Dewey/Terry - Lying or out of touch?

[Conan71]

I think you will find a number of legal opinions in complete opposition to the esteemed Councilor Eagleton. Eagleton is probably the best on the council, but the taxpayers were simply not supposed to be on the hook for this crony deal. With every politico in the city involved, including the Lortons, the taxpayer was bound to get screwed, I guess. Come on now, read the history of that deal (that which has been uncovered). This was no fair settlement, this was a scam from the beginning.

The $7M alone would be a very significant amount of money in the current situation. Add to that the acquisition, remodeling, moving costs and lost rent revenue associated with the new city hall, and we simply would not be in this mess. I'll agree that decreased revenues are the last straw in this fiasco, but continuously expanding budgets with no regard for possible shortages caused this. We have now used up essentially every source of revenue the city is likely to find, and then some. The city govt is out of control.

I'll agree too, that the TPD is overstaffed and has been for years. Ditto the TFD. This is what happens with union happy govts.

We discussed this at length at the time on here.  Many of us were miffed as to why Studenny's E/O insurance was not tapped for this shoddy legal work.  That's why professionals carry insurance to make those injured or damaged by their negligence whole.  Speculation as to why he was not held accountable has ranged from black helicopter conspiracies about how Studenny knew "where all the skeletons were buried" on the airport trust and Great Plains and that some prominent Tulsans would wind up embarrased or in serious deep smile, or that a previous mayor was being protected, etc.

Honestly, I was shocked when Eagleton came out in favor of the settlement.  They may have simply looked at it and said: "make it go away instead of racking up legal fees to make it go away".

I've not been made privy to specific legal documents regarding the original agreements signed nor the settlements, so it's really hard for me to say whether the settlement was proper and what liability the city actually had.

And seriously, I do want to know if anyone ever moved to get Dick Stupidity disbarred.

[Jason]

TCSD and TPD should be merged IMHO which would end a lot of jurisdictional and city/county bickering (re: DL MOSS imbroglio) as well as save some bucks.

It also makes sense (to me) to break our contract with EMSA and put EMR under the TFD with EMVs located in fire houses instead of roaming around/waiting for an emergency call at the local QT. Every utility bill has an emergency services charge of around $4 per month...that seems like a heck of a lot of money that TFD could use to provide a better comprehensive first responder service (instead of dispatching both TFD and EMSA like we do in most cases today).

But I could be wrong.

And you are wrong. TFD has tried multiple times to come up with a plan for emergency medical response that would work as efficiently and more importantly work to the benefit of the patients. They have failed at everyt turn. You might be interested to know that EMSA actually does not cost the city any money at all. Even the water bill money is optional and costs individual water customers. And on top of all the, EMSA paid the city of tulsa more than 1.5 million dollars last year to assist with the "first" responders. Now they did not know where this money went but it ended up in the general fund and ultimatley was lost with all of the other mis-spent money in this city. I do agree both agencies should not be dispatched all the time. TFD "self dispatches" by listen to EMSA's calls. It is not necessary to have a fire truck at every scene.....

[heironymouspasparagus]

I wouldn't vote for Dewey for sanitation officer.  But, hey, he wouldn't be competent to push the little cart around and use the broom.

Yep, the financial crunch was coming no matter what.  It's what is done after the fact that determines the class, or lack thereof in city management.  The officers should have been allowed to undue the severance and go back to the conditions existing before the "layoff".  It may be legal, but it certainly isn't moral the way they were treated.

And isn't it the Neo-Cons who stress appreciation for the police, fire and military SOOO much more than a progressive??  And when push comes to shove we see their true colors.

Come on people; we depend on these people to do the jobs that are nominally a buffer between us and chaos!!  Why be so chicken-s*** to them??  I personally would rather pay the extra penny (half penny?) for THAT than the Crashship!!

[sgrizzle]

And you are wrong. TFD has tried multiple times to come up with a plan for emergency medical response that would work as efficiently and more importantly work to the benefit of the patients. They have failed at everyt turn. You might be interested to know that EMSA actually does not cost the city any money at all. Even the water bill money is optional and costs individual water customers. And on top of all the, EMSA paid the city of tulsa more than 1.5 million dollars last year to assist with the "first" responders. Now they did not know where this money went but it ended up in the general fund and ultimatley was lost with all of the other mis-spent money in this city. I do agree both agencies should not be dispatched all the time. TFD "self dispatches" by listen to EMSA's calls. It is not necessary to have a fire truck at every scene.....

Figure the math on this:

EMSA takes in about $4.8M/yr or $24M over 5 years
It was estimated that TFD doing the ambulance work would cost an additional $3M over 5yrs
Instead of that, we pay EMSA to pay TFD $8M over five years for duplicate service.