New look Beach Fire Board to meet Tuesday
The Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District will have a “new face” and a returning veteran on its board of fire commissioners when the fire board meets next on Tuesday, Nov. 18, at 6 p.m.
Due to election results, former Beach Mayor Bob Raymond will join the fire board and Vice Chair Ted Schindler returns for another term. In close races, Raymond defeated former Chair David Brower in the first seat by capturing 51.56 percent of the votes (1,674 to 1,573), while Schindler received 53.63 percent of the vote in the fifth seat to beat candidate Ed Milde, Jr. (1,634 to 1,413).
Raymond brings a lot of government experience to the fire board. Locally, he was a member of the Fort Myers Beach Council for six years, serving as mayor for nearly a year; a member of the Local Planning Agency for 2-1/2 years; and a member of the Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization for five years, serving as chairman for one year. In his native New Hampshire, he was on the Police Commission, Planning and Zoning Board, School Board and chairman of the Auburn Commercial, Industrial Authority.
“As stated, I would like to see the contract with the fire fighters cleared up. Four years is way too long without an answer,” he said. “We also need to analyze many of our policies and procedures, and we need to have an evaluation of the fire chief and set goals for next year. That is not to say that there is anything wrong. I just think we can make the fire district better.”
This is Schindler’s second term on the island fire board. He is a certified financial planner, a well-decorated retired US Air Force Command Pilot and Lt. Colonel and has served as a board member for a major federal credit union as well as being a former financial consultant to a major California county employees union. His budget expertise has extended to more than 30 years as a small business owner, and he has stated the biggest challenge for current fire district commissioners is to be fiscally responsible.
“We need to provide the best level of emergency response possible, but we must be careful with our spending. The days of ever-increasing property tax revenue are gone and so should the relative “free-spending” of the past,” he said earlier. “In last four years, I have spear-headed pay cuts for our district -a very unpopular thing to do, but absolutely necessary. The Fort Myers Beach Fire District would have been bankrupt by now, if we had not made these cuts. Unlike other districts, we did it all in-house with no layoffs or cuts in service.”