Holiday Island Needs a Fire Truck

 

Image by Paul Brennan from Pixabay 

Arkansas does have one of the finest Open Meeting Laws in the Nation and yet, the community this article is concerning has years of difficulty understanding "How It Works."

The previous article, Smoke & Mirrors, intros into a "Special Meeting" called by the Holiday Island Suburban Improvement District (HISID) board of commissioners (BOC) on Monday, March 20, 2023. 

The Creekside News Journal (CNj) received the mandatory two hour notification by phone for this Special Meeting. It was later that CNj became aware that HISID had sent email notifications to the public at large. Upon arrival to this meeting, the meeting had an agenda and was conducted as a "Regular Meeting."

With a public comment section, one individual, new to the neighborhood, participated in this section to state interest in learning about the neighborhood.

This editor, also a resident, inquired about a line item printed on a submission included in the Tax Assessment Statement indicating a pay-off amount for AOB.

The District Manager (Danny Presley) and the Chair (Pat Sarratt) stated they could not comment on that topic. 

So, for the record, CNj announced that this was a "Special Meeting" being conducted as a regular session meeting. 

Fire Chief Ates gave a short presentation about a used 2007 E-ONE Typhoon Fire Truck
that is offered For Sale through Bradford Fire Apparatus.

There are exchanges between the Fire Chief and District Manager regarding email info. 
The Fire Chief took a mechanic with him to view the truck.
(CNj has receipts for that trip.) 

Discussion regarding how fortunate for the district that this truck is available that there are not other trucks available. 

(CNj does have a rather long list of other brokers selling this year and model truck.)

The BOC spent approximately an hour talking about the fire department and insurance but NOT the specifics of the truck, which was to be the "Special Meeting" topic. 

CNj got a few questions in with answers during the second comment section.
The purchase of the truck will include an engine replacement.
Hoses not included.
The odometer reading was known but not the hours of service for this truck.

 
Some points CNj was not allowed time to ask due to a comment section time restraint:

The engine replacement, a Cummins but, some of these engines have been recalled by the government and there are other issues including a flow issue. Details?
Exactly whom is the One Year warranty with for this truck purchase?
The truck is a Diesel.
Will it take off-road diesel or need to go to the White Oak Station to be filled?

Will it fit there?
One point that the Fire Chief questions: "Will it fit in Station #1?"
Why did he not know this?

According to Bradford Fire Apparatus the measurements for a 2007 E-ONE Typhoon Fire Truck: Length 33' 4"   Height 9' 4"   Width 8' 4"

The HISID BOC approved the purchase of this truck.
The HISID BOC canceled the regular business meeting for March 27, 2023, simply because the District Manager would be out of town. 

Smoke & Mirrors

Video by Attila Pergel from Pixabay 

The Holiday Island Suburban Improvement District (HISID) located in Northwest Arkansas is governed by five elected board of commissioners (BOC), whose oath of office binds them to uphold Federal, State and Local laws, which includes Arkansas Open Meeting Laws.

HISID meetings are streamed Live on HISID's YouTube channel and cataloged for future views / reference on their channel. 

Public records of these meetings are kept along with approved minutes, financial statements, budgets, audits;  all of this information is housed at the District office and on HISID's government website page. 

The public may submit an FOIA request for any document of any item referred in a meeting and all government records. The information can be provided as paper form copies or electronic returns.

By design, this type of transparency is a good thing for information and crediting information. 

What is astonishing?

 

These types of government meetings are open to the public and all of this factual information is available to view.

Why are discussions greater in social media groups where further diversion from the factual information is creating more and more discord and even delays in addressing what are immediate problems within the community, town and city?

Communication technology moves society backwards.

The Fire Department has a new Fire Chief Randy Ates, who presented some straight forward truths regarding the condition of the fire department at the Feb. 27, 2023 HISID meeting. 

The community has been in trouble with this lack of placing the Fire Department operations above recreational amenities. 

For some it came as a surprise, some acted surprised but, the former Fire Chief Chris Ledeker made a Fire Presentation to the BOC in a public meeting on March 15, 2021 with the same information and now two years later, it is an even greater problem.

The community's Health and Safety is at risk. The risk can no longer be swept under the carpet. It took a letter from ISO to bring the topic to the forefront in social media conversations. 

Along with the ISO letter and Chief Ates' report at the HISID meeting, Water came back to the forefront of the conversation. Fire hydrant water flow reports have not been submitted for several years.

The District has $1.4M worth of water problems to fix, which includes two wells, #4 & #5.
These two wells are the mainland source for potable water.

Grants that the District keeps stating are being submitted have actually not been submitted or if they have then the answers to several FOIA requests are incorrect. 

The District states that ESI prepares the grants yet, CNj upon submitting several FOIA requests has received these answers:

1. There is No current contract with ESI
2. There are No paid billing statements from ESI
3. There are No paid invoices from ESI

There will be no further information available until the next
HISID BOC regular meeting scheduled for March 27, 2023 at 9.m. 

_________________________________________________________________________

While you wait | blogging from Fancy This ~ Another Timeline

Short Topic 1 - Legal (June 14, 2017)

Now with Bill Moyers | Special Report: Kids & Chemicals   (May 10, 2002)

 

Government Social Media Policy

The usage of the Internet websites, tech knowledge and social media businesses changed the landscape for government entities. The DOT/GOV Act of 2020, was passed by the Federal Government for all government entities to utilize and give trust to being at an actual government location. Cybersecurity was also provided to DOT/GOV websites.

(blog archive July 16, 2022)

With the growing usage of social media, word definitions as well as recognizing the position or usage of these words is of the utmost importance. The DaDa art movement at the end of WWI grew out of the colliding times of politics. My blog article, This Dadaist Sorts Hats defines these definitions.

In 2011, the FTC defined its first opinion / warning to professionals utilizing social media as a tool in their advertising and marketing campaigns: 

"Social media advertising is subject to the same rules and standards as traditional advertising. The FTC's focus is on the integrity of the communications from the marketer to the consumer - whether the communications are accurate, transparent and non-deceptive. In other words, brands must tell the truth, not exaggerate any claims and be transparent through the disclosures and disclaimers." Holland and Knight, LLP / JDSupra 

Roughly eight years, professional advertising and marketing firms brainstorm and develop their programs to comply with the FTC warning for conducting business utilizing social media platforms. 

As social media platforms multiply and expand more tools to the consumers to use on the internet, the FCC finds a need to become involved in monitoring whether the communications are accurate, transparent and non-deceptive. 

By 2019, politicians form a bill that passes in congress as the DOT/GOV Act 2020.

During this same time period, the FCC and FTC suggested that government entities write their own Government Social media policy. 

Elected officials should be held to the same policies as other government employees. Elected officials also need to make sure that their social media use complies with laws about campaigning and open meeting laws. 

The DOTGOV Act of 2020

 

DOTGOV ONLINE TRUST
IN GOVERNMENT ACT OF 2019

A committee of U.S. legislatures worked
for years on what eventually
passes as the DOTGOV Act of 2020.

Whether Federal, State or Local government, the Act was to help the public trust accessing online internet websites.

The public needed to know that (dot)gov was official and offered cybersecurity.  The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced on
March 08, 2021 that it would begin overseeing the .gov top-level domain (TLD) in April 2021.

In Arkansas there is a suburban improvement district that is a local government group with five elected board of commissioners (BOC). The BOC writes regulations, oversee a tax budget of nearly $3 million to operate a water department, road department, fire department, recreation center, two golf courses and a marina.The office buildings, a clubhouse, plus a restaurant, and a campground. The website for the Holiday Island Suburban District (HISID) has not transitioned itself into the (dot)gov, even though it is a government entity that collects payments online.

The same local area, as recent as January 2021 was additionally voted upon to become a City.  Currently there is an elected seven member board that will increase to eight members in 2023 with the creation of Wards.

"A momentous $200 million worth of federal cybersecurity grant money is slated to come to state and local governments this year, with another $800 million arriving over the next three years. Localities are to be the biggest recipients; with 80 percent of the funds promised to them." (source)

Holiday Island (City of the 2nd class) did not create an online presence with a DOTGOV domain name. This government entity operates as volunteers. Those volunteers utilize free resources for an Internet presence as well as educating themselves on operations.

Back in 2021, when they held full ZOOM meetings during the pandemic, there were professionals attempting to get their attention, both tech firms and this reporter, that there was this new DOTGOV Act.

At that time, it would have been perfect for a new start-up city or any new government entity. A one-year grace period for registration fees. Now, to get compliant will create more work and money lost from the grants. 

Update Aug. 1, 2022

Cyber Insurance Price Hike Hits Local Governments Hard

Some rates have more than doubled, and many insurers require
new security protections.