Aldermen have a tough job ahead

Once again I am reminded what a tough job elected officials have.

Last Monday night, the city’s Public Safety and Welfare committee heard from both the firefighters union and the fire chief on the success of last year’s redeployment of fire and EMS units, or lack thereof.  The union is claiming a significant erosion of service and the fire chief maintains that things have improved.  Both sides cite fire department response records in support of their claim, but the numbers tell different stories.

The aldermen (not being fire service professionals) were confused by the numbers and the associated rhetoric.  They called for the parties to come together and agree upon which statistics were appropriate.  Good luck with that!

 

It seems that there might be more than a little acrimony in labor management relationship.  Both the chief and the union believe they are right and neither is willing to concede the issue to the other.  The chances of the two parties agreeing on what statistics to use are about the same as a Middle East peace accord now that Hamas is representing the Palestinians.

So what’s plan B?  If these aldermen are content to just wait for the chief and the union to agree on something, it is a default endorsement of the fire chief’s position.  If they move ahead in pursuit of the truth, they run the risk of discovering that the union is right.  Then they would be faced with the problem of how to fix things.

There is really no choice here.  An allegation of service erosion without at least some cost saving demands a complete and thorough investigation.  It will be no easy task for the aldermen to get to the truth.  The only thing harder will be what to do if the union is right.

Yep, I’m glad I’m not an alderman.

John Celebre