?”  Secure in his newfound authority with the Township, the BRVFC Vice President, Five-member board supporter, and former “Republican” candidate for Township Supervisor, Bill Kasper, sends a fabulously whiny and contradictory email seeking the head of Fire Chief Overholt on a platter.  Interestingly, this email was only sent to the Democrat members of the Board of Supervisors, John Pearson, Laurie Higgins, and Helene Calci, as well as Township Manager Tieperman and Assistant Manager Bortnichak.  Discussion below the email.

The premise of the blog post Kasper is fretting about was that Staff was bullied into the presentation that was given to the public at the April 4 Special Fire and Emergency Services meeting. It is also a charge Supervisor Vagnozzi has made more than once from the dais.

That notorious blog post, which caused so much “drama,” can be found HERE.  That post, like this one, that was the result of a document dump from an RTK filed by your humble blogress.

If anyone would know if Staff had been bullied, it would be a member of Staff.  So what exactly is Kasper saying here?  Is he saying that Overholt wasn’t bullied?  If so, how would Kasper know? Or is he just upset that Overholt is exposing the behind-the-scenes genesis of the new policy, albeit in the smallest way possible–with a simple little Facebook “Like?”  According to the sensitive Kasper, a mere Facebook “Like” rises to the level of insubordination.

The reality of what’s going on with Township Fire Policy is actually worse than mere bullying: not only was staff bullied by the Board (as has been meticulously documented in this post), but Staff was implored by the majority of the Board to let BRVFC have an equal–or even a more dominant—voice in setting Township Fire policy.  This directive was given with complete disregard of the Township’s documented history with the BRVFC organization.  No methods for accountability or improving the performance of BRVFC have been put into place; on the contrary, instead of being held accountable for their past performance issues, BRVFC has been put in a position of leadership over the Township’s paid staff and the Township Fire Chief, even if that leadership is only based on their political connections.

One can assume from the documents reviewed thus far in the timeline that Overholt simply refused to play ball on the new BRVFC-friendly policy, which is perfectly logical since the new policy is actually an 180 degree reversal of the Fire policy Overholt had written and was following back in January.  Hence the need for the “come to Jesus” meeting documented in the April 10 email between Bortnichak and Tieperman.

May 7, 2016:  At the May 7 Board of Supervisors Meeting, the idea of the Steering Committee finally makes the agenda.  Even though the leadership of BRVFC is already “steering the ship,” the Board has to make things “official” for public appearances.  Manager Tieperman and Assistant Manager Bortnichak are to be appointed in favor of the Township, but Overholt, the person in charge of the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, is left out.  BRVFC must vote on who their member on the Steering Committee will be.  For more on the May 7 BOS meeting, see HERE.

May 10, 2018:  Overholt gets hit again for being mean to BRVFC, this time from BRVFC President Locasale, who has a much lighter touch than BRVFC’s Vice President Bill Kasper.  Kasper can’t be seen as the only one complaining to the Township about Overholt.  That wouldn’t look good.  Sure, the long-suffering BRVFC guys “took it in stride,” but they needed to tattle to Overholt’s superiors anyway.

May 14, 2018:  Email from BRVFC President Locasale presents all of the policies they have written so far, plus asks when will they be briefing the Board of Supervisors. 

Note well, Gentle Reader:  The creation of all of these documents were to fall under the purview of the Steering Committee which has not yet been established.

Collaborative Agreement (discussed elsewhere in this post) is here:  050118 Collaborative Agreement

Attachment F (discussed elsewhere in this post) is here:  041618 Attachment F

Staff integration Timeline can be found here: 051418 DRAFT Staff Integration Timeline

May 16, 2018:  Assistant Manager Bortnichak taps the brakes just a tiny bit in his response to Locasale’s latest email request for a meeting. The fact that Bortnichak sent this response to Manager Tieperman for his approval first, suggests that Staff is indeed walking on eggshells with regard to dealings with BRVFC and possibly, that any sort of push back from Staff against BRVFC would result in some unhappiness from their bosses on the Board of Supervisors.

May 17, 2018:  BRVFC President Joe Locasale sends an email to Chairman Pearson, Tieperman and Bortnichak (copying BRVFC Chief Daywalt and someone else unknown) informing Tieperman and Bortnichak that he’s “sure the resolution appointing the both of you will need to be amended to have two representatives from BRVFC.”

He’s not asking for another member from BRVFC to be appointed to the Steering Committee; he’s telling them to make it happen.  

May 18, 2018:  Assistant Manager Bortnichak sends an email to all Township career firefighters and qualified Public Works employees that driver training is available on all BRVFC equipment.  Fire Chief Overholt is copied on the directive to his own Department.

May 19, 2018:  BRVFC President Locasale submits drawings for the Black Rock Fire House remodel to Tieperman and Bortnichak.

Drawings attached to the email can be found here:  051918 BRVFC Temp UPT Off o

May 21, 2018:  The May 21 Board of Supervisors meeting is dominated by the discussion of the Steering Committee, specifically, the addition of another member, who, according to the Democrats, cannot, under any circumstances, be the guy most qualified to be on the Steering Committee: Fire Chief Josh Overholt.  The highlight of this meeting is some rather inept tap dancing on the part of Chairman John Pearson who, when confronted by Supervisor Vagnozzi, and members of the public about why Overholt is being excluded from the Steering Committee, and by Barker for letting construction on the BRVFC Oaks station progress without Board knowledge, gets caught admitting that he has been meeting with the members of BRVFC “on his own personal time.”  The details of this meeting are documented HERE in a post that went “viral” thanks to a share from PhillyFireNews.

Backed into a corner by the two Republicans, Pearson and BRVFC get their first “no” of the year and the extra member of the Steering Committee is voted down.

As an aside, the whole concept of the Steering Committee has only grown in its ridiculousness in my esteem upon the evaluation of the contents of the RTK.  The Democrats on the Board and BRVFC leadership have consistently shown the same utter disregard for transparency throughout this entire process.  I always suspected that the existence of the “Steering Committee” was simply window dressing for the public, so that it wouldn’t look like the Township has simply abdicated authority over the Townships FEMS policy.  Given the contents of the RTK examined in this post, it certainly appears that the Township has done precisely that, at the explicit direction of at least some members of the Board of Supervisors.

June 2018 Momentum continues to build

June 1, 2018:  For the first time, BRVFC President Locasale acknowledges that there are two other Supervisors on the Board and that it’s time to “brief” them on all of the progress that has been made behind the scenes on this—progress that was made well before the “Steering Committee” has even held their first meeting.

June 4, 2018:  A regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors.  There is no mention of FEMS at this meeting.  For a full write-up of this meeting, see HERE.

June 5, 2018:  Assistant Manager Bortnichak responds to BRVFC President Locasale’s June 1 email.  He does not see any need for the Supervisors to take action.

June 14, 2018:  Assistant Manager Bortnichak requests a meeting with an engineer from D’Huy, Manager Tieperman and BRVFC President Locasale to discuss construction of the Township’s new firehouse.

June 18, 2018:  A regular meeting of the Board of Supervisors.  When a fee waiver is requested on some minor electrical work at the BRVFC Oaks Firehouse, Supervisor Barker asks why the Board has not been briefed on work that is apparently progressing there.  Barker also asks why the Board hasn’t been briefed on anything that’s occurring with regard to FEMS.  Assistant Manager Bortnichak responds that they are just moving forward with the Board approved milestones.

Interestingly, in an avoidable political mess entirely of Pearson’s own making, it is also at this meeting that the Rec Center issue blows up.

For a full write-up of this meeting, see HERE.

June 19, 2019:  The day after the ham-handed handling of the Rec Center issue, an engineer from D’Huy meets with Assistant Township Manager Bortnichak.  In the course of their day, the engineer says that the location for the central station seemed “very convenient” and that it was “true green space.”  He then immediately mentions going inside the Rec Center and talks about finding good uses for that building. This raises the question:  where, exactly is this centrally located, “convenient” “true green space”  located?  It was always contemplated that the Township’s firehouse (when and if it was ever to be built) would be part of the Black Rock Municipal Campus.  The mention of the Rec Center in the same paragraph makes me wonder if that is still the plan.

 

June 20, 2018:  In response to Supervisor Barker’s June 18 request for information on what is going on in the Township he is tasked with governing, Manager Tieperman requests copies of the minutes of the Executive Committee, which has met three times at this point.  These minutes, however, which are discussed under a separate heading below, do not even scratch the surface of all that has been going on behind the scenes with FEMS that Barker doesn’t know about.

June 21, 2018:  Overholt sends a training notice to all Township fire personnel announcing the availability of water rescue training.  Even though the Township is bordered on two sides by water, and the Chairman of the Board owns and operates a kayak rental business on the Schuylkill Canal, the Chairman’s handpicked primary FEMS service provider, BRVFC, currently has no personnel qualified to perform water rescues.

June 22, 2018:  Assistant Manager Bortnichak forwards the D’Huy proposal to the Township to BRVFC President Locasale and hour and twenty minutes after receiving it, and before anyone at the Township has a chance to look it over/

Executive Steering Committee Meeting Minutes

The RTK covered in this post was filed at the end of June.  The scope of the RTK covered the minutes of three Executive Steering Committee Meetings, the very first of which was held on June 6, 2018, long after most of the heavy lifting on these new policy initiatives had been completed.

The minutes themselves are, however,  mildly instructive as to ascertaining priorities in the Firefighting services in Upper Providence.  For example, from the first meeting on June 6, two standing subcommittees were created and membership was appointed:

The all important Box Assignments Subcommittee…..  ….and the only slightly less important New Central Station Design Subcommittee

By the June 14 Meeting, Two new Subcommittees were identified:  Training and Standardization.  Apparently, nobody was lining up for these two committees, which only have to do with, you know, actually fighting fires.  These subcommittees were still unmanned after the June 20 meeting as well.

060618 Exec Steering Cmty Minutes

061418 Exec Steering Cmty Minutes

062018 Exec Steering Cmty Minutes

July 2018:  Overholt Resigns

July 16, 2018:  At a regular Board of Supervisors Meeting, the Board moves into Executive Session to discuss a severance package.  It is later revealed that the severance package is for Fire Chief Josh Overholt.  At the time, I speculated (HERE) on why I thought Overholt resigned.  At that point, this RTK had not yet been fulfilled.

After reviewing this information, it’s really a wonder that he stayed as long as he did.

Here’s your ticket pack your bag
Time for jumpin’ overboard
The transportation is here
Close enough but not too far,
Maybe you know where you are
Fightin’ fire with fire      – Talking Heads 

A final Reminder: