Toby Nixon files for Fire Commissioner
Toby Nixon for King County Fire Protection District 41 Commissioner, Position 3
Former 45th District State Representative Toby Nixon has filed to run for King County Fire Protection District 41 Commissioner against Nancy Lindquist. Fire District 41 provides service to most of the unincorporated region north of Kirkland known as Kirkland’s Potential Annexation Area, including the neighborhoods of Kingsgate, North Juanita and Finn Hill.
The following statement is posted on Toby Nixon’s webpage:
Some of you may be surprised to learn that on Friday, June 5, I filed as a candidate for King County Fire Protection District 41 Commissioner. District 41 works in close cooperation with the City of Kirkland to provide fire and EMS service to most of the unincorporated area north of Kirkland, now proposed for annexation.
I’ve actually had a life-long interest in fire service. Like most boys, I went through the phase of wanting to be a fireman, but it’s more than that. In 5th grade, I was Battalion Chief for the Los Angeles Junior Fire Department for Camellia Avenue School in North Hollywood, a title earned for scoring the highest in the school on the assessment test we took at the end of a week-long class segment on fire safety. As a Boy Scout, one of the first merit badges I earned was Fire Safety, and as Senior Patrol Leader I made sure all our scouts learned the subject well. In junior high school, I held a summer job as assistant cook (which was the closest a young teenager could get to firefighters!) for the California Division of Forestry station in Redding, CA, making sure all the firefighters were well-fed between brush fires. I ended up pursuing a career in computers instead of public safety, but my interest has never really abated. In the legislature, I worked hard to ensure that public safety was a priority, and earned the endorsement of the Washington State Council of Fire Fighters on multiple occasions. More recently, I’ve enjoyed teaching the Washington State Emergency Management Division’s Map Your Neighborhood program to people in the Kirkland area.
Seeing that there was an open seat on the District 41 Commission, and not being otherwise occupied in public office at the moment, I decided to pursue my interest once again and seek the office. I believe I’ll be able to do a good job as fire commissioner for the people in District 41. Here are the things I’d do as fire commissioner:
- Wisely use our property tax dollars and other district resources to ensure all areas of the district are well served, consistent with or exceeding state and national standards;
- Ensure the integration of District 41 into the City of Kirkland after annexation goes as smoothly as possible;
- Improve community outreach, particularly public education and training programs, to be ready for earthquakes and other major disasters;
- Work with the Kirkland City Council and city staff to ensure public safety is properly prioritized among city services;
- Improve transparency and access to district information, including establishing a district web site, so residents can be as aware of and involved in district business as they want to be; and,
- Use my experience in the legislature to ensure proposed legislation positively affects our district and improves our fire and EMS services.
My top priority this summer is, of course, working on successful annexation of Kingsgate, North Juanita, and Finn Hill into Kirkland. But once the annexation vote is complete, being on the Fire District 41 Commission will enable me to be closely involved in smoothly transitioning District 41 into Kirkland. Until that process is complete, however, there’s plenty of work to do in making sure District 41 serves its residents effectively. If you live in District 41, I’d very much appreciate your support and your vote this November!
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Posted by Rob Butcher on Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Filed under Elections · Tagged with Elections, PAA
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Wow! The Libertarian-turned-Republican is now going to oversee the Socialist program of Fire Protection. What’s in the water up there in the PAA? Next thing we know Mr. Nixon will be marching for (fill in the blank) rights!
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When your home is burning down, your child is turning blue or the natural gas is leaking after an earthquake – I doubt you are asking if the local department is of a particular party. Peter, can you fine tune your concern? I’m not sure the political party is of issue here. —— I’m very split on my views of Toby running for Fire Commissioner. On the positive side, he assisted me with getting the Map Your Neighborhood program off the ground in the Kingsgate area. He also has a history of understanding legal issues, funding, government and getting Internet communication launched for community education.
My biggest concern centers on the fact that he views annexation as key for the area, where I have grave issues with the current financial environment and bringing annexation forward. One of the key issues, as highlighted by the Woodinville Fire Department, is response time and overall availability to people in Kirkland, the PAA and Woodinville. There has been vague comments of a jointly run station, yet The City of Kirkland is hard pressed to solve travel response time without keeping the stations opened that were not originally part of the annexation plan. I’d like to see how Toby plans to ensure that no house in the PAA will have a drop in fire and EMT response time. It will be easy in the future to dismiss a minute here or there on response time, but even ONE minute can dramatically shift the statistics on survival. Toby do you have a current professional CPR/ALS certification? This is very crucial to understanding life is on the line with service time drop. Are you prepared to take on the challenges of response time? To quote from the comments made by the attorney for Woodinville Fire at the boundary review, “Location is important no matter how much personnel you have,” said WFLS attorney Joseph Quinn. “The loss of $1 million would mean that six to nine people would have to be laid off and that is the entire station.”
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To add since the last 7/21/09 council meeting, I spoke on this subject for my three minutes. I pointed out that in the Seattle area survival rates for a 911/CPR call are around 16-17% and on the Eastside 25-26%. Anyone with professional CPR/ALS training understands that a drop in respond time shifts these numbers rapidly. My big concern is the comment made by Bob Sternoff after I sat down, where he spoke to a new respond system going in place. Please do not confuse dispatch and travel time. The total response time to the patient is a combination of BOTH of these numbers. Even with the best dispatch system, is will not be able to change to travel time from station 27 up the hill, if Station 34 is not allowed to stay open. A location up on the hill additionally has some unique advantages in disaster scenarios – a) it is closer to the local water tower – in a earthquake etc. it is important to secure a local water supply rapidly, so that post disaster recovery can happen quickly, b) the hill poses a geographical barrier in things like a snow storm, making a station on the hill very desirable and c) if an industrial transport accident happened on 405, it would provide a station that doesn’t have to pass under the highway in order to serve the people in Kingsgate, Queensgate, Upland Greens etc.
STATION LOCATION matters in terms of lives, disaster response and recovery. New dispatch systems help, but do not address all the concerns.
Mr. Nixon pointed out in the last council meeting, that as current law exists, no representation of elected positions could occur until 2013. Or in other words, if we were annexed right now — without solid commitment from the council on TOTAL RESPONSE TIME, we wouldn’t have any input until 2013. Bringing police services closer is great if we don’t have to do it at the loss of life saving fire services. I don’t feel the council still really understands the issue, nor has committed the funds to support station 34/another localtion on the hill being open. I’m concerned the Mr. Nixon, is in no position currently to help. Where is the letter of intent for equal response times and funding?
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I don’t know why I’ve failed to address these same questions to Nancy Lindquist – again the issue isn’t political, its fact. So I’d like to hear both weigh in on this issue. Do either of you have a way to direct the council’s focus? In hard times, police and fire are the core services for a city.
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