Esd6 Meeting on Friday, January 27, 2012

The Emergency Services District had their January meeting and by the looks of it, they are still going after the Volunteer Fire Department's equipment, not paying them what they should and spending taxpayer dollars on items that are not in the best interest of fire safety.

Agenda action items

#6. Action concerning the USDA letter of conditions and essentials for a fire station (equipment).

#7. Budget Amendment to add line item for vehicle analysis. Normally, you would put this budget item in before you spent the money, however, Ms. Mendelsohn is known for not following the rules of order and so now they need to amend the budget.

#8. Approve expenses and "ratify" payment. (Ratify: to approve expenses that they already paid without board approval.) And "provide" repayment to Government Capital Corporation in February 2012. (Must be the "pay day" loan that they took out to make payments because they had already spent the funds for the year.) However, nowhere in the agenda does it show an amount to approve. The word "provide" used strategically could mean: 1) to include as a condition. 2) to stipulate. 3) to support.

#10. Consider "appropriate" payment for Ata-Bexar VFD expenses.

#11. Consider "appropriate" payment for Sandy Oaks VFD expenses, as well as, status on a "second" lien for ESD6.

#12. Consider "appropriate" payment for South Bexar Fire & Rescue, as well as, status on a "second" lien for ESD6.

#13. Status of Southside ISD vs. ESD6- last known status was that the case was dropped with prejudice, so that the SISD could re-open the case if needed. Attorney advice on the status of the sale of the Quint (ladder truck) and the District Court's order to execute liens, May 6, 2011, required by Sandy Oaks VFD and Ata-Bexar VFD. I have not been able to acquire a copy, as of yet, of this "Court Order", in order to comment further.

#14. Request to the court for enforcement of order requiring second liens, dispostion of the Quint and request a hearing for pending claims.

All of the legal wrangling to acquire equipment must be costing the taxpayers quite a bit of money.

Ms. Mendelsohn and her attorney, Louis T. Rosenberg have continually bombarded the VFD's with requests for documents at a pace that exceeds necessity and borders on insanity. The VFD's are short handed and underpaid, but Ms. Mendelsohn at the expense of the taxpayer keeps Mr. Rosenberg financially solvent while bleeding the VFD's even drier with "busy work", which in turn helps her cause. Without the desired paperwork, she denies payments, a technique she has used since October 10, 2010. Mr. Rosenberg continues to rake in tax dollars, $11,356.24 in this latest treasurers report.

ITEM'S PAID WITHOUT APPROVAL:

Bill Davidson- $1,500, O'Connell Robertson (Architect for Community Center) $5,000, Jaster Quintanilla (clearing-unowned property) $2,000.

More tax dollars spent on non-fire safety, while the fire departments go underfunded and threats of losing their equipment.

Once again, Ms. Mendelsohn and the ESD6 Board were found to be lacking. Lacking moral fiber and the ability to tell the truth.

The major item in question of course was the non-payment of the Sandy Oaks VFD's Quint (ladder truck) and the fact that Sandy Oaks sold it. Ms. Mendelsohn, once again, made excuses for her actions by making comments that were substantiated as lies. According to Ms. Mendelsohn, the "analyst" that was hired, said that they didn't need the Quint as much as they needed Brush trucks because they could get mutual aid response from the City Fire Departments or Toyota (Joe Hearn's employer). However, the analyst did not do his research or report for the ESD6 until after the Quint had been sold, so that topic would have been a mute point at best at the time of the analysis. Secondly, the ESD6 does not have a mutual aid agreement with Toyota.

A local news coverage video can be seen of Ms. Mendelsohn lying to not only the reporter, but to the entire city of San Antonio and surrounding areas who watched. So, who will be held accountable; when heaven forbid a disaster hits the school district or one of the corporations that have come in and the equipment isn't available to render aid. Ms. Mendelsohn and the ESD6 or the "analyst" who told her it wasn't necessary to have this truck. It would certainly be in the best interest of the analyst to come forward and clarify some information with the media on the liability he was just issued by Ms. Mendelsohn.

The other item that is detrimental to the safety of the South East Bexar County residents is the fact that without Sandy Oaks VFD's Quint, it will take at least 45 minutes to an hour before assistance of that kind can arrive. A fire spreads very quickly when oxygenated; can anyone afford to wait 45 minutes to an hour for aid?