The 20% Solution

 FossilMedic passes along:

AND NOW A WORD FROM A 20 PERCENTER

On February 16, 2008 paid-on-call Captain Vance Tomaselli, 60, was responding from Angelus Oaks Station 15 in the San Bernardino Mountains. He was driving a pumper to a reported structure fire. During this response, Captain Tomaselli suffered a stroke. He was able to get the pumper stopped before plummeting down a mountainside. He died February 21.

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On March 5, about 700 people gathered at the Immanuel Baptist Church for a line-of-duty funeral. About a dozen fire rigs joined the procession to the cemetery. The California Highway Patrol blocked Interstate 10 traffic at Alabama Avenue in Redlands around 12:15 pm to get the funeral procession on the way. Ken Johnson, from Beaumont, was stuck behind the procession.

Johnson made the following observations in a letter to the San Bernardino Sun:

“Official Arrogance”

Thousands of truckers, mommies, business people, and the elderly were trapped on the interstate. For what was this grand procession? Another firefighter?

This is an example of the maximum arrogance practiced regularly today by public service agencies. None of those extremely-expensive trucks and their well-paid passengers were available for any real emergencies in their home departments.

And, I might add, this is a prime example of extreme narcissism on the part of the deceased’s family. Total cult of hero-worship.

What? That’s so insensitive.

Well, how insensitive is it to hold up thousands of people trying to make appointments and deliveries for one dead guy? And if he or she were a true hero, he or she wouldn’t have wanted this grand outpouring of official adulation anyway.

This strong-arm government bullying has got to stop.

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http://www.sbsun.com/letters/ci_8552779?source=email

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THE NEGATIVE 20% IN A COMMUNITY

Carter and Sumek, writing in ICMA’s Managing Fire and Rescue Services, talk about the growing influence of the negative 20 percent. Local communities fall into a 20-20-10-10-40 political distribution: 20 percent have a positive opinion of local government, 20 percent have negative opinions, 10 percent will lean towards the positive or the negative. The remaining 40 percent are bystanders.

The negative 20% are never satisfied with any response; basically distrust local government, political leaders and managers. They make personal attacks on staff. They misrepresent facts and information when speaking to the media. They exploit the Freedom of Information Act and the public hearing process, they are less than civil when they show up at meetings or hearings. They vote.

They argue for greater citizen involvement, but if that approach is taken and the results are contrary to their own, they criticize the approach and process. Their activity drives away the average citizen. The growth of blogs, social networking and you tube has increased the impact and reach of this group.

Carter and Sumek make recommendations to deal with the negative 20% and reach out to the rest of the community. For Mr. Johnson’s complaint, here is a suggestion from their list:

4) Listen to, but avoid reacting to, the charges and attacks by negative 20%. Although factual inaccuracies should be corrected, negativity and name calling should not be engaged in.

a) This was a funeral procession for a community firefighter who died while responding to a fire.

b) The delay was 15 minutes on Interstate 10, any person can request a police escort for a funeral.

c) Most of the attendees were off-duty and none of the communities suffered a loss of protection.

I appreciate that this is not as fun as posting responses to the San Bernardino Sun that insult Johnson; imply personality, physical or mental defects or suggest a bad outcome if he needs 911 services.

When angry, we quickly become an online mob, making death threats and posting personal and professional information on the person who has insulted us. Unfortunately, when the firehouse.com mob attacked Douglas Gantenbein in 2003, they posted inaccurate personal and family information. Some poor soul with the same last name was suddenly getting obscene phone calls and death threats. http://firegeezer.com/2007/10/16/are-message-boards-the-21st-century-firehouse-kitchen-table/

Making personal attacks neither changes the negative 20%er’s opinion or improves the opinion that the 80%er has of firefighters or the fire service. Every time you post a negative message you are representing the fire service, whether or not you use your real identity or some screen name.

Here is a more appropriate response: http://vancetomaselli.blogspot.com/

One of the angry responses to the letter called for the job of the newspaper’s editor. Then we would not get as nice an article as this one titled Fire Captain a civic leader in mountains.

“Around Angelus Oaks, Vance R. Tomaselli was known as the unofficial mayor. The fire captain at Station 15 helped out his fellow residents and was responsible for organizing all of the functions at the station, which serves as the town hall for the small community in the San Bernardino Mountains. ‘He was a leader, someone you could count on at the station, who was always there at any function,’ said fellow firefighter and best friend Mike Russ of Angelus Oaks.” http://www.sbsun.com/search/ci_8455330  

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It would be a shame if the fire service response to a purposely insulting letter-to-the-editor like Johnson ends up moving more of the moderates or bystanders into the negative 20%. About as bad as the lowlife that ransacked Captain Tomaselli’s home during the funeral. http://www.sbsun.com/search/ci_8497402