There are injustices in this world, and then there are injustices. As a lifelong resident of Oak Harbor, I have never witnessed one of its citizens receive such unjustified treatment as was just served up to Fire Chief Mark Soptich. His firing by the mayor was not only a huge injustice, it is the sort of injustice that makes one sick to their stomach.
Before the fire department was as large as it is now it used volunteers and just a couple of paid hands, consequently Chief Soptich would work all day at the fire department and then respond “on-call” throughout the night to accidents and emergencies of all kinds. As I recall he was on-call for two out of every three weeks for years, during which a 70 hour work week was not uncommon for him. And he grew that unsurpassed dedication and diligence as it was Chief Soptich who changed the fire department from a group of local volunteers to a professional, highly capable, well organized and respected department that it is today. That is a huge accomplishment by and in itself.
To now fire him for no valid reason just a few months shy of his 25-year mark, when retirement would be more of an option, is not only mean-spirited, it is morally wrong. This is not how to treat somebody who, for decades, has gotten up and left his family at countless dinners, has left his warm bed in the middle of countless nights, has left social gatherings and church functions at the most inopportune times and has done these things only to deliver the highest of professional service and unfailing help to the citizens of our community in their hour of need. For the mayor to save the city a few bucks by forcing a smaller retirement upon such a man is both cruel and extremely arrogant.
Late one evening approximately five years ago, my wife, who has spinocerebellar ataxia type 1, fell and hit her head so hard on a cement patio that she was knocked unconscious and blood was running out of her head, lots of blood. When I first got to her I did not know if she was alive. After my 911 call Chief Soptich and the EMTs quickly arrived. The EMTs did their thing but it was Chief Soptich who helped direct their efforts and kept me from totally losing it. He could see I was losing it so he took but a half a moment and spoke to me in exactly the manner that I needed to be spoken to. His calm, clear head, his inner strength, and his thorough knowledge of how to handle my wife’s situation and my reaction to it served both her and me extremely well. I will ever be grateful to him for his help that evening, and for all the years of our association. My gratitude to Chief Soptich is but one voice from the thousands of people whom he has so effectively helped in their hour of need.
There is an old saying that “among the blind, a one-eyed man is king.” We appear to be seeing the actually events transpire as the mayor tries to set up a power base inside city hall by eliminating anybody who knows more than he does or anybody who might be more respected and thereby a threat to his own selfish desires to force his own agenda or be the “big man in town.”
In truth, it is the mayor who is blind, apparently blinded by his own ego. Snuffing out the light of others will not make the mayor’s light shine any brighter, to say nothing of the long period of darkness that will be left to fall upon the city. Both the employees who work for the city and the people who live here will now suffer with the consequences of the new mayor’s inexperience and selfish agenda as he runs around like a child with his first pair of scissors. One can only hope the mayor himself falls on them sooner versus later.
To the other three people recently fired by Mayor Dudley, I would like to say thank you for your work. I have been told that all of you were excellent, talented workers who have served our city well. To Chief Soptich, whom I know well, I would like to publicly say thank you for your service as Oak Harbor’s fire chief for more than 20 years, for your service to the Boy Scouts of America during the bulk of those years, for your service to the thousands of people in your church across all these many years, and for your impeccable example both in public and private at all times, including right now when you choose not to lower yourself to the insensitive, selfish and unbelievably stupid level of the mayor. You have impacted thousands of lives for good and I, for one, will be ever grateful that you have been such a positive influence in the lives of me and my family.
Jeff Ellis lives in Oak Harbor.
