Clark County Still Thinking About Changing McCarren Fire Departments

In todays LVRJ, there was another article about replacing the CCFD fire department with a new fire department that would report directly to the airport authority.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/clark-county-officials-to-look-at-replacing-airport-s-firefighting-team--98797779.html
I blogged on this earlier and I thought it was an election year ploy, especially by Rory No Last Name. After reading the article, I still think it is an election year ploy, however, I have to give kudo's to No Last Name for making a decent suggestion.
The airport fire department is a team of CCFD firefighters. The airport responds only to the airport for both medical and for airport alerts. I don't know if they respond to auto accidents and structure fires at the airport or if they let the fire stations surrounding McCarren respond to those calls.
Some interesting points in the article: "A big problem with the status quo is that no one can fill in for a sick or vacationing airport firefighter except another airport firefighter because of the specialized training required, Sisolak said. That guarantees overtime to whoever substitutes for a colleague.
The union also won't allow a couple of dozen regular firefighters to receive airport training so they can act as backup, he said. The county must either limit the training to firefighters assigned to the airport or offer it to all 650-plus emergency responders in the department, which is too costly, he said.
"Some of this stuff doesn't make sense," Sisolak said.
Commissioner Rory Reid said training more firefighters who can fill in at the airport seems a better way to slash overtime costs than overhauling the teams."
(emphasis mine)
No Last Name does have the right idea and the County can play hard ball. You can go to the union and say if you don't allow any more firefighters to train as airport firefighters, we will kick the CCFD out of there and bring in a new fire department. My guess the union will say yes to this proposal and the County won't have to give anything in return. The current firefighters train a lot but go on few calls, about 1 every 3 days. The paramedics respond to about 8 ambulance calls a day, a little more than usual paramedic rig but I believe they have two paramedic ambulances there, along with back up from the private ambulances.
If the union refuses to play ball, then the County should call their bluff and bring in a replacement fire department. While there is some specialized training to be a airport firefighter, there are many firefighters out there that would love to be a McCarren firefighter and these guys would have experience. These people would be the firefighters in the military. The Air Force, Navy, Army and Marines all have airport firefighters and they train all the time. Not only do they have to deal with fighter jets but they also have to train for bombers and passenger jets, including large passenger jets. These guys and ladies know what they are doing and they are good at what they do.
So, if the union doesn't back down, call their bluff and start up a new airport fire department. Put the guys currently at Station 13, the airport fire station, and put them out in the field. For some reason, I don't think they will go for it.