Fuel for thought

Someone responding to the post below mentioned something I've noticed for a long time. Whenever there's a fire of consequence in the city, the building often is a total loss.
There were some specifics mentioned in the post and I can think of a half dozen more.
Now I appreciate the fire department. Even before it ran an ambulance service I think they did wonderful work as paramedics and EMTs -- really making a life and death difference. And I'm not suggesting they're overstaffed rank-and-file-wise. But can anyone explain why fires generally consume structures in the city? Is it because of the age of the buildings, fire code violations, overzealousness on the part of firefighters to chop a smoldering building to smithereens? Lack of adequate equipment?
Or is my perception way off on this?

Did you catch this?

I missed it until someone called my attention to it. George Brown, Monroe's city manager, had like a guest column in the Evening Snooze the other day about the results of the city operational assessment. It didn't anything specific but sounded like he was saying "brace yourself."

The public rollout of this document has been pushed back a little. My guess is there's a lot of posturing going on to try to soften the blow on some departments. My guess also is that if I'm low on the totem pole at the planning department, police department, fire department and DPS, I should be brushing up my resume.

Has anyone heard if this thing was going to take a look at the city ambulance function?

The larger question might be whether council will act on the findings or pick and choose?

A question worth answering

Not being in Monroe because I'm working on my tan and trying to feel important among all the other important people here in Hawaii, I was wondering if someone back home could tell me if the hanging question from the previous city council meeting was answered at Monday's council meeting.

They don't televise Monroe council meetings in Hawaii. Jai alai and dog races are popular, but not blatherfests. The question I'm curious about is the one posed by (ugh!) Council member Compora. She said the mayor was quoted as saying pension board rules required attendance at a state and national pension conferences, but she couldn't find it in the pension handbook. Council member Paisley offered up a long-winded defense of attendance at the conference and seemed to say there's a law that requires it.
When the city's legal counsel was asked to cite the law, he said he'd have to look into it. I hope he's found the answer because it occurred to me that Council member Paisley is the only elected official from any Monroe zipcode who either hasn't backed out from the trip or decided to pay all or part of the expenses.

We know he has a love of learning. Maybe we'll all learn something from this.

BTW, the weather here is great but I keep running into familiar faces from Monroe and they're not all pension board members. What's up with that?

Odd stuff I've heard here in Hawaii...

These pension conferences really are informative.
I've picked up a few rumors and half-truths that I'm more than happy to spread around for you folks back home to stew about.

First, I'm told that they really haven't figured out a way to make those dirty streetsweepers in Monroe not kick up so much dust, so those residents who compare them to dirty brown tornadoes will just have to continue watching their tax dollars go down the drain.

I also heard that someone is circulating a petition or something calling for a no confidence vote on Dr. Nixon, president of the community college. I don't think anyone can do that but the board of trustees and this supposedly is being driven by the faculty.

I also heard that a deal is being made to have Worrell run for mayor and Iacoangeli for council.

I also heard that some wiseacre put a link to this blog on a forum at the Evening Snooze webpage. (That was a dumb play. There goes the neighborhood.)

I also saw with my own eyes pictures of a public official doing a dance in a hula dress.

Aloha for now.

What's with Wickenheiser's ethics?

Tonight's Evening Snooze has a little snippet about the Downtown Development Authority approving a $20,000 facade grant for Ken Wickenheiser's renovation of that old rat trap, the City Hotel.
Here's the killer though: Wickenheiser sits on the DDA board but HE ABSTAINED FROM VOTING ON THE FACADE GRANT!
What's with this guy? Is he shooting for sainthood or something?
Ed Paisley needs to give him a remedial course in ethics.

Signs of the times

I would hate to walk in Joe's shoes.
If you don't know Joe, he's the city employee that has to make sure certain codes are adhered to.
He deals with all sorts of obstinate people. Some think they're above the law and don't have to abide by any rules (sort of like the people who thumb their noses at parking rules).
But I gotta believe he's going nuts with signs around town.
You might recall that the antique mall painted a big sign on their building in four foot block letters that said ANTIQUE MALL. The paint wasn't even dry when the code enforcers descended and made them paint it out. Now its a nice big red block. Other people have had to jump through bizarre hoops to put up a sign that other communities don't have a problem with. The restaurant on Front St. wants to put up a sidewalk awning overhang, but it's against city rules. An auto center wants to put up an electronic sign, but rules don't provide for it. Someone wants to put up a banner sign. It's not allowed. Someone wants to put up a sidewalk sign. No dice. Someone wants to put up a street cafe. Jump through hoops.
Some people want to do anything they want no matter what the rules are.
And people like Joe have to play tough guy. It's not an admirable position to be in and I imagine he keeps pretty busy.
I was driving down Telegraph the other day and noticed that across from the antique mall there are three banner signs plastered along the building. Not too attractive and probably in violation.
But can you imagine trying to tell people they don't have a right to do anything they want on their property? On some days Joe must get called everything but Joe.

Speaking of being called everything, an anonymous poster in the post below called for a little more decorum with respect to name-calling and such. It's a free country and people can call anyone anything they want, but I tend to agree. It doesn't matter if you are talking about the mayor, any councilpeople or any other community characters, I would hope we would try to keep it semi-clean. My problem is that although I welcome all sorts or outlandish commments and personal attacks, I also recognize that there's a chance some kids might stumble across this site -- I mean little kids. So if you could act as if your young grandson or granddaughter might read this accidentally, I think we can get our points across without profanities and vulgarities that I would like to think none of you regularly spout around kids.
Of course I can just block offending contributors, but I really don't want to do that. So let's try to self-police a little. Otherwise, you just portray yourself as little neanderthals with pea-sized brains whose views will generally be disregarded.
Here's what I mean: Suppose you like Citizen A and despise Citizen B. If you call Citizen B a nasty name, it tells me that good old Citizen A can't be of that good a character because some of his or her best friends and admirers are advocates of gutter-speak. It really is usually true that coarse language is the sign of a coarse and uneducated person.
And that's my sermon for today, brothers and sisters.

An election prediction

Just so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle and because some posters have requested it, I will make predictions for the Monroe School Board that's being held Tuesday.

No, Linda Compora is not on the ballot. (I find that just the mention of certain names increases comments and traffic and venom here);-)

There are five candidates and this isn't the slam-dunk prediction you would expect, but I'll try to call it anyway:
McNamee, Thurber, Brace, VanWasshenova and, to make it interesting, it'll be in that order.

Aloha!

Hello from sunny Hawaii, where I'm scoping out the wonderful accommodations for the upcoming national pension conference to be attending mostly by Monroe County retirement board members.
Can you believe there are 22 restaurants in this place, and they're not all Mickey Ds.
I hear there's a big blow-up back home about the upcoming trip. It's funny what strange stuff tends to upset the citizenry so much.
I hear the old town is just buzzing about what a lot of people think is a lavish boondoggle.
The odd part about all this is that most off those who will be taking the trip have no accountability to anyone -- not even the pensioners or employees they pretend to represent.
Certainly I would never hold it against anyone to jump at the chance to travel to Hawaii. Especially on someone else's dime.
I just hope the elected officials choosing to attend the conference learn a little bit off the language when they're here.
It seems some voters are getting ready to say Aloha! to them.
Hawaiian pension conference Lesson One: Aloha doesn't only mean hello in the native language.
It also means goodbye.