Last
night I had a Town Hall meeting at Lamar High School. Again it was well
attended, with well over 150-200 people there. As stated I am blessed with
citizens that want to be informed. At one point in the evening the President of
the Fire Fighters Union and I got into a dialogue about Civil Service. He
stated a few things that i totally disagree with. 1. That if Civil Service was implemented
that Council would be taking away their benefits. My thoughts were that your
current benefit package rests with the City form of governance and not with
Civil Service. If you want your current benefits package do not request Civil
Service. If you want Civil Service then you get what the state provides not a
hybrid of the two systems. There will not be a cherry picking event where you get the good parts of the city system and add them to the Civil Service form of government. This I'm afraid is what the Union is selling to its members, and it simply won't happen. 2. His next statement is that "Meet and
Confer" will be an avenue to change Civil Service in a way that is
beneficial to both parties. Again Meet and Confer rests with the City not the
State. Meet and Confer will be a fond memory under Civil Service. And Lastly he
stated that firings occur all the time under Civil Service. I strongly suggest
that Mr. Crow read this article in the Wall Street Journal to figure out why
these police officers in other cities cannot be fired.
The main body of the Town Hall Meeting was about all of the investment that is coming to Arlington. Essentially, the total worth of the city is $12 billion. The total investment to this city in the next few years is $4 billion. This means that businesses want to come to Arlington and invest there money in our city. This rate of investment is staggering. At one point in the evening a lady stated that 74% of the children in our city are considered impoverished and that Arlington is headed downhill. This is her opinion and it couldn't be further from the trend I see in Arlington. This city is going vertical in development, and that means jobs. The vehicle to get people out of poverty is jobs and the growth in our city will require thousands and thousands of jobs, which pay money and remove Arlington residents from poverty. You are in the Best Big City in the South to live in (Money Magazine). So act like it and be proud of the changes that have been made to get us here, and the changes to come, that are going to make our city even better.
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Safety-Group-Ranks-Fort-Worth-Fire-Department-No-1-412637543.html
ReplyDelete$16 billion in total worth and "The Best Big City in the South", so why isn't our fire department #1 Chuck? FYI, the fire department mentioned above that was just named #1 just happens to be a Chapter 143 Civil Service department.
Well I think that the real reason that we don't have an ISO rating of number 1 is we have people like you in our fire department. Using your logic Civil Service is the reason that Ft. Worth has a high insurance service rating, but that isn't true. Ft. Worth has been in Civil Service since 1942. Why haven't they been rated #1 for the last 75 yrs. Dallas has been Civil Service since 1930 and they don't have a #1 insurance rating. I would also add that you need to ask yourself why you aren't rated #1 not me. I'm not the reason, you are. You're the fireman. So unless you're willing to sign your name to your posts, then don't waist my time with stupid questions. Instead why don't you apply for a position in Ft. Worth. Then we might get a #1 ISO rating.
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