Fire Chief accuses citizens' watch dog group of making 'inflammatory statements'

Chief McRae accused Citizens for Better Government of spreading misinformation and making inflammatory statements.

The afternoon following the Monday, March 27, meeting of the Commissioners' Court where a proposal to expand the county's fire services failed by a 3-2 vote (see story of March 28, 'Fire expansion plans fails 3-2'), Mount Pleasant Fire Chief and Emergency Management Coordinator Larry McRae shot off an email in rebuttal at all county fire personnel.

"The Commissioner’s Court met this morning to discuss the fire protection for the county.  There are new players in the discussion now; Judy Kent, Nigel Christopher, and Sue Enval*.  They all spoke against the current proposal from  the city.

"They also provided the attached document which is laden with, what I believe to be, misinformation as well as some inflammatory statements. The document also appears to have input from at least one or more volunteer Chiefs/Firefighters since some of the items in the document have been heard from volunteer fire personnel before, some of which in the last few days.  

"After much discussion by the commissioners and input from Jerry Clark, Lanny Shultice, Mike Ahrens, Craig Eudy and myself, Jimmy Parker made the motion to accept the city proposal and the Judge seconded it.  The vote was 2 for and 3 against.

"The commissioners want more input from the volunteers on what they think should be done, especially with the statement in the document alleging there is considerable friction between many VFDs and MPFD due to management style. Jerry and Lanny assured the court this was not the case.

"More than one person questioned how long this is going to be talked about before some decision is made.  The Judge asked more than once of those opposed to the current proposal to provide practical alternatives however, no one could offer up any.

"We are moving closer to MPFD providing our contractual obligations and no more and there are some County Fire Chiefs that do not see that as a problem because they believe they can handle the calls in their district."

McRae attached a document that shows how many apparatus and personnel have responded from each department on calls from August 16, 2016 thru March 20,2017.

"It illustrates the number of apparatus/personnel sent by MPFD with what was sent by VFDs," he concluded. "It also shows the many times no one from a VFD responded to a call."

In response to McRae's email, County Judge Brian Lee responded later the same day:

"Just to clarify, the proposal that I provided in written form to the commissioners was a modification to the original August 2016 proposal from Mike Ahrens.  Mike’s proposal was to increase the contract annual payment by $360k in year 1, $180k in year 3 and $180k. In year 5, for a total increase of $720k by year 5. My counter proposal was to increase The annual contract payment by $120k each year for 5 years for a total increase of $600k. Mike’s objective was to add 12 fulltime positions over 5 years, mine to add 10 positions."

McRae has been in the Fire Service for 40 years and has served as the Fire Chief for the Mt. Pleasant Fire Department since 1984. He also serves as the Emergency Management Coordinator for the City of Mt. Pleasant and Titus County.

* The name is spelled Evenwel.