I plan to vote YES to Renew the EMS Levy. Highly qualified professionals at Public Hospital District #1, SJI EMS as well as FD#3 work hard to keep us safe. The Citizens Advisory Committee (CAG) did a great job making merger recommendations. Everyone involved cares deeply about safety, about patients, about islanders. I care about them personally.

So, it’s a bummer that Fire has chosen to circulate inaccurate narratives that vilify SJI EMS and the PHD in an effort to shoot down the Levy Renewal and make it about a merger. The Levy Renewal is not about a merger. This negativity trickling down to responders should cause FD#3 leadership to pause their strategy. I’d say it has already backfired with the community.

The Public Hospital District is fiscally solid: EMS has paid off their building; they’re adding a fifth, full-time Paramedic; they have a new top-of-the-line ambulance (the chains are automatic and roll out with the push of a button at first sight of a snowflake); they’ve added a second Community Paramedicine Officer; a new set of trainees are coming through – 11 students. Let’s give credit where credit is due.

Their strategy confirms that the Agencies are not – culture-wise – ready to merge. Last year the merger vote needed a super-majority to pass – it failed. That initiative did NOT pass, so the PHD#1 made the unanimous decision to stop talks and focus on improving existing EMS systems, on training new EMTs, and adding depth to the Agency through strategic planning (for info, https://sjcphd.org/ems). Insults certainly won’t progress a merger agenda anyway, right?

I plan to VOTE YES to the EMS Levy Renewal to continue the investment locals have already made for decades in an EMS Agency that has served us so very well. EMS (and Fire responders!) are committed human beings who serve all of us with conscientiousness and commitment. Responders in both agencies are our heroes in times of crisis, but again, this isn’t about the merger even if Fire wants it to be.

Vote YES!

Winnie Brumsickle

Friday Harbor