Item: in a very unusual move, former Mayor of Boston Ray Flynn has openly criticized current Mayor Tom Menino on the fire truck maintenance issue. According to the Globe:
“This is a tragic situation, and the current administration is not taking responsibility for their record, not taking responsibility for their performance,” Flynn said in a telephone interview yesterday, taking direct aim at Menino.
Now what would drive Flynn to do this? Turns out that there are some interesting historical tidbits further down in the article. For example:
Menino this week ordered the city’s fire commissioner to hire licensed mechanics to maintain firetrucks, ending a system begun under Flynn’s administration in the 1980s of using firefighters to maintain the trucks.
Oh, so it was Ray Flynn who started this business of firefighters, rather than mechanics, maintaining the trucks? Do go on.
Flynn, whose late brother was a superintendent in charge of Fire Department maintenance for 25 years ….
Coincidence, no doubt. Anyway, so the in-house maintenance thing was working out pretty well, at least in the beginning?
[T]he division was sending 90 percent of its work to outside repair shops because the firefighters were unable to do the work.
Or not. Must’ve been because they weren’t adequately funded, right?
Flynn said that during his tenure, from 1984 to 1993, he gave the Fire Department whatever resources it wanted. When it came to the annual budget request from the department, Flynn said he never reduced it.
Oh. All right, so what happened when Flynn left office?
After Menino took over at City Hall, Flynn’s free-spending ways on fire safety came under tough criticism. Outside auditors in 1994 and 1995 found the Boston Fire Department needlessly spent millions of dollars – at a time when the number of fires in Boston had decreased by half.
One recommendation of the outside reviewers was the replacement of the uniformed firefighters in the maintenance division with licensed mechanics…. That recommendation has been mired in a labor dispute between the union and the city for years.
Which, sadly, brings us to the present day, where it appears that a good man may have lost his life because of a poorly-maintained fire truck.
Seems to me that if Ray Flynn is going to complain about people “not taking responsibility for their record, not taking responsibility for their performance” when it comes to proper maintenance of fire equipment, he might first consider the beam in his own eye.
he hired the ex-mayor, former ambassador’s mistresses to maintain the fire trucks…
Old Raybo seems to be a political apple in the bin way too long. In this case, he’s apparently reliving his recollection of himself as a pro-union guy, supporting the cops, firefighters and so forth. That worked in the last century.
<
p>Then again, he was one of the first and consistent leaders in trying to scuttle marriage equality. He went right through the petition process, cozying up to the extreme anti-gay forces and beyond.
<
p>Both seem to fall in the free-speech/1st Amendment rights thingummy. Perhaps he was inspired by listening to Chuck Turner. Now all he needs to do is claim he’s a victim of someone.
that HE would be against marriage equality, was the Ambassador to the Vatican, and would ever moralize about anything is soooo f’ing laughable.
I was told last night by a reliable source that the air brake systems are to be inspected every ninety days per the maintenance instruction/agreement of the manufacturer: Emergency One. In reality (it is alleged) this has not been done for years and the only time they were looked at was in the event of a mechanical problem with the braking systems, whether major or minor. Why? Because not one of the BFD “mechanics” could do anything mechanical other than fix a few lights and change the oil. If in fact that the failure to hire “real” mechanics was blocked by the IAFF local—there should be a criminal investigation. This is insanity. Just out of curiosity—I wonder how much $$$ the City of Boston spends on all City of Boston vehicles per annum for maintenance?
Does brake replacement qualify as “routine maintenance” under the current contract? Does the union control the capital/equipment budget? If the commissioner had so little power over vehicle maintenance and safety, because of contractual issues, was he in breach of contract when he and Menino promptly ordered all the old vehicles to be inspected after the recent crash, and promptly took at least one truck out of service?
Flynn’s been not-the-mayor for a pretty long time. If the union is essentially running the fire department, is that the union’s fault or is it ultimately Menino’s fault? How many contracts have come and gone since Flynn left office?Menino seems to be in the extremely luxurious position of being able to deny responsibility for every crisis or problem the City of Boston ever faces while taking credit for each and every fortuitous development or success. The lower crime rate? It’s Menino’s accomplishment. Crime rises? Perhaps the police union’s to blame. Finances good? Menino’s a brilliant fiscal manager. A budget shortfall? The legislature, or the Feds, or the unions are at fault.
Of where the Administration has “blamed” the police union for higher crime rates. A withdrawal of federal COPS support (as Tom Nee of the union notes in today’s paper)and cuts in prevention programs maybe.
<
p>Also note any pointing fingers for a potential budget shortfall, the City has called for new revenue sources, as has the Governor, as have other cities and towns across the state, as have the unions. Is that not proper?
<
p>I do want to note on behalf of former Mayor Flynn that he appointed many gays and lesbians to senior posts in his Administration including Arline Isaacson as the City’s State House lobbyist, Ann Maguire, the late Fred Mandel, John Meunier and many other department heads and senior officials. I too regret his position on gay marriage, but feel the whole record should be examined, particularly his record as a public official as opposed to a private citizen.
<
p>As always, I write as a former member of the Flynn and Menino Administrations.