Cumberland County's Trojan Horse

In a target rich environment, the debate de jour coursing through the hallowed corridors of Stinson Hall, the Public Safety Building, and the Cole Farms breakfast counter is the fate of the Gray Fire Rescue dispatch center. Both the Public Safety Committee and the Council have been actively chewing on this issue for the last two months.

From the onset, it must be recognized that the dispatch center is extremely efficient, accurate, and provides excellent service to the Fire-Rescue department and the citizens. In fact Gray Fire Dispatch has received awards for its performance. Troubled dispatch centers are characterized by rapid turnover and not-so-internal strife. Gray Fire-Rescue dispatch is a non-union shop, has a cohesive workforce, and has experienced practically no turnover. In other words…

Dispatch ain’t broken.

So then the only real issue with the dispatch center is money. How much does it cost to run the dispatch center and can be done cheaper? Good question and one our Councilors are obligated to ask, as they are with all town government departments. Yet there has been serious allegations that many procedural irregularities have compromised the integrity of the bid process.

However to me a larger question arises….
Why do the citizens of Gray wish to abdicate control over their dispatch center to another governmental entity over which they have no control?

Currently, Gray Dispatch is highly accessible and accountable to the townspeople. If you have a concern or complaint about the way Dispatch has done its job, you can walk right into the Central Station and talk to them, or to the Head Dispatcher, or to the Deputy Chief before you even have to dial a Councilor’s number. In fact last year, there were over 6,000 walk-in visits to the dispatch center seeking everything from immediate assistance for a medical emergency to obtaining a fire permit, to seeking directions.

ON the other hand, County government is a faceless behemoth many times removed from the average Gray citizen. There will be no walk-ins permitted, no fire permits issued, no directions given. Your direct input into the operations of dispatch will be eliminated.

County government is both an anachronism and an oxymoron in the Maine political landscape. All of the functions County provides can be supplied by state government and in fact there is often duplication of services. For example our tax dollars support the salaries of three County Commissioners, a professional County Manager, and administrative staff that function like our Council and our Town Manager, all to manage the county apparatus. (Question: Has anybody ever succeded in managing Stephanie Anderson?)

Here’s some more FUN FACTS about county government:

· Cumberland County budget for FY 2006 is nearly $30 million.

· County tax on Gray citizens last year was $408,299 excluding additional contract services for police protection.

· County tax was equal to 2.11 % of the FY 2006 Gray budget

· Between FY 2005 and 2006, the County budget rose 3.5%

· Of all of the New England states, only Maine still hangs tenaciously onto county government.

· The $408,299 annual county tax would be sufficient to pay for the Downtown Village improvements, or purchase the Libby Hill property, or make a big dent in the proposed Library improvements or buy the next fire engine scheduled for replacement, or realign deathtrap intersections such as Lawrence Road, or even … return some cash to the taxpayer’s pockets.


All governments seek to expand their authority and power.
As its power has diminished, Cumberland County government has sought new venues and new roles for it to perpetuate its existence. Dispatch is an example of County’s attempt to create a new niche for itself. Therefore it should not surprise anyone that County officials have been very tenacious about securing the Gray Dispatch contract, even to the point of hip-checking their way into interviews with other potential dispatch providers.

If the community, if the Council is so adamant about passing TABOR to curb government growth and spending, then why in the same breath are we contemplating an action that would diminish local control and at the same time perpetuate a superfluous form of government that should have been abolished decades ago?

Saturday Morning Cartoons

About Regensburg

Sixty-three years ago, a watershed event occurred over the skies of Regensburg that nearly changed the course of WWII. Three hundred and forty seven bombers from the 8th Air Force attacked both the Messerschmidt fighter works at Regensburg and the ball bearing plants at Schweinfurt in an effort to drive a stake through the heart of the Nazi war machine in one bold raid. It would be a mission of firsts: first dual target mission, first strike against essential industries, first shuttle mission, first deep penetration of Nazi air space, and first mission without fighter escort.

Hailed as a brilliant strategy, the raid bombers did get through and cause significant damage, but the Nazi machine did not collapse and the air crews paid a terrible price. Sixty B-17s were shot down with enough battle damage inflicted to reduce the Mighty 8th by a third of its former strength. In witnessing the carnage over Regensburg, Bomber Command came to the sober realization that its assumptions about the capabilities of the Luftwaffe and the impregnability of the B-17 were flawed. Congress recoiled in horror at the casualty list and inevitably called for an investigation. The rising crescendo of voices clamored for the end to precision daylight bombing

The White House, the Pentagon, and indeed much of the nation understood the nature of the enemy and the consequences of backing off. So American families continued to send their sons and husbands into the meatgrinder over Europe, the 8th flew tighter formations, slung drop tanks under the P-47s, they went back to Schweinfurt, and Bremen and Muenster, continuing to slug it out until the reintroduction of a mothballed fighter called the P-51B Mustang changed everything.

Last week, another battle raged over Regensburg with shock waves that again reverberated around the world. One would like to say it was a war of ideas, but events demonstrated that it was not limited to discourse. Pope Benedict XVI delivered a didactic lecture to a theological university audience addressing the character of the Christian God as logos or of reason and postulating that violence and war in the furtherance of his word was antithical to his nature. Employing a conversation between Manuel II and a Persian diplomat as a clever device to contrast the nature of the Trinity and Allah, Benedict XVI defined the Christian God as the embodiment of reason, motivated by love for his creation, and bound to act in accordance by his own moral code and promises to his creation. Allah on the other hand is motivated by the power of will and dominion over his charges. Because he is transcendent and revels in that transcendence, Allah’s actions are capricious, and often not bound by his own code or compelled to abide by his promises. If man is created in God’s image as both Islam and Christianity profess, then what will be the character and behavior of the man who follows Allah’s example?



The Pope’s grand strategic plan, as reported to the media, was to initiate a dialogue with Muslim leaders that would help to reconcile the growing ideological conflict with Christianity. But by all media accounts, the Pope miscalculated on the effects of his words, inadvertently (and some say naively) whipped up a firestorm of irrational hatred and violence that ironically proved the Pope’s original thesis. Many were disappointed by his apologies and progressive backpedaling. Many believed that the Pope had lost his resolve when faced with such a violent outpouring from the Muslim world and the secular media.

Miscalculated?
In a schwein’s eye.

Let us not forget that before the white smoke issued from the Sistine Chapel, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger served as the chief architect of the new catechism for the Catholic Church and a major theological apologist during the papacy of John Paul II. He is an exceptionally learned scholar, serving as a professor at Bonn, Regensburg and Munchen and such an unrelenting and effective critic of moral relativism that the European press, the European Left and other bastions of moral relativism branded him Cardinal Rottweiler. He has also served in the Vatican State Department served as a liaison to the eastern churches was an expert in the historical conflicts between the Crescent and the Cross. The pontiff was well aware that Manuel II eventually lost his throne and empire to the Ottoman sword (thereby proving the Emperor’s point), and that the entire incident was anything but “obscure” to Catholics or to the Orthodox Churches. Moreover, the Pope raised the ideological stakes. By identifying the capriciousness of Allah as revealed in the Koran, Benedict XVI was indirectly illustrating why Muslims could embrace the moral relativism of jihad and kill non-believers and even other Muslims without remorse.
There is no doubt that the Pope was caught off guard by press coverage of a seemingly dry theological address delivered to an ecclesiastical audience but his message has remained on-target.


Was the Pope’s cowed by the resulting death threats and blind violence prompted by his words and retreated from his position accordingly? Highly unlikely.

The pontiff grew up in a Bavarian family in which his father was openly critical of the Nazis during WWII, and paid for it. Like the Lutheran theologian Eric Bonhoffer , killed for his opposition to Nazi doctrine, young Joseph was well acquainted with the costs of discipleship. One must remember that Cardinal Ratzinger was there with John Paul II when the pontiff took on the Communist block and lived under constant death threats that nearly succeeded in 1981 at the hand of (you guessed it) a Turkish gunman.

The Pope appeared to blink, not because he was afraid of the tumult but perhaps because he knows the West and indeed Christendom is not prepared for the onslaught that is at its doorstep. Just as the 8th AAF had to be bloodied in 1943, perhaps the Christian Church and indeed the West had to witness the mauling of the Pope at Regensburg to understand the nature and capabilities of the enemy and to understand that it cannot expect reason or compromise from the Muslim world.

Or perhaps the Pope used the incident to help smoke out the “moderate” schools of Islam that have remained suspiciously quiet since 9-11. Even the head of the American Islamic Congress happily appeared on the very conservative Jerry Doyle Show to decry the jihadists violent threats against the Pope. Bashing the United States is one thing, but picking a fight with a billion Catholics around the world is another.

Either way, a watershed mark may have been achieved at Regensburg that we haven’t even begun to fathom.

Announcing Threadless Thursdays!

An Agora (be it Athenian or Grayian) is somewhat ineffective as a forum for public discussion if the host is the only entity that can determine the topic of the day. Worse yet, this is only a virtual Agora, so if you are bored with the discussion, you cannot wander around and buy a lamb, or a bolt Persian cloth, or a good canola. Frankly, like my friends, I often tire of the sound of my own voice. To remedy this situation and to truly provide an open forum in Gray, we are proud to announce

"Threadless Thursdays"

Every Thursday, you will find a blank scroll available with no thread of the day that you have to slavishly subscribe to. Got an issue you want to get off your chest, you are free to post it and wait for the crescendo of replies or the deafening roar of the crickets. Agora Rules of Order shall apply at all times. And since we failed to notify our throngs of loyal visitors in advance (actually we just came up with this screwball idea an hour ago), Gray Agora will be extending Threadless Thursday through this weekend to Sunday night.So here's your chance to blog away.

A View Down the Rabbithole

Composing your first issue-oriented posting on your own blog is akin to confronting a large freshly-gessoed canvas. To mar the pure vastness of its unblemished surface, you better have a masterpiece in mind. Ergo, I have been conducting research and preparing a text that discusses how Gray’s antiquated land use policies and regulations are costing the taxpayer dearly.

However, events often propel us in directions contrary to our plans. The simmering pot that is the future of the Gray Fire Rescue Department has boiled over and seems to preoccupy the imagination of the public and dwellers in the blogosphere. I suppose it’s a welcome relief to character assassination de jour.

The future of the Gray Fire Rescue Department is immensely important to this community and to the volunteer members that both have to contend with the grief of losing their long-time mentor and Chief amidst assaults on the very fabric of their organization from the political leaders who are supposed to provide support not dismemberment in this trying hour.

The County Dispatch issue is a complex boondoggle that has been slowly unraveling and will be the exclusive subject of a future posting.

For now however, I am perplexed by the lack of any planning for a smooth succession of Chief Barton’s position. The Council knew about the Chief’s failing health a year ago, and yet there was no successional procedure to be immediately implemented upon the Chief 's passing- no decision for either a full or part time position, no supplimental funds added to the FY07-08 budget to finance the competative and inevitably higher salary, no protocols, schedules, or timetables…nothing except the apparent perfection of the art of muddling through.

Ultimately it is the Town Manager’s decision on who should fill the shoes but it is Council who sets the parameters, the job description, and the budget.

Yet, Ms. Cabana doesn’t appear to be providing any clarity or direction to the matter. Apologists will say she is busy learning the ropes.

Sorry, but get unbusy.

The GFR is the largest department in town government with the most number of employees, the most expensive collection of capital equipment, the most problematic equipment replacement schedule, the added complexity of hosting the largest group of community volunteers in Town government, and still to this day, the organization is lacking a department head.

Albeit undesireable, Gray could survive without a library, without a recreation department, without a cable committee, we manage to survive without a local police department, and we could survive without a town manager (if we return to selectmen form of government), but could we survive without a fire department? Ask your insurance agent for starters.

So why relegate our Fire Department to last on the list for attention, after the Clerk, and the Librarian, and after the Council and Manager bite off another huge mouthful in contemplating fundementsal changes at Public Works and the Transfer Station.-two town departments which enjoy the benefits of in-place Department Heads ? Perhaps the answer lies in today’s Monument which reports that Ms. Cabana has decided to withhold filling the Chief’s position until after Council’s deliberation on the Dispatch center. Is this further procrastination because Ms. Cabana fears that a new Chief would oppose such an ill-advised decision? After all, the new Chief would be a much better qualified to judge the comparative value of Gray Dispatch than Ms. Cabana or the Council would be. Or are there advantages in keeping the department members leaderless and in flux?

Even more disturbing the revelation that the 1st Deputy Chief, Bob Ryan has been given the responsibilities of performing all of Chief Barton’s administrative duties, but has been denied the moniker “Acting Chief” by Ms. Cabana, presumably because she does not wish to lend him false expectations. Such an excuse is unimaginative at best and ultimately insulting to a man that has served the Gray Fire Rescue Department selflessly for 20+ years. Bob Ryan is a big boy and he will take whatever is thrown at him. But he deserves a lot better treatment than this.

I’m not sure what rabbithole Ms. Cabana is leading us down, but I sure don’t like the view. And neither should the good people of Gray.