School Days, School Days
Texas law requires Emergency Service District commissioners to participate in six hours of training every two years. This is to keep them knowledgeable on changes in the laws and constantly increase their local government acumen. On February 17th through the 19th, yours truly and two other ESD 47 commissioners attended the annual State Association of Fire and Emergency Districts convention in Round Rock. This event was attended by nearly 1300 ESD commissioners and emergency professionals from all over the state. These folks serve over 12 million Texans.
Among the course topics were Laws Affecting ESD's, Roberts Rules of Order, Commissioner Ethics, the Open Meeting Act, Records Retention, just to name a few. The Keynote Speaker was Chief Nim Kidd of the Texas Department of Emergency Management. (This is the gentleman seated next to Governor Abbot most of the time during the Governor's press conferences on things such as Hurricane Harvey and Covid.)
As with most conventions, there were vendors there, demonstrating everything from the newest fire trucks to the latest software. With an attendance of nearly 1300 folks, you can also imagine the meet and greet aspect to the event. Old acquaintances were renewed and new ones started. In visiting with commissioners from across the Lone Star state, I realized that we as the body of ESD 47 are doing so many, many things correctly and we have next to zero problems, unlike (primarily) those in rural areas. We are truly blessed by our constituents! While other districts are trying to figure out ways to receive more income, most could not believe that ESD 47 hasn't raised property tax rates in years and, yet at the same time, we are increasing services to our community. My response was that we know how to budget efficiently and be prudent in the spending of our tax payers' hard earned money. But readers of this website don't have to go to school to learn that--they are already well aware of how ESD 47 and its service provider, Westlake VFD, take care of them. Ring the school bell!
Until next time, Stay Safe.
Brian Havran