Update: See the Mayor's reply to this letter here: Mayor's Reply - Politics at the Fire Department?

Dear Mayor,

It came to my attention today that Chief Larry Gregory spent the first part of drill time telling those in attendance how to vote in the City Council elections. He said that the west side candidates only had one agenda and that was to stop the option 3 UDOT proposal and that they didn't understand any of the real issues of the city. Fortunately I wasn't at the drill last night or I would have turned in my pager and quit on the spot. As a tax paying citizen of Farmington I don't think Fire Drill time (for which the City is paying) should be used as a political campaigning arena unless all of the candidates are invited and given time to tell their views and answer questions. I know that Chief Gregory doesn't have any idea as to how the "west side" candidates view all of the issues facing Farmington. It disturbs me, not that he has an opinion about the candidates, but that he is telling the firemen how to vote by dispensing inaccurate information about the west side candidates. I don't believe that campaigning for candidates on City time is in his job description. I really don't care who he supports, I just think he handled this so poorly that he should at least apologize to the Fire Department, the candidates, and the citizens of Farmington. If campaigning should be done at drill shouldn't the candidates be invited to represent themselves rather than having the Chief tell everyone what they do or don't support?

You have been to our committee meetings and know how strongly we feel about the UDOT issue, but you also saw that we from the west side are interested in Farmington as a whole. We are not promoting an East versus West or any other platform which divides the city. Physically dividing the city with a freeway is not what we want, but creating an "us versus them" division is even worse than dividing us with a freeway and I know that the three candidates from the west side feel the same way. They all want "Farmington First"--that's the whole city, not just the west side.

Since the Chief took it upon himself to spend taxpayers money to campaign for the status quo, I think it only fair that he invite all of the candidates to drill and let the city pay for the audience to be there so everyone's views can be given. The Chief was way out of line using my money for that purpose and what it looks like is that he was told to go and tell the firemen how they should vote. This only continues to give the appearance of back door politics. And if that is the case then we really have a problem at City Hall.

He also said that the City Council was going to meet with UDOT next week and refuse their request for Option 3. I hope that is true, but I fail to see the urgency for the vote at this time.

I would like to hear from you concerning this matter.

Thanks,

Dave Kershisnik