WHAT IS THE FIRE CHIEF DOING?

The chief of the Fire Department believes he can stop fires through education and fines.  This comes at the loss of fire suppression and other emergency services.  He is moving personnel from fire suppression and emergency services to office positions and will not replace the vacancies.  Now you will not receive the same service that you are accustomed to.  You will receive a department that will teach you not to leave burning candles unattended and will also be issuing fines to businesses.  You will not see a reduction in taxes but will receive reduced services and increased government bureaucracy.  This new bureaucracy will be more obtrusive in your businesses and homes and looking to hand out fines.  There will be less fire trucks, ambulances, and personnel available to respond to fires and other emergencies.  There will be more personnel to visit your businesses with a ticket book in hand.  This is not what I am looking for from the fire department.  The Fire Chief plans to produce significant revenue from fines that he will be issuing to businesses.  This is one more burden and expense to put on the merchants in Ocean City.  If the chief decides to go easy on the businesses and not produce revenue from this new adventure there will be significant expense from this new office staff.  There is always an added expense when you open up a new office.  The chief is opening up multiple new offices for new staff.  The city seemed to be operating just fine without this new bureaucracy and were handling fires adequately.  Can the same be said after these changes?  The president of the fire union has stated that the action being taken around the country in moving personnel from the office to the street.  This makes sense to me and he is the professional.  This plan does just the opposite.  The Ocean City Fire Department is not large enough to support this chief's new adventure.  This chief does not have the experience to lead this department and is distancing himself from managers that have questioned the details of this plan.  The mayor talked about the chief and his vast experience as a paramedic when he was selected for this position.  That is great but does this chief have any management experience with an organization of this size and scope?