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Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 7:56 am
by Suzanne Metelko
The point about the personal safety of our safety forces being a reason not to live in Lakewood is an old one. It has been customized to fit the job of each city employee, including teachers. Funny how it doesn't hold water for the most public of those - our judge. The man who ultimately imposes the penalty feels perfectly safe living here with his family. He is involved in community events and organizations.

As Lakewood looks for ways to entice good citizens to move to the community, why shouldn't it look to its municple workforce? Its time for civil service incentives as well as community incentives. Go Grow Lakewood!

I'm looking forward to the October Lakewood Alive meeting. CitiStat is going to be an interesting exercise in government accountability.

Jobs

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 8:51 am
by Mark Crnolatas
I'm not on one side or the other of any debate here, at this time. I don't have enough of information regarding Lakewood's safety forces, to make a declaration of my own opinion. I'm simply trying to point out some different views.


Maybe we could have some Lakewood Police officers and Firefighters post their opinions? Right now we're all speculating and doing "armchair discussion" without including those that we speak of.

Re: Jobs

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 1:11 pm
by Jim O'Bryan
Mark Crnolatas wrote:...Maybe we could have some Lakewood Police officers and Firefighters post their opinions? Right now we're all speculating and doing "armchair discussion" without including those that we speak of.



Mark

What would they add over what Suzanne has pointed out? I am sure 75% of city service people think it is very important to live outside the community. As that is the number that does.

But Suzanne underlines the most important test. The Judge that finds people guilty or not guilty in everything from traffic to housing. It would seem that he has the most to "fear." But Pat Carroll is very active in the community as is his family.

What possibly could a policeman add to this conversation. "Yeah I got yelled at?" "I don't feel safe in the city I am paid to serve and protect?"

Don Farris also brings up important points in emergencies. How safe is a city that has to call in 75% of their security forces from other areas? Would they be involved in protecting their homes in their cities?

Or maybe when Farris agrees with Metelko the discussion is finished! :shock:

Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2005 5:40 pm
by Tracy Jones
Possibly, it's the 25% that DO live here that get called in first for any emergencys in the city.

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 11:12 am
by Mark Timieski
Hey, don't get me wrong, I would like to see our city employees living in our city! I've talked to a few non-resident city employees that are remiss in some basic knowledge of our city and our needs. This does not help us have a better place to live.

I wonder if there is a more effective way of having our employees live here than through mandate. It seems like there have recently been a number of attacks on residency requirements by state legislature and employees (Cleveland police).

http://www.lakewoodobserver.com/home.ph ... cle_id=119

http://www.freetimes.com/modules.php?op ... e&sid=1258

Could there be another method that would take less of a struggle and be more effective?

Certainly our emergency services need to be here during an emergency. Cement eating locust, hyper-sonic telephone attacks, octane assaults (I thought I would be extra hypothetical on the emergency situations), would prevent out of town responders from being available. As is stated in the post above, the emergency crews that live here are the first called and the first available to respond. Shouldn’t the emergency crews be adequately compensated? Shouldn’t those that may not or cannot be available for an emergency go equally uncompensated?

Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 12:43 pm
by Tracy Jones
Emergency crews called in are compensated. Those that miss the call and do not come in are not.

Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 2:42 pm
by Kenneth Warren
Macroeconomic pressure heightens the need to re-scale and right-size Lakewood’s economy through the negotiation of new community norms with the public sector.

The luxury of a suburbanized civil service force, living outside the city, imitating the elite separated from the congested, lower class core, is neither a sustainable nor politically palatable strategy for Lakewood.

The public sector labor force must realize its responsibility to occupy the middle and commit human and social capital, i.e. their wives and children to the churches, schools and institutions that construct community norms which will sustain the city and their jobs and bennies over the long term.

That's also part of the value creation equation for security and safety.

It's Lakewood's time. Sure, it's time to wake up to the critical moment and dig in together for the community's long term interests.

Safety and food security presumptions will need to be re-evaluated in light of peak oil shocks.

Here are some remarks from Howard Kunstler made at “PetroCollapse New York Conferenceâ€Â￾ on October 5, 2005 that provide a context for appreciating the pressure that will be applied:

“The Long Emergency looming before us is going to produce a lot of losers. Economic losers. People who will lose jobs, vocations, incomes, possessions, assets - and never get them back. Social losers. People who will lose position, power, advantage. And just plain losers, people who will lose their health and their lives.

There are no magic remedies for what we face, but there are intelligent responses that we can marshal individually and collectively. We will have to do what circumstances require of us.

We are faced with the necessity to downscale, re-scale, right-size, and reorganize all the fundamental activities of daily life: the way we grow food; the way we conduct everyday commerce and the manufacture of things that we need; the way we school our children; the size, shape, and scale of our towns and cities.â€Â￾

For More:

http://www.kunstler.com/spch_petrocollapse.html

Kenneth Warren