This is one of the last public comments posted today at the Boston Globe in response to the sick leave abuse story (shift swapping)
jjag wrote: Congratulations to the Globe for revealing yet another corrupt scheme public "workers" use to rip off taxpayers. Think for a minute: When was the last significant fire in Boston? One that involved a major building? Aren't the vast majority of fires minor? If one was going to design a fire department based on this reality wouldn't it be composed of far more, smaller and more nimble trucks equipped with small, say, three men crews, widely dispersed around the city? Always at the ready? Instead we get very large pumper trucks that rarely get used as designed, not only going to the routine, home, kitchen fire but ALSO showing up at minor car accidents to create a "run" statistic (to give the uninformed the illusion of "need"). The fire department is wrong sized, wrongly equipped and is not designed to have the greatest impact the most likely, serious, fires (getting to small fires in homes as quickly as possible to get residents out) it faces. It is designed for the unions and a mission (fairly big fires) that just doesn't occur today because so many buildings have been built within fireproof and resistant recent building codes. That the department doesn't adapt is proof that it doesn't exist to "serve" the public as effectively as possible. Its designed to maximize union employment and pay, period. What should be done with an organization that clearly prefers to waste resources, not adapt to best serve needs and is rife with employment "issues" (if not outright fraud)? Wouldn't it best serve the public to completely dismantle this department and create a private entity to replace it? One that CAN be held accountable (i.e. FIRED) if it similarly mismanages the resources its given? 1/30/2011 10:53 AM EST -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "massfire" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/massfire?hl=en.
