Speech by Departing LFPD Chairman, Jim Stonebraker
April 12, 2005

Thank you very much for your attendance this evening.

Since this is my last meeting, I’d like to take the opportunity to make a few brief remarks to our citizens, my fellow board members, our fire Chief and our firefighters and paramedics.

I would like to thank the voters of the Lemay Fire Protection District for allowing me the privilege to serve a six-year term as a director. When I took office in 1999 the district’s financial health was on life-support. It was my first goal to bring the hemorrhage under control. With the efforts of my fellow directors we have studied every facet of the district's operation and made many substantial structural changes to every aspect of our operations and budget. I can report to our citizens that their fire department is in excellent financial condition and their tax dollars have been spent with restraint to and respect. I also take great joy in the fact that our tax rate is lower today than it was six years ago.

To my fellow board members I can only say thank you for allowing me to serve as chairman for the last four years. The people of Lemay are fortunate to have such people serving them.

Jack Bettag and Jerry Schloss are two of the finest men I have ever met. Their experience in business, education and administration has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars for the District. Their tireless enthusiasm to serve the people has been an inspiration to me.

Jack is responsible for the institution of our self-insured medical benefits program that has saved the district of hundreds of thousands of dollars while providing our employees and their families with world-class medical coverage. Jack also worked with great dedication and intelligence on the district's budget and did a masterful job of compiling and summarizing numerous areas for improvement and savings. He has also been a very steadfast supporter of reform and commonsense leadership since his election in 2001. Jack, thank you for your friendship, guidance and hard work. I respect your service to the poor of this community and along with your wife Mary Beth, your compassionate care giving to elderly family members in your home. I will continue to value our friendship over the years to come.

Jerry, your 32 years of experience as an educator and administrator has brought to an unbelievable amount of expertise to this board. You can make sense of the most arcane and convoluted issues and simplify them for the rest of us. I'm very happy that you agreed to run for the board in 2003. It is very generous of you to continue to serve the people of Lemay after your retirement as superintendent of Hancock School District. I love your sense of humor and your low-key approach to difficult problems that arise. As a man I respect and admire your dedication to your wife Debbie and your family. You are a good man and a great board member. I sincerely hope that we too will be friends throughout our lives.

I will keep you both in my prayers and cherish the opportunity that I had to serve with both of you.

Chief Svetanics, when we began searching for a chief several years ago we advertised in newspapers and by word of mouth. I'll never forget receiving your resume in the mail. I called Jack and told him that he wouldn't believe who just applied for the fire chief's position. After meeting you at your home for the first time I knew immediately that you were the right man for the job. Together we fought the Fire Standards Commission for your immediate certification as a chief in St. Louis County. It was a fight worth fighting…and winning. You have done a great job bringing the District together and managing it with intelligence, dignity and understanding. I also thank you for bringing Pat Vincent to work here. I hope that your remaining years here are rewarding and fun. I also hope that my friendship with you and your wife Judy will continue throughout our lives.

To our firefighters and paramedics, thank you for the heroic and professional job that you do every day. You are the people that make this district what it is. Six years ago we were political adversaries. When I took office, all my information came from a faction that wanted to control my actions for their own revenge, gain and advantage. I regret that I didn't try to listen to all the employees rather than being caught up in a vortex of selective facts and half-truths. I apologize for my conduct during this time and can only ask you to forgive and forget.

During the last few years I've had a great relationship with the executive board of Local 2677 and I've tried my best to be fair, impartial and sensitive to the needs of the men. I believe this Board, Chief Svetanics and Local 2677 have set the gold standard for the high level of cooperation between management and the union. We have worked hard on a variety of difficult issues and came up with solutions. Our mutual trust is based on all of our desire for the district’s overall improvement and stability.

Together, I think we have accomplished some really great things. I hope we all part as friends and I hope that I have redeemed myself in your eyes. Thank you all for working with me for the good of our residents and our department. May God bless and protect you all.

Lastly, I would like to thank the love of my life, my wife Miriam, for standing with me and supporting me through the storms we weathered together for the last six years. I could not have made it without her.

Six years ago I ran as a reformer and I still believe that this District needed a fundamental change in its structure, management and culture to succeed. I am convinced that we have accomplished this important mission. Lemay is a model for other districts that are now facing the same problems as we faced six years ago.

The voters have lost their patience with the waste and mismanagement exposed in fire districts by recent articles in the Post-Dispatch and elsewhere. Reform is on the march. And it began right here in Lemay. Our neighboring Mehlville FPD has just voted out the incumbents in favor of reformers like Chairman-Elect Aaron Hilmer who has joined us this evening. We here in Lemay can be proud of our efforts to provide our people with a level of accountability and transparency that is unrivaled in St. Louis County.

Being a director here has been a wonderful experience for me, and my parting advice for Dave Meyer is simple. Listen to the men and get to know them, avail yourself of the wise counsel of Jack Bettag and Jerry Schloss and let Chief Svetanics run the district.


Thank you again and may God bless and preserve the Lemay Fire Protection District.