Quote:
Originally Posted by okcpulse
Spare me the drama, iron. If MAPS 3 passes, exactly what funding is public safety going to lose? NADA. Like I have said before on several occasions today, if staff shortages are that much of a serious issue, go after a permanent funding source, not a slice of the MAPS pie.
No one from the fire or police department said anything about staffing concerns until the MAPS 3 press release. Quite frankly, that's a bad move. I am 100% behind adequate staffing in public safety, but the opposition campaign is hammering the wrong nail.
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To say that no one from the Fire or police departments said anything about staffing concerns until the MAPS 3 press release is not actually correct.
I can not speak for the administrations of either the Fire or Police departments, or the FOP. But I can assure you the IAFF has been talking about Firefighter staffing issue since 2001. Talks with Fire Chiefs, Councilpersons, and the City Manager have at best only been able to maintain the status quo.
When the Fire Dept. staffing level was at 999 in 2000 the City manager began his reduction plan. We argued against the reduction of staffing every year but to no avail. We had year after year of cuts that brought staffing down to 948 in 2004.
The City Managers plan was to continue making cuts down to a level of 900. The best we were able to accomplish is getting him stopped at 948. The only thing that kept him from his goal was the economy and the threats of a lawsuit.
Now with the economy as his cover and a game plan 6 years in the making he sees his oportunity to resume his plan. Our mistake I see now was that we did not take our vocal protest to the public years ago.