As Maher Leaves, He Calls Orland the Envy of Fire Districts

Last week, Orland Fire Protection District board president Patrick Maher announced he would . Given that the fire district's election was only a month away and that Maher had completed this publication’s candidate , the announcent seemed sudden and unexpected.

Patch spoke Tuesday with Maher about his departure from politics, his time spent at the district, his future and his critics’ biggest complaints.

He has spent eight years atop the state’s largest fire protection district, and there will certainty be no shortage of opinions regarding how well or poor a job he has done while there. At the very least, the words below are and will always be Maher's own.

JM: You gave us a few reasons for not running for re-election in your press release. But why did you make this decision so close to the election?

PM: I didn’t have much time between the November election (for Cook County Commissioner), filing my papers and the petitions for the Orland Fire Protection District ballots. Time just caught up, just kind of crept up on me. My wife and I finally made a decision, and we’re happy about the decision and looking forward to what it’s going to bring.

Who takes the role of president once your term ends?

I’m sticking out the rest of my term and then when the new trustees who get brought on the board will make a vote to determine who the board president is.

What are you looking forward to doing now?

Keep trying to grow my business. I’ve been involved in the community for so long, whether it was with politics or athletics with my kids, and I’m just going to continue to be involved in my children’s athletics through OYA or the other organizations. Hopefully, my kids are looking forward to that and I know I am. I love being a part of their lives and affecting children and teaching them how to have a good attitude towards sports, and it should be fun. I’m looking forward to it.

What are you most proud of when you look back at your time with the district?

I’m most proud of the fact that when I ran eight years ago I ran on three things: to be fiscally accountable to the residents of the district; to increase communication from the fire district to the rest of the community, the fire community; and to hold employees accountable at the fire district to make sure they’re doing their job and working towards their paycheck. I’m real happy to say that I’ve done all three of those things from my campaign promises, that I achieved.

We’ve abated money back the last three years—the first time ever in the fire district’s history that we were able to give money back to our residents. We cut our tax rate over 20 percent over the last six years. It’s the lowest rate since 1988; I’m very proud of that. And I’m very proud of the employees we have now. They’re dedicated and they’re accountable to not only the chief but to the residents who pay their bills—the taxpayers of the community. We now have the number one fire district in the state of Illinois, and we plan for the future. I’m very proud and comfortable knowing that if I ever need to call 911 that we’re going to have firefighters on the scene that can secure my family.

What are the big problems facing the fire district and how best should the new board handle them? What are your suggestions?

I don’t want to really get into that. I know if they continue on the same path and the same philosophy that we set forth and that I’ve tried to lead by example, I think the only problem that does come up, I think, would be able to get resolved.

We hear the board and staff talk a lot about response time as a measure of a district's worth. How has response time changed since you took over?

We’ve lowered them by over 45 seconds. We changed our deployment strategy, which we took some criticism for, but it was derived based on federal guidelines, and again I feel very comfortable knowing that when I call 911 we’re gonna get an ambulance and a fire truck in any emergency. The residents of this community should (feel) blessed to know when they put their heads down at night there’s nothing they’re going to have to worry about because we have the best people on staff.

You spoke earlier about tax abatements. I know the fire district is considering that again this year, if there’s money available. Is this a good idea? And, if the district has extra money to refund each year, is this an indication that the district takes in too much?

No. I don’t think we’re taking in too much. Candidates who are running right now want to talk about how the fire district is bloated, but the fact of the matter is we’re the largest fire protection district in the state of Illinois. We have the largest number of staff and we have the highest percentage of paramedics out of any fire district in the state. And we have the best technology. And if you take it based on a per person, based on a population and number of people in the district, we are not bloated. Eighty-four percent of our revenues—excuse me, expenses—are for personnel-related issues. So that only gives us 16 percent for building and ground, for technology, for apparatus—that’s not a very big number.

But what we have done there is we have changed the philosophy on how to spend our residents’ taxpayer dollars. We basically have the philosophy of 'take the interest of the residents first,' and we don’t have to buy things unless we really need them. And any money left over we don’t have to spend, and we should give back to the residents, and that’s what we’ve done.

To say we have a bloated budget—we’re giving money back because we’re doing it by being fiscally responsible. And there aren’t a lot of fire districts out there, especially now or other government agencies, that have been able to give money back over the last three years. But we’ve done it the last three years, and we may do it again this year. I think that’s something that the board, our staff, our chief, that we should be commended for. I’m very proud of that.

But people say, ‘yes you’ve given back money and reduced the tax rate, but it’s still too big.’ What do you say to that?

Tell them to show me why it’s too big. I don’t really understand that question to be honest with you. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that.

Well there’s talk of a referendum in 2012 and one person showed up last fall to your board meeting to . What do you think, at least, of the possibility of people trying to bring the fire district back under the control of the village?

We’ve done the feasibility study. I mean…you know what? I don’t have a comment about that. I’d rather...people are trying to emulate our fire protection district. We’re the envy of most fire districts in the state of Illinois, and I’ll just leave it at that.

Last summer the chiefs said the training facilities would eventually open to other area fire departments/districts. Have they been opened, and has there been any outreach?

You could call the chief (Bryant Krizik) on that. I know it’s been our goal to branch out and bring other districts, fire departments in. I’m pretty sure we have. But you know what? That would probably, definitely be a better question for the chief to answer.

Do you plan on running for any other office in the future? Is that a possibility?

I’m concentrating on my family and my kids and that’s all I want to think about right now.

What do you hope people say about your time spent here with the fire district?

Well, I hope they realize it’s a volunteer position and that I gave every effort to make the fire district better. And I hope there’s no question that the fire district is better now than it was eight years ago when I took over.