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Tuesday's Internet Edition, January 06, 2009.
Four candidates vie for seats on Wilton Fire District board
By Fran Soto
River Valley Times Staff
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As Wilton residents go to the polls on Nov. 4, they will be voting to fill three open director seats on the Wilton Fire Protection District’s (WFD) board. Directors serve a term of four year on the five-member board.
In the current election, three seats are up for grabs. In two years, the other two seats will be up for election. Wilton residents Obe Brown, Ron Fiorica, Joe Guardino and Dan Speer are running for the three open seats.
RVT is providing short overviews of the candidate’s qualifications and visions in order for Wilton residents to get to know the candidates better. The statements are presented here in alphabetical order.
Obe Brown
Candidates Obe Brown, a resident of Wilton since 1989, has been a director on the WFD board for two terms and served on the Northern California Special Insurance board. He is a rancher, as well as being employed by the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) as a heavy equipment mechanic.
Brown served as a volunteer firefighter with the WFD for 10 years prior to serving on the board. He said he is a strong advocate of the need for volunteer firefighters as well as the resident intern program. “We have great volunteers who are well trained, and we have well trained interns,” Brown said. “I hope we can continue to serve the public in this manner.”
He believes that the past help from volunteers and frugal spending by the board and the chief has kept the department financially stable with a high quality fire service. “I am proud to be involved with the fire service and helping the community,” he said. “This department has come a long way in the last 10 years - from a small volunteer district to a training facility.” In five years, Brown still looks to see the WFD as being a very "functioning productive department.”
Ron Fiorica
A resident of Wilton for 36 years, candidate Fiorica has served the WFD as a volunteer firefighter for 25 years. He assists in training exercises and currently serves as the Wilton Firefighters’ Association secretary. Fiorica was honored with the WFD Firefighter of the Year award in 1993. He is an analyst and semi-retired from the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
Fiorica believes that the WFD will need to tighten its belt in the current economy. “The board may not be getting as much money as anticipated,” he said. “We always need to be able to provide safety equipment to the firefighters, and (if we are short on funds) we can always go out and look for grants as we’ve done in the past.”
Fiorica stresses that his experience with the department and years in the community help him bring to the board knowledge of the needs of Wilton, as well as leadership skills he has acquired from community involvement - such as his work with the 4-H program. “In the next five years, I see a fire department that will continue to respond quickly to calls and the needs of the citizens,” Fiorca said.
Joe Guardino
For the past 20 years, Joe Guardino has worked as a full-time firefighter with the classification of engineer, as well as acting captain. He has served for 12 years as the director for the Firefighters’ Burn Institute overseeing a $1 million budget. For 10 years he has been the director of the Firefighters’ Kids Camp.
As a taxpayer himself, Guardino stressed that the board needs to be responsive to the residents. “The money the WFD is given belongs to the taxpayers who want justification and must know how it is being spent,” he said. “I believe we must be responsible to the people we work for.”
Guardino is a strong supporter of Wilton’s unique lifestyle and says he wants to protect that lifestyle. “The WFD is a voice in Wilton,” Guardino said. “I want to be a part of that.” He also believes it is essential that the directors listen to residents. “Any successful business is only successful if they listen to the customer,” he said. “It is up to the department to be responsible and provide excellent service - and that includes the directors who sit on the board.”
Dan Speer
Candidates Dan Speer is a civil engineer with CalTrans and a Wilton resident since 1989. Before coming on the board in 2006, Speer served as a volunteer firefighter. He is a past president of the WFA, helped organize the first annual Chili Cook-Off and has served as chair of the community blood drive.
During his term as a director, Speer says he has strongly supported fiscally conservative principles - wanting to incur minimal debt only to retrofit equipment. “We have a lot of reserves, which I am hoping to use to improve the station and replace older equipment,” he said. “That’s the advantage of volunteers - you’re able to spend on equipment and not labor.”
In light of current economic conditions and declining property values, Speer stressed the WFD has adequate cash reserves. “We have significant reserves to weather any reduction in property taxes for seven years,” Speer said. “I want to be sure we can deliver services.” Spear hopes to see the community of Wilton stay as it is now. “I like to be involved at the local level,” he said. “It is a challenge to continue the spirit of volunteerism.”
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