Beer worth $1000? Let's hope that's what firefighter Scott Johnson and other Madison devotees of barley pop are asking themselves following Johnson's DUI sentencing yesterday. Judge Tim Tucker refrained from giving jail time, but he slapped Johnson with nearly $1000 in fines and court costs, revoked Johnson's driver's license for a month, and ordered him not to touch alcohol for a year.
On the positive side, according to KELO, at least Madison with its DUI fireman is providing all South Dakota communities a "reminder to have proper policies and rules in place" to cover such bad behavior. It should also remind firefighters not to get drunk.
Words of wisdom come from Southeast Director of the South Dakota Firefighters Association Charlie Kludt:
All emergency service individuals are kind of held to a higher standard, and they should be. We're supposed to respond to help people in a professional manner, and that's what I hope a lot of smaller departments, and all fire departments and emergency people learn from this [Charlie Kludt, quoted in Ben Dunsmoor, "DUI Reminds Fire Departments to Set Policies," KELOLand.com, 2011.01.03].
Kludt offers none of the inane excuses offered by Madison fire chief Jerry Johnson when Scott Johnson's DUI arrest hit the news. It doesn't matter if you're a volunteer or work in a small town: if you choose to serve the public, you don't render yourself unable to perform that service by the utterly unnecessary action of drinking to excess.
Think about that when you see Scott Johnson walking to work this month.
The court system has spoken, now let's see if the city commission will take a stand publicly or if some commissioner's unseemly comments will continue to be made privately.
Joseph G Thompson