On 5/19/05 4:42 PM, "wmmarks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Mark Snyder wrote: > >> As I pointed out last week, the budget for the Minneapolis Police Department >> has been increased during the Rybak administration, not cut. >> > Increased budget does not necessarily mean increased numbers of officers. That's very true. It's quite plain to see that the number of officers has gone down even as the budget has increased and I never claimed otherwise. The question I've been trying to get answered is why?
Greg Reinhardt cites rising wages, health care, fuel, etc. Which is certainly true. But that's also true for pretty much every city department. Public Works and Inspections are going to go through a good deal of fuel, but we haven't heard about massive layoffs from either of those departments. Or maybe there have been and it's just not considered as newsworthy as having fewer cops on the streets... How do the wage and health care increases for police compare to other city departments? I seem to recall most city employees settled for two percent wage increases during their last contract. What did the police officers get? Also, I asked yesterday if my memory was correct in that the Minneapolis Police Federation endorsed Tim Pawlenty for governor in 2002. Turns out that it was. And the results of that blunder, as well as a glimpse of what we may be looking forward to, in part because of it, were covered pretty well in a City Pages article from about a year ago. "911's A Joke In Your Town?" http://citypages.com/databank/25/1230/article12258.asp When are the leaders of the Police Federation going to start taking some responsibility for their own actions that have led to fewer cops on Minneapolis streets and start working cooperatively with the mayor and council to turn things around, instead of against them? Or, if it's too much to hope for the leaders of the Police Federation to change their tune, when are the cops on the streets going to wake up and realize that their leaders in the Police Federation have been doing little more than leading them right out of a job and replace them? Mark Snyder Windom Park REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
