This past week, we finished deliberations for the Fire, Police, Inspections, Municipal Court and Corporation Council departments.
The CBAC requests that you submit your questions for the above departments by Monday, November 1st, so we can combine the questions and submit them in an orderly way. We have already received a question regarding the Fire department's repeated appearance at an apartment building. We will incorporate that question to the others being submitted to the administration.
Please send comments and suggestions. This is your opportunity to be heard.
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Why do residents have to pay the PMUA for "shared services" when the city through taxes already provides the PMUA with payments? This has everything to do with affordability in Plainfield.
ReplyDeleteWhy does Lenny Cathcart get a salary for his basketball program paid through the Dept of Rec's budget? Isn't everyone a volunteer?
ReplyDeleteWhat can the fire department do to reduce the number of shifts worked per year? Right now they seem to be moving personnel from administrative to operational. That's a start, but limited. Can they use "brown outs" to idle equipment (and therefore personnel) during known periods of lighter activity? Can they permanently reduce equipment in service by consolidating response responsibilities with neighboring communities?
ReplyDeleteIn general, I believe that the number of firefighters and officers is simply determined by multiplying out the number needed per truck per shift. So the operative question is: how was the number of trucks determined? What recent data was carefully analyzed to determine the optimum mix of equipment? Or is the number just by default, as in, "This is what we bought in the past based on past experience, so we may as well staff them".
Have we considered not replacing aging equipment? Any future purchase or lease should only be acquired after very care deliberation by the council after receiving extensive written evidence by the fire department to support their request. Remember, less equipment not only saves the purchase cost but also staffing salaries and benefits for every year into the future.
Beyond the 2010 FY, what's the projection for the next 3-5 years? Why can't we budget like a business and project now into the foreseeable future and act on that instead of always reacting to this year's crisis?