LAWRENCE — Fire Chief Peter Takvorian is considering revolving closures of the city's six firehouses to cut down on overtime costs and stave off any layoffs in what he calls his already lean department.
The revolving closures are still tentative and Takvorian has yet to discuss the matter at length with his department and city councilors.
Now, living in a town that has a volunteer firefighter force, I'm not especially concerned. Certainly, Lawrence has more need for a full-time force, but it can and has been done with fewer firefighters if needed. That's not my point, though.
What bothers me is that when budgets get tight, emergency services are the very first to be threatened with cuts - gee, almost like the town managers know that people are going to be very reluctant to go without police, fire, or EMS services and will therefore be more likely to okay overrides.
My question, though, is very simple: How many six-figure-salary "assistant executives" does Lawrence have?
Extrapolate it further - I've covered the $60K/year no-work job held by the sister of a MA official and the $175K/year position recently filled by Cadillac Deval that had been vacant for 12 years. It really makes you wonder, though, just how much money could be saved simply by weeding out some of the unnecessary bureaucracy.
But then again, where would the siblings, cousins, and offspring of all our state reps go to line up at the public trough, then?
That is all.
7 comments:
This is MA, you know they will only cut the cops and fire so the voters hurt. No way will they cut off their brother in laws - sisters friends - brother from that cushy toll taking job. . . we need them.
This state is a joke and won't change until we the voters get off our asses and change who is in office. Since we OK'd the income tax last election I don't see the sheep waking up any time soon. . .
It's the same everywhere. Here in PA, Governor Ed "Fast Eddie" Rendell "creates" positions for those who have earned political favors even though there is a "hiring freeze" for everyone else.
Meanwhile, the libraries and fire stations are closing in Philadelphia.
A sad state of affairs. How they get away with it is beyond me.
Who can brainstorm up a way to suggest legislation requiring cuts in state jobs to be made equally in both Administration and Operations?
Here are Ted Kennedy's staff salaries. Most all of the totals are for a 6 month period, so double it for their yearly salaries.
44 Staffers.
FORTY FOUR.
And, yeeah, my wife just lost her job due to budget cuts in our local school system (apparently, our local schools think that if there's no money, then you shouldn't SPEND MONEY. Novel concept, huh?)
Holy crap. I counted 6 out of 44 making over $100K/year.
I think I'm in the wrong freakin' line of work.
If someone can explain to me why Ted Kennedy needs an IT manager.....well, I'm all ears.
Gee, your other senator, Mr Kerry, has 63 staffers!
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