D-Day for Sly James, KC firefighters
Yael T. AbouhalkahIt’s obvious that some KC firefighters don’t want to hear the truth: Other professionally run cities protect their residents with fewer firefighters just fine.
True to form - and understandably so, to be frank - many KC firefighters are pressuring Mayor Sly James and the City Council to save the 105 jobs that City Manager Troy Schulte recommends cutting.
We’ll find out Thursday whether James, in his budget message to the council, agrees with Schulte anywhere from 100 percent to zero percent.
James reportedly will use statistically based analysis to determine his decision on this issue. That will be interesting to see.
After all, the KC Fire Department has been unable to provide statistical evidence that the bloated agency has made Kansas City any safer in the past 10 years since the staff was increased by more than 100 people.
Now, if James does decide to go along with some or all of Schulte’s recommendations, get used to seeing firefighters pack City Hall meetings to protest such a move as public hearings on the 2012-13 budget move on.
Get ready for firefighters (as they’ve done on this blog) to personally attack anyone who doesn’t agree with them. It’s tiresome but again expected for firefighters to lob insults against anyone who hasn’t done their job, as if that somehow immunizes the firefighters from criticism from anyone who disagrees with them.
In the end, one good reason to push ahead on this initiative is to determine whether elected officials will run this city.
Or whether the fire union will.
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Booker T Washington
3 months, 1 week agoNow we will see if the Mayor has the resolve and Leadership to put Kansas City on the road to fiscal responsibility.
George Hunsucker
Northland
3 months, 1 week agoI don’t know why you think the firefighters are different then any other union YT. You support unions, unions fight to save unnecessary jobs, what do you expect?
I think you are being a tad hypocritical here YT…. You libs love ‘em, quit gripping about ‘em…
Domenic Serrone
Kansas City
3 months, 1 week agoChief Dyer provided plenty of statistical evidence yesterday. Maybe if you were there you would have be able to hear for yourself. You want to talk statistics, fine, lets talk statistics. I have sent you a number of links including a video, providing factual evidence that decreasing manpower slows fire ground operations down. The problem is you don’t understand nature of the job. You don’t understand tasks that take place on the fire ground, because you have never stepped foot on the fire ground. Facts are facts and I have repeated them a number of times. Depending on several variables, like fuel and air, fire typically doubles in size between 30-60 seconds. Reducing manpower slows operations down, there is ZERO debate about it. Slowing operations down, and increasing the amount of time it takes to get first water on the fire and primary search and rescue operations in place has a direct impact on an occupants survivability when trapped inside a burning structure. Just ask the man we pulled out of the fire on 20th and prospect last Friday. Yes, get ready for me to personally attack you and your credibility. Especially when your misleading comments personally effect the public safety the citizens I have sworn to protect. I will do it every single time.
Yael T. Abouhalkah
3 months, 1 week agoDomenic:
Thank you for reading.
See below for the kind of information it would have been great for the chief and the Fire Department to have provided to the people of Kansas City for many years. The fact that the department and city manager disagree on such a basic thing as how many fires/structural fires we’ve had in the past is telling.
http://www.whitfieldems.com/nfpa1710.htm
Domenic Serrone
Kansas City
3 months, 1 week agoLike I have said all along. The number is irreverent. Just because you have less fires, you don’t change the way you attack them.
Booker T Washington
3 months agoWell we got our answer today. Our New Mayor wants cuts, but will allow the FD Chief to make the decision. I’m not too confident in his leadership ability.
Kay Fox
Kansas City
3 months agoRight to Work is over due.
Look at our teachers union protecting failed teachers…need we go on?
You think the unions will keep voting themselves a raise?
Taxes enslave the masses, welcome to slum-ville.
John Ott
3 months agoThank you for reading.
“See below for the kind of information it would have been great for the chief and the Fire Department to have provided to the people of Kansas City for many years. The fact that the department and city manager disagree on such a basic thing as how many fires/structural fires we’ve had in the past is telling.
http://www.whitfieldems.com/nfpa1710.htm
Read more here: http://voices.kansascity.com/entries/d-day-sly-james-kc-firefighters/#storylink=cpy”
Ok Ill jump in see this is why we question your credibility. Everyone go to the link that Yael put on his comment. If you have problems doing that just type in NFPA 1710 in Google its the 2nd thing to pop up (awesome investigative journalism skills Yael) Notice how if you spent a matter of 2 minutes even reading the link you would notice it is based on EMS NFPA standards not the Fire Fighting based standards? Did you even read it or are you in fact that far out of your comfort zone to not know the difference?
Yael T. Abouhalkah
3 months agoJohn:
Thank you for reading.
You are aware, I assume, that the KC Fire Department now provides EMS services. This excerpt is just one of many examples on the web about how 1710 is supposed to be followed. And there’s no evidence immediately available to the public about how well the department meets those standards, except for the ambulance response times (which have been substandard in some recent months).
The Fire Department has done a poor job explaining how well it is or is not meeting all kinds of standards set out in 1710 (for fire and EMS). I wish the agency would do better.