There’s a story at Walworth County Today, entitled, Elkhorn emergency services plagued with problems. The story describes those problems — of staffing, membership, morale, and uncollected revenue.
The only thing worse than these mistakes and problems would be hiding them from public scrutiny.
When problems like this mount over time, even with a volunteer force, it’s still a public volunteer force, not a truly private one. A volunteer group like this may often use large amounts of public resources — equipment, buildings, etc. — but then declare that they’re above scrutiny as a volunteer organization. (“We run ourselves,” etc.)
Those organizations that depend on public equipment should not be able — often on specious, unenforceable grounds of local custom or ordinance — to insulate themselves from public accountability.
It’s commendable, however unfortunate the situation, that officials released a report on the matter.