Monday, March 2, 2009

Thoughts on Cutting our Police Force

  • Absolutely unconscionable that the Mayor still has a driver. Yes, I realize that she does other things like holding his umbrella over him in the rain, gets him coffee, attends the occasional neighborhood meeting to earn her title as 'Director of Intergovernmental Affairs," and yes I realize cutting her would not completely solve the budget issue but I would rather save one police officer's job than have the comfort of knowing Bob will never get wet in the rain. Her position is a symptom of the disease in this administration.

  • I have not seen one of the many good suggestions on ameliorating the budget issue, by the city council, acted upon. Three weeks ago, at a city council meeting, Councilor Steve Camara requested that Adam Chapdelaine bring him the list of the 68 non-union employees at city hall to perhaps start trimming with them. That seemed like a great idea. Trim the fat at city hall. Two weeks later, at the next city council meeting, Chapdelaine failed to provide the council with that list, this failure to comply with the request indicated to me that the administration wasn't at all interested in making cuts at city hall. Councilor Lund suggested making the top 100 salaries take percentage decrease. Councilor Viveiros had submitted a 5 page report to the Mayor with suggestions. Councilor Bigelow suggested that the city do an inventory of things we own like at the prison where they inventory screwdrivers because if they lose track a prisoner may get one and use it as a weapon.......not sure where he was going with that, but hopefully I am making my point. MULTITUDES of good suggestions (and Councilor Bigelow's) have been made yet Bob has not, from what I have seen, used any of them and continues on with the plan he had from the beginning: CUT SAFETY.

  • Don't even get me started on the city's law department...I think William Shakespeare would take a more forceful approach,"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." - (Henry VI ), but can't we at least cut some of that fat? Or in retrospect, knowing that a financial crisis was only months away maybe we shouldn't have given Arthur Frank a 30/40,000 dollar raise.

  • Mayor Correia, dust off your fiddle, sit in your throne on the 6th floor of government center, and be prepared to watch Fall River burn.



        • I think that pretty much sums up my thoughts at the moment.

      28 comments:

      Anonymous said...

      There should be a united rally to include all those upset with the current administrations dangeroud handling of the city- period.

      Anonymous said...

      Interesting comment in the herald that the (contract) fire chief called in staff this morning for a meeting and asked coogan not to attend.

      Anonymous said...

      Is his driver a good looking woman? Kinda makes you wonder what some her "unofficial duties" might be....

      Anonymous said...

      Come on, 14:13. I know you're upset (I am too), but that's really unnecessary.

      Anonymous said...

      The emporer has no Teflon.

      When you screw up as many times as this guy has, it all begins to stick. He's well past that point.

      Não minha falha! Right, Bob?!

      Anonymous said...

      It is outrageous that duh mayuh still has Jeff and Colleen, his driver/maid still employed by the citizens of Fall River. We could have two police officers in place of them. Duh mayuh is politically dead, and just doesn't know it. I am certain that everyone he has hurt is ready to dance on his (political)grave.

      Anonymous said...

      Listen WSAR listen all you mayor supporters he is gone this year!! If they did approval rating in the city his would be 20 % or less. I personally think if you ever wanted to be mayor now would be the time to run!

      Anonymous said...

      I hear the Mayor will be appointing Jeff Santos as the head of Community Development.

      Anonymous said...

      Anon 18:52 Bob is doing a pretty poor job but who are we going to replace him with? Do you think that Sullivan Kilby, or Alves would have done a better job handling the budget? What decisions did Bob make that directly impacted the budget? If not Correia for Mayor then WHO?

      Anonymous said...

      That arguement went out the window with the last 5 debacles the mayor caused. Yes alves or kilby would have at least handled it better and been leaders. It has now snowballed and the momentum is catchin up to him t-he mayor is just trying not to get run over.

      Anonymous said...

      This is a weak ass blog..only ten comments on a news story this big i guess people are starting to figure Scamrock out

      shamrock said...

      Ahh thank you for your daily affirmation.

      Neil Diamond in the Rough said...

      hmmmm. Bob reminds me of Boss Hogg of hazard county... I like how most of this city considers themselves "liberal democrats" meaning we love our crooks like McGovern and Kennedy but when it comes to redistribution of wealth or pay cuts no one wants to talk about it. posers. Tax and spend tax and spend is always the only solution. I heard Will Flanagan wants a driver???

      Anonymous said...

      Who would have done better then this mayor you say!!!!! Bugs Bunny could have handled it better. He didn't take any suggestions from anyone concerning this mess from day one. He doubled his lawyers salary then cut them 8% and he thinks we don't get that. What a sneak.First he tells his dept. heads were all in this together, If no one takes a cut then you don't. Well that was a lie, because they supposedly got asked to volunteer a cut!! I wonder if anyone said no?

      Neil Diamond in the Rough said...

      oh yeah don't forget about that genius Barney Frank! that guy is so smart. He kinda looks like Bob a little.

      Neil Diamond in the Rough said...
      This comment has been removed by the author.
      Anonymous said...

      I still remember reading a quote in the Herald News where Bob made it clear when he ran in 2007 that he didn't bother to read the city budgets yet people elected him anyway. Who would've done a better job? I don't know, anyone running that admitted to reading the city budgets and the audits for that matter. Anybody that talked about any of the above and offered any solutions at all would've done a better job. Having said that, did anyone in the 07 mayor's race actually do that?

      Anonymous said...

      comment from the angry whopper on the hn site:

      As for Correias staffing, about a month after the 30-year state representative was elected, he announced four of his administrative assistants would continue at the mayors office, three of whom worked for him for more than 20 years.
      They are Kathy Edwards, Jeff Santos and Colleen Whipp, with the fourth staffer his bilingual translator, Ines Leite, whos been Correias spokeswoman with the media.

      So Bob, when does Jeff Santos, your administrative asistant get sent to fill the vacancy caused by the abrubt dismissal of Bob Laughlin (chairman of your transition team), Director of the Community Development Aganecy to the tune of $85,000/year? Is that really necessary considering the agency is running fine without an Exceutive Direstor and accumulating savings due to the vacancy? It appears that you could re-hire one, if not two community police officers with that money.

      Oh and by the way folks, there was no reduction in the mayo's office staff. Debra Viveiros was never in the mayor's office.

      Also, did Jared Santos (Jeff's son) one of the newly hired dispatchers in the FRPD get laid off or did he retain his job? Just wondering??

      Anonymous said...

      Yeah someone actually asked to read and called for the audits well before anyone was even paying attention. And he actually read the budgets but nobody wanted to listen to Eric Poulin.

      Anonymous said...

      So he read the budgets and the audits and he had them on his website for other people to read them. Guess what? No one else read them. So he talked about the solutions contained in the audit and about budget reforms,blah, blah, blah. Who actually listened? No one. Get over it, he lost. No one was paying attention to him then, why would they now? If you're right and you can't get anyone to listen to you that makes you wrong. Perception is reality. Bob Correia has tons of money already and will raise a lot more. There will be enough ads telling everyone about the great things he has done as mayor and people will elect him once again. What are you going to change in Fall River? Nothing! Give it up. Resistance is futile.

      Anonymous said...

      Perception is reality

      It won't work this time.

      Anonymous said...

      I bet the Gangs are throwing initiation parties all over the place.. Welcome to Fall River, where there is no longer a vice Unit!

      Anonymous said...

      Anon 19:25,

      Mayor Correia's end of year finance report was actually considerably lower than I, and many other people, expected.

      Second, in these tough times, fundraising will be difficult.

      Next, even if people are capable of contributing, the Mayor is losing support daily. His fundraising ability will be greatly diminished.

      Finally, and most importantly, the Mayor has done such a poor job that no amount of money spent will change people's minds.

      Mayor Correia will not get re-elected.

      shamrock said...

      Well said.

      Anonymous said...

      The weather up Bob's ass is great thanks but your hero Poulin isn't going to save you, doesn't matter what he was right about in 2007, no one listened, he lost and he would lose again, you can be assured that enough people will still be working to make sure he isn't even elected dogcatcher. Of the 10 of you bitching, maybe 2 will go out to vote and anyone else that goes out to vote will be working for Bob. You're weak, you can't organize and no one is going to step up to the plate that can acutally beat Bob, go ahead and run another nerd for office, ain't gonna work.

      dancingbear said...

      The past few days have been terrible for the Police,Fire and DPW workers here in Gotham City. Our trusted politicians have done nothing to assist our workers.
      Im sure everyone would like to know where our State Rep's are? Menard, Sullivan, Rodrigues, Haddad, and Aguiar where are your voices?
      Remember that all of you represent the citizens here on the Southcoast and not the rich up in Boston. All of you knew the City would face these cuts and at no time did any of you fight for the citizens who reside in your district. All of you obsorb the benefits from your positions, the perks and atta-boyz you want everytime a new park bench is installed but when issues such as extreme lay-offs occur which will effect eveyone of us, none of you say anything.
      The State reps are partly responsible for not voicing their concerns about the crimes such as murder, shootings, stabbings, robberies, arsons, sex offenders, and trash pick-up delays which will effect each and everyone of us.
      Yes that will include our suburbs. Crime will overflow in our city and enter your peaceful towns,Somerset, westport, Swansea and Freetown will certainly be affected by these cuts. Who will fight crime? Who will put the fires out,the volunteer departments in Dartmouth and Swansea. The two engines in Somerset we doubt it.
      Maybe the sheriff can come in the city and help out, sure send in sheriff's with no Police powers and try to enforce the law. The political appointment sheriff's, not the men and woman working inside the joint but the sign holders who drive around like there cops. The cast of COP ROCK has more police powers then these guyz do!!! That's a fact!!!
      So good job to the rep's thanks for helping out your voices were not heard up in Boston, you never demanded alternative actions to assist these departments but you will all be there to toss out the first ball at Maplewood Park,, hopefully you won't get jumped by the bangers at Maple Gardens..
      Thanks for your help you will all be remembered at election time..
      Signed Sal DiMasi

      Anonymous said...

      Well said dancingbear. Maybe Sheriff Hodgy can drive-up in his John Madden Horse trailer bus that he purchased with county money.
      Hodgy can monitor the crime through his Extreme Makeover bus and yell at the crimminals with his bull horn..
      Hold on the crime wave is about to start, hope you all are wearing your life vests, we are going to need it.

      Anonymous said...

      We need to look at all the fat in city hall and see if we can bring back police and firefighters.
      I was looking at the FY09 budget and found some interesting info:

      First of all why do we need all these lawyers? Why are we paying Jay Clarkin $93,530.00 (75,000.00 base salary plus $18,172.00 in benefits). Is he a full time employee or part time? If part time, why do we pay him benefits?

      Second: We are paying Arthur Frank $104,692.00 (85,000.00 base salary plus $19,692.00 in benefits). Is he a full time employee or part time? If part time, why do we pay him benefits?

      If we eliminate those two positions we will have $198,222.00 available to bring back police or firefighters.

      Now onto the mayor's office: We pay Ines Leite (Director of Communications) $66,561.00 (50,000.00 base salary plus $16,561.00 in benefits) and Colleen Whipp (Director of Inter Government) $61,130.00 ($52,000.00 base salary plus $9,130.00 in benefits). Why don't we combine these positions into just one. There is another police/ firefighter that we can bring back ...

      There is also the Mayor's receptionist; Bernadette Varao $38,286.00 ($35,000.00 plus $3,286.00 in benefits)Does he need one? Isn't there already a receptionist in the first floor when you come into City Hall?

      Now I know that eliminating these positions will not fix the gap that we have. But its a start... We need to look at each department in the FY09 budget and look to see where we can cut. Cuts to public safety should be the last option ...