Well the Police and Fire need to keep something in mind here. By making a fuss about this in the manner they are, they are in danger of losing public support for their cause. If MAPS 3 fails to pass, the citizenry will consider it the fault of Police and Fire now whether they are the real cause of that failure or not. That being said...consider this folks. The next time a vote comes around to support you, the public will remember (and there will be groups making sure the public remembers) how MAPS 3 failed, and how we missed out on continuing our path to improving our city because some people got their feelings hurt.

You guys haven't considered what type of fight you've picked can have on your case. Who's going to vote for an increase in taxes for you if you complain all the time? Look at the OK County Sherrif for an example of how that always backfires. You need to have your own campaign to help your cause...not fighting one that improves the city WITHOUT question. The rationalization of the groups of how MAPS3 is unneccessary is very shortsighted. If we all thought that way, we would never have had MAPS 1...and where would we be today? We'd be continuing to decline and fall off the radar, losing population and losing even more money for you.

The best plan of actions is to #1, seek out federal grants to purchase the equipment you need. That removes the burdon of those dollars on your normal budget...freeing them up for employee expenses. #2, seek out bonds to do more of the same. This same policy has worked for other cities in the metro...look at MWC. They have the best rating in the state, and they aren't getting extra tax dollars from their citizens. It's just managed better...even including the new stations (bonds...hello). #3, if these things aren't working, start a campaign to let the public know of the problems...it's your job to convince them that we need to help out and add a bit of taxes. We're already one of the lowest taxes around, we can bump it up some and still be one of the lowest. If you explain things rationally without kicking dirt around on the playground, you'll get a lot more done. We all know HQ needs to be dozed over....but didn't the Santa Fe station get a facelift not long ago? You can't say things aren't being done. But it's your job to convince the public...and pissing and moaning about projects that the citizenry know to help out the city's continual climb, isn't going to help. In fact, it will hurt your argument.