Did I hear what I thought I heard?
Caught parts of that strange Monroe city council meeting and I couldn't believe I heard what I heard.
Pat McElligot said he's so worked up about the state of the city, he's decided to run for mayor.
His platform: Let'em die in the streets.
To be fair, he said something like he didn't think the city fire department should be involved in the ambulance business. They should put out fires.
It sounds crazy, but the city's predicament does seem to boil down to hard choices like this. Firefighters at the meeting said hey, we can respond in three minutes and we're saving lives.
So how much is a life worth? Should the city cut out the ambulance service. Let's face it, not every city resident needs an ambulance every day. The service does bring in some money, but not enough to cover expenses.
Maybe the ambulance service should be scaled back -- operating only after regular business hours when families are home beating and stabbing each other.
I have to admit, the ambulance service is a fine luxury. But as Pat should know, it's also a pretty good insurance policy.
After his comments Monday night, I just hope he doesn't have a medical emergency anytime soon.
The outcome probably will be a lot like his mayoral bid: Dead on arrival.
Pat McElligot said he's so worked up about the state of the city, he's decided to run for mayor.
His platform: Let'em die in the streets.
To be fair, he said something like he didn't think the city fire department should be involved in the ambulance business. They should put out fires.
It sounds crazy, but the city's predicament does seem to boil down to hard choices like this. Firefighters at the meeting said hey, we can respond in three minutes and we're saving lives.
So how much is a life worth? Should the city cut out the ambulance service. Let's face it, not every city resident needs an ambulance every day. The service does bring in some money, but not enough to cover expenses.
Maybe the ambulance service should be scaled back -- operating only after regular business hours when families are home beating and stabbing each other.
I have to admit, the ambulance service is a fine luxury. But as Pat should know, it's also a pretty good insurance policy.
After his comments Monday night, I just hope he doesn't have a medical emergency anytime soon.
The outcome probably will be a lot like his mayoral bid: Dead on arrival.
posted by The Observer at 8/14/2007 11:21:00 AM
5 Comments:
This certainly is an interesting topic. Does the ambulance service actually bring money into the City coffers, above and beyond the costs associated with the service and associated equipment and training? You must also consider the amount of firefighters on duty to implement the service. Figuring the extra manpower required to be on duty, the ambulances, gurneys, life saving equipment, etc., do we really make 1/2 million like is claimed? I would like to think so, but I am more of a realist. I have to believe that many claims by the firemen are self serving, and simply an effort to save their jobs. How many of these firemen provide the protection (which they say the City residents demand) to their own families? "We've watched people die" but we don't care enough for our own families to provide them the service which keeps our jobs safe.
There needs to be some careful stepping around this issue. Our newest Mayoral candidate may have stepped in something by making a possible true statement. He was met head on with Councilwoman Compora who would never, never, never make cuts to police and fire. If that is the case, then she has to go, go, go! There do need to be cuts in ALL areas to save the taxpayers money and add to capital infrastructure improvements. Simply cutting the "luxury" positions will not even come close to the amount needed to get the City financially stable. The Councilwoman needs to wake up and be reminded that she works for the taxpayers and not the human resources department for police and fire. But, it is an election year, and she will do whatever she has to do to get their endorsement, which she won't get anyways. She has to be smarter than thinking that her antics have earned her any respect.
Observer, I don't think Pat will be dead on arrival, I think that he will be left for dead at the scene (or poll).
Pat McElligot is clueless about anything involving government. Here I was assuming all of these TV appearances were a campaign to run for council for which is not qualified except he may stay awake in meetings. Why is he vexing us with his inhumane theories concerning how to tend to a person with a heart attack on I-75?
The assessment was close to what can be done with the exception of the City Attorney position. I agree with charter changes for the Clerk-Treasurer position being needed. It is possible that the consultant may have found what he was expected to find.
A very real problem is that the city is recreation poor. This includes Munson Park and the Ice Rink which should be county functions if they are needed at all. You can only blame wild spending when we had the higher Edison and other industrial tax bases.
The several main contenders for Mayor would all work out provided the council can keep wild ideas in check. We do not need any more splash ponds or costly Main Street graphics by Toledo artists and consultants to tell us about downtown or roundabouts.
It certainly is hard to figure what an ambulance service or a fire service is worth.
Let's face it, if no one has heart attacks or there are no fires, it's a big waste of money. Like I said, it's like an insurance policy.
For my money, I'd rather have a crack ambulance company than a fire department. I'm not sure the fire fighting record is that good (mostly because city housing stock is often pretty lousy) and the chances are a lot better that I'll have a medical emergency before I have a fire. But certainly the more these services are needed, the more they'll look like a good deal. We reelly don't want to pay people to be away from their families just so they can read newspapers or make their own dinners at a fire station.
Observer, I must admit that your oversight appears to have maintained decency and reason on the blog.
The day is fast approaching where small towns such as Monroe which have huge legacy pension and insurance costs will need to file bankruptcy to set aside these liabilities and the union contracts. When you have so many employees that they form a voting block to be pandered to by self serving union politicians you are in big trouble. We have operating in that mode for years and it will catch up with us soon.
The operational assessment approach was not an altogether bad thing but consultants who take these jobs either must agree to find what management wishes found and no more or not take the job. Yes they must insist on enough wiggle room to protect their reputations but our assessment did not address what we could afford. In this I am not saying that there was any tacit agreement by anyone to what was to be the conclusion but no consultant is going to recommend approaching the two nearby townships to discuss sharing human, equipment and recreational resources on a day to day basis.
My needs are modest. A rapidly responding police force is nice when there is a problem with thieves. I would rather let them use their training to deal with prowlers and stalkers than to let fly with a load of 00 buckshot or 38 special rounds in a residential neighborhood. Likewise, the firefighters have the equipment and response times I desire. We need a well maintained infrastructure.
The real issue: Pat is right!
Monroe made the decision back in the late 1980's early 1990's to have all of there firefighters trained as EMT's / Paramedics in an effort to extract more money. It was a shrewd idea that worked. It also helped run EMTS, Bennett, Professional Medical and Fire Service along with others out of Monroe. It's nice that a municipality can provide a service, prevent competition and then - charge citizens for it!
No - this service does not pay for itself and it never will. We are overstaffed in the Police and Fire Department. We do have a growing problem with the retirement plan (i.e. what was that retirement multiplier that that firemen's union received?).
Sadly, observer - we do pay people (at three stations) to be away from there family, read newspapers and cook food. So - lets just assume that each station has four firemen per shift (yes that is wrong). That means twelve per shift at say 20.00 an hour plus benefits plus building occupancy expenses (utilities). Yeah, we can afford this.
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