I’m a firm believer in delivering great service, a quality product, and then spend money on advertising- and I’m in advertising.
The City of Dayton would rather spend money on people who talk about how great it is, instead of on actually delivery of that promise.
We’ve got a major problem here. The Dayton Business Journal reports that Dayton wants to lay off 11 officers to save $773,000 a year- as a move to show the Fraternal Order of Police who is boss- because the FOP won’t agree to a pay freeze. Nice move. Crime is one of the top excuses people use to complain the city, and instead of hiring more police, we’re going to cut them.
It’s funny, the City had $800,000 to buy the buildings at the corner of Wayne and Wyoming earlier this year- after spending a year and a half, and at least another million doing appraisals, title searches, real estate services for a new Kroger [1]that they didn’t even have a contract with. Hmmmmm.
In the meantime, we have a bunch of people in “Economic development” collecting paychecks to try to whitewash over the problems.
Randy Beane, FOP chief, likes to make threats. Now he’s talking about a recall. Yet, when the opportunity to put people on the ballot- he sat on his hands. Pointing the finger isn’t leadership, and neither is refusing to negotiate in good faith. We need to work together on this, because the budget isn’t going to get bigger anytime soon.
These quotes are just prime from Beane:
Randy Beane, Dayton police union president, said the police are questioning city leadership and that safety is vital to economic development, but Dayton is already one of the most violent cities in the nation.
“The elected officials are running businesses out of the city, they are running citizens out. We are being inundated with burglaries on the east end that our detectives cannot even keep up on,” Beane said. “I have grave concerns. We are looking at initiating a recall vote. Unless somebody does something with the city commission and mayor, this city is dead.”
via Dayton laying off 11 police officers – Dayton Business Journal: [2].
I don’t believe I live in one of the most violent cities in the nation. Yes, we have a problem with burglaries, but, it would help if the prosecutors and the judges would do their job too. People who have long rap sheets should be as scared to jaywalk in Montgomery County as they are in Greene, where you get thrown in jail for even looking at a cop wrong. We’ve got some issues to solve.
Now is not the time for posturing. Both City Manager Rashad Young and Lt. Randy Beane work for the same people, with the same goal. If we can’t have people that know how to work together, maybe we need to replace one, or both of them. Making wild claims in the media isn’t helping.
And, as to losing faith in our leadership- Randy, please, what took you so long?
When it comes to lay-offs, future Mayor Esrati, why not cops? Fact is, this is one of the tough choices any executive has to make when the balance sheet starts to look like used Charmin. The argument the old Bandito will raise that if there is a lay-off of Dayton’s finest, we will be laying off the wrong ones. For inside the confines of that building on the 300 block of West Third street is more deadwood than in a Fort Lauderdale flood canal. Cops shuffling papers, cops manning the property room, cops running redundant and unnecessary bureaus (think Taxi Squad) and the next thing ya’ know there is more blue in the Safety Building than on the street, when a number of those functions could be done by civilians. Meanwhile, while our police force turns overweight and grey thanks to (probably illegal union) seniority rules, the young cops full of crimefighting zeal take up jobs in places with drive thru windows. If this blog has had a narrative this week, it has been a city and police force that is unwilling, unable and uninterested in the safety of its’ citizens. And if they make you go thru a metal detector, and take your belt and shoelaces if you’re staying overnight, and then throw you in a cell with someone with jailhouse tattoos and a long criminal record who think he’s finally met his soulmate; why do they call it the Safety Building???????
I’m not running for Mayor. And, yes I agree- they have badge carrying cops doing things that civilians can do. I used to be good friends with the guy who ran the Motorpool- he was great as a cop, and running the motorpool- but any mechanic can do his job.
We need more patrols- in fact, I think we need to look at putting cops on 250cc scooters in the summer. Fast, agile, quiet and very fuel efficient- they make it easy to talk to people on the street, and be visible.
Cop cars are really expensive.
But, that’s another discussion.
Just a note: DDN coverage not near as negative as Dayton Business Journal:
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/city-to-cops-pay-freeze-or-layoffs-197191.html
It seems the business journal is now taking pride in stirring up anti-Dayton sentiments.
If you don’t believe you live in a violent city, you need to spend a few evenings in some of the ER’s. I am a wife of a firefighter and a nurse. I have spent 10 years in ER’s; St.Elizabeth’s before it closed and also at Miami Valley. I have friends that work at Grandview and Good Sam. There is violent crime in this city on a near daily basis i.e. 3 shootings during a drug deal leaving 2 dead. Many other violent acts don’t even make the news. I do agree that cutting the cops that are on the street is not the answer, there is a helluva lot of fat other places that need to be trimmed…