June 25, 1999

Alarm rings over credibility

In government, there's never enough money and there's always enough money.

When it's salaries, benefits and perks they want, public officials always seem to find heretofore unknown resources necessary to take care of their compensation.

But when the infrastructure, maintenance, equipment and services go wanting, the well-paid bureaucrat demands, "Show me the money."

This is the point where "we, the payers" get justifiably angry. Every now and then, when salary negotiations for top managers fail to be reciprocated to those lower on the organizational chart, the public gets a tiny peek at the real balance sheet. Thank heaven for disgruntled public workers.

Case in point: As their union mediations began disintegrating, Fairfield police managers revealed more and more details about a 10 percent raise given to Fairfield Fire Department battalion chiefs. The police union has accused Fairfield City Council of covering up the hefty pay increase - at least by omission - at the following council meeting in December 1998.

It was a particularly suspect omission since that was the meeting at which council members announced that fire tax measures G and H would be on the March ballot.

City Manager Kevin O'Rourke was legally able to list (hide?) the raises on "personal action forms" because the money came from within the department.

Of course, this means that during the Fire Department's campaign for new taxes, which it claimed was the only way to get urgently needed additional fire services, the three battalion chiefs were cashing newly fattened paychecks provided out of spare departmental money. And they wonder why voters are skeptical.

Perhaps even more maddening than the subterfuge used to keep us in the dark about the department's resources, the new city budget includes six new firefighters (allowing a third person they said they couldn't afford to put on each engine), relocation of two fire stations, replacement of equipment, and more fire prevention programs.

That last addition is particularly puzzling in light of fire statistics showing a large and steady decrease in fire incidents.

Most amazing of all is the Fire Department getting everything they said they needed - and more - without passing the new tax. Forget the fire alert; this indicates a credibility alert.

© 1999 Cynthia Hahn