Brown-Outs

I apologize for the absence of any posts for the month of June. Busy month with a full schedule left me little time to write/whine about anything.

Brown-outs, they are here and occurring daily throughout the City. What are they and where is it leading to ?

In the official reasoning behind the need to close fire companies for the tour, we hear it is because of the economy and rampant sick leave use. We are told that it is the only way to save on overtime costs. Although the overtime budget decreased by 3 million dollars the previous fiscal year the commissioner claims that we have to be financially prudent. O.k. I could understand it, IF it was being applied equally across the board.

The first day was also the first day of the fiscal year so this is not a stop-gap method to make it to the end of June. This is a litmus test to see if the residents will accept company closings. Permanently ! Make no mistakes about it.

Two Districts were also closed on the 1st. Once again to save money. Increasing response times to double digit numbers is nothing more than gambling with lives. Playing the percentages in the name of saving taxpayer money is always a dangerous game that will bite you in the ass.

Meanwhile, another new state of the art police station is being built. This one to replace a 30 year old one. The site chosen was also where electroplating was performed. I wonder who paid for the site clean-up to get it ready for construction. All the while we can not get basic repairs to our houses. Raw sewage back-ups, rodent infestations, leaking roofs, crumbling main floors etc.. the list goes on and on.

Without going into other agencies and sticking to ours, this City and the present admin has one and only one goal my friends, downsize this job to what they consider is an acceptable level. Almost 200 positions alone add up to millions of dollars, whether you include benefits or not.

I'll get into the chiefs jobs later but consider this, when we first saw the Fincomms report on fire Districts, didn't we all say they can't do that ? It will increase response times too much ? Well we're down to 9, is 7 around the corner ?