I have a loving family, faith in God, pride in my military record, love for my friends and community, and an eventful career as a Fayette County firefighter. I am a very content man and content men generally don’t write a lot of letters to the newspaper. I have never written to the paper before, but I feel compelled to comment on a recent front-page story.

On Aug. 8, 2007, The Citizen ran an opinion piece from some former county officials to condemn the idea of an improved retirement program for the county’s firefighters, law enforcement officers, and other employees. This piece bothers me in several different ways.

This piece is written by past political leaders against a proposition that isn’t even a proposition yet. I don’t know a single person who can tell me what this retirement improvement program might look like. The only action taken thus far is the meeting of a cross-section of people to look at the various opportunities that might be available to improve employee benefits.

It is true that a defined benefit program is one such option, but the editorial outcry against its cost and impact on taxpayers is unwarranted and premature.

The article implies that funding for firefighter retirements will be drawn from existing capital improvement and emergency preparedness accounts. I have heard no mention of any proposal like this outside of this article.

As a matter of fact, another local county that currently enjoys the experience and skills of past Fayette County firefighters funded a retirement program from the employees’ own existing retirement funds.

I find it difficult to understand why past and present community leaders would take such a fierce and intractable stance against improvements in employee benefits and the county’s ability to attract and retain quality personnel. This is especially true when applied to the retention of public safety employees.

I have a great deal of respect for the work and dedication that these political leaders have shown to the people of Fayette County, but I wonder if their current position on this issue is based on the best available information.

For example, the retention of fire department employees has been a problem for the 21 years that I have served this county. When a fire truck pulls up in front of your burning home today, do you know that most of the men on that truck will have never been inside an actual burning building before?

The majority of our firefighters have fewer than five years of service with the county. When we hire new employees, it takes more than a year and great cost to train them in firefighting and emergency medical response to be able to function on the emergency scene.

Once they have completed their training, they are intellectually prepared to fight fire, but the true firefighter is born from experience and flame, not from workbooks and testing. I have watched hundreds of fine firefighters train with Fayette County and then leave for other nearby departments to improve their family’s benefits, income, and future.

We train our firefighters to the highest possible standards. They are skilled in fighting fires, managing medical emergencies, mitigating natural disasters, performing rescue operations, responding to hazardous material emergencies, and extricating and caring for accident victims. These skills are not easily or cheaply acquired, yet over 50 percent of our employees have served less than five years.

As Homeland Security requirements pile more responsibilities on these men and women each year, we must find some way to keep them here in Fayette County. It is my opinion that the enormous turn-over in quality people is the number one danger to our ability to handle future emergencies.

The current Fayette County Board of Commissioners has addressed this issue and has made the county employee a priority in a way that I have not seen in the past.

Fayette County has always been where I want to live, work, and raise my family, but so many other great firefighters have decided that other communities were better for them. Fayette County is surrounded by fire departments with benefit and retirement plans that are vastly superior to ours.

From a personal perspective, I have participated in the county’s current retirement plan at a level greater that the average employee and beyond the county’s matching benefit for my entire employment and I have managed to accumulate less than two year’s salary due to the poor performance of the designated 401 and 457 plans available to us.

Our current system is obviously inadequate as demonstrated by the migration of firefighters from our department.

I only want the citizens to understand that the ideas under investigation aren’t a matter of greedy employees trying to enrich themselves at the expense of taxpayers. In whatever form they may take, these improvements are long overdue.

The potential costs of an improved benefits and retention package must be weighed against the necessity of a stable public safety workforce and the best interests of all citizens.

Doug Morris

medicaltraining (at) bellsouth.net