The Observation Deck

In the December 15th issue of the Observer Christopher Bindel reported that "a last minute add-on was discussed having to do with an item that was in arbitration between the City and the firefighters regarding their contracts. The arbitrator did some fact findings.....It was suggested by the arbitrator that Council go into executive session to discuss the issue".

Could this item of arbitration have anything to do with the sick leave scam that cost the City nearly $10 million? Are the firefighters seeking to have the scam included in the contract language? Are they still seeking $2 million in back pay and benefits for hours not worked?

Since no one took the bait I sent a request for information to Lakewoods Law Department about this arbitration and the exectutive session and any other information regarding the firemens grudge against the City.

What, if anything have you found out Bill?

Shelley Hurd wrote:What, if anything have you found out Bill?

The executive session was unrelated to the sick time abuse.

The firefighters filed a grievance because they believed that the City had violated the me too clause. That clause requires the City to meet and negotiate with the firefighters if the City negotiates a more beneficial wage or medical payment to other unions subsequent to the settlement of the firefighters contract.

(Here is an idea: to be fair the me too clause should be amended so that if subsequent negotiations with other unions results in smaller wages or benefits the firefighters need to meet with the city and renegotiate their contract.).

In this case the firefighters were seeking an increase in the HAZMAT bonus to equal the increase the FOP received in its fire arms training bonus and an increase in vacation time and changes in acting pay.

The arbitrator found that the increase in HAZMAT bonus and the changes in acting pay were within the scope of the me too clause but the increase in vacation time was not.

As I recall the new bonus amount will be $1,250 per year.

Those firefighters sure know how to get blood out of a stone!

Bill Call
Those firefighters sure know how to get blood out of a stone!

Should be interesting to see who their union endorses for COunty Auditor...and how much is donated to the campain

Shelley Hurd wrote:

Bill Call
Those firefighters sure know how to get blood out of a stone!

Should be interesting to see who their union endorses for COunty Auditor...and how much is donated to the campain

The government unions have done an excellent job in corrupting the whole political system. The recent Ohio Supreme Court decision on residency was bought by firefighters and police unions with bags of cash. The decision had no basis in law.

The system of binding arbritration has evolved into a process where the unions list their demands and the arbitrator grants half this time and half next time. The conundrum for Mayors is that they know the unions know this.

Some people think true reform will come when we take the money out of politics. That's not the case.

True political reform won't come until local governments create their own political action committees to raise the funds necessary to pay the bribes to State representatives and members of the Ohio Supreme Court.

I've kind of lost interest in the County reform movement. As I see it the whole process has already been co-opted by the "regionalist" movement.

The Plain Dealer turned a blind eye to County corruption for years until they found it could be used as a vehicle for regionalization. They will lose interest in the corruption as they concentrate on the regionalism.

My guess is that Mayor Fitgerald gets his endorsement.

I still think he has been a good Mayor and would make a reasonably good "Manager Of The Pay And Benefit Package" aka the County Executive. I just don't expect much else.

Although ,,,he does have the capacity to surprise....

Bill,


Corruption does not happen within a bubble. Nor are the guilty limited to those immediately involved. Corruption relies on a whole network of operatives to pull it off and conceal.

Some culprits are the appointees of those they assist in defrauding the public and have the pressure of indebtedness applied to them.

Some culprits are those who’s honest mistakes are used to rope them in to assist in defrauding the public.

Some culprits allow their personal aspirations to blind them to the wrong and consequences of defrauding the public.

Some culprits allow friendship and or loyalty to make them accomplices to defrauding the public.

And some culprits are just plain old so filled with greed, so full of their own self importance and so sure of their ability to intimidate that they convince those around them, and their selves, that no one will question their actions.

But as we have seen with the County Corruption Case...at some point it will all come to light. And those who help to conceal are judged just as guilty and as culpable as those who perpetrated the fraud in the first place.

One wonders, if in the end,...if given the chance to do it over... if the culprits who found it so easy to assist in defrauding the public, might have thought more of their own family's well being, their own person protection and the good of the public then they did in the protecting of the corrupt government official and fraudulent actions which in the end cost them and their family, shame, financial ruin and jail time.

Just how far does indebtedness, friendship, personal aspirations and loyalty push otherwise honest people?

Pretty far it seems. But is it ever worth the cost in the end?

One could venture to speculate, if the families of those who protected the corrupt were asked if it was worth it....the answer would be a heart breaking, resounding NO.

Bill

To address your original question...

I think what has happened is that the city, has drastically changed, or maybe not.

In the past we, the residents, would often sit in the stands and cheer for our teams,
whoever they are/were. We lived vicariously through their actions in a resounding we.

Slowly, that changed to more and more participation. This was done by people actually
getting off the bench and trying to play the game. It was a high level mark in participation.

But recently as those actions seem more and more like a charade, or a pitifully poorly
choreographed Kabuki dance. This brings on malaise, frustration, and accidia, what
the New Testament would call "The Deadly Sin of Sloth." Which is no accident. The last
thing any elected official needs is input or oversight. Really slows them down.

Or to put it another way, we prefer closed doors, and the reports of the one lucky enough
to see through the keyhole. Well as long as they tell us "everything is allright. nothing to
see here keep moving along."

And that is when all the magic happens.

Besides like the rest of our lives. I am sure it wouldn't interest anyone outside of a small
circle of friends. Hey, Bill, enough of this, check out my family photos on facebook.
Bobby looks so silly playing in the boxes. As Ken would say, "It's cool."


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Jim O'Bryan wrote:Bill

To address your original question...

I think what has happened is that the city, has drastically changed, or maybe not.

In the past we, the residents, would often sit in the stands and cheer for our teams,
whoever they are/were. We lived vicariously through their actions in a resounding we.

Slowly, that changed to more and more participation. This was done by people actually
getting off the bench and trying to play the game. It was a high level mark in participation.

But recently as those actions seem more and more like a charade, or a pitifully poorly
choreographed Kabuki dance. This brings on malaise, frustration, and accidia, what
the New Testament would call "The Deadly Sin of Sloth." Which is no accident. The last
thing any elected official needs is input or oversight. Really slows them down.

Or to put it another way, we prefer closed doors, and the reports of the one lucky enough
to see through the keyhole. Well as long as they tell us "everything is allright. nothing to
see here keep moving along."

And that is when all the magic happens.

Besides like the rest of our lives. I am sure it wouldn't interest anyone outside of a small
circle of friends. Hey, Bill, enough of this, check out my family photos on facebook.
Bobby looks so silly playing in the boxes. As Ken would say, "It's cool."


.

Jim,

I think you'll like the following:

[url] http://online.wsj.com/article/declarations.html url]

Scott Meeson wrote:
Jim,

I think you'll like the following:

[url] http://online.wsj.com/article/declarations.html url]

Scott

Thanks for sharing.

"If you work in a great institution: Do you remember the mission? Do you remember why you went to work there, what you meant to do, what the institution meant to you when you viewed it from the outside, years ago, and hoped to become part of it?"

While the writer focused on "Great Institutions" I would say the word institution or even
club or group could fill the bill.

Combine this with some fascinating discussions about society, and I see monumental
failures just around the corner. While the voyeurs and the cocooned totally forget how
to ride the bike of life they never thought they could forget to ride. Which is exactly
what the civic leaders hope and pray for. Being left alone to do THEIR deeds, disguised as
the deeds the committees and residents asked for.

My generation the Baby Boomers continue to screw up the world, and their spawn, and
the spawn of their spawn seem not really able to ride the bike either, well maybe the
Wii Bike.

Funny, how quickly it all slips away.

Well enough of that. Did you see my picnic photos on my facebook page?

Gary play that banjo louder, Rome seems to be a beautiful shade of red and yellow tonight.
Almost glowing.


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I also know how to fiddle, but I don't think that's called for yet.

Neither would be fiddling around...(smile)

Ironic, Jimmy.

When I came on this 'Deck all those relatively few years ago, you wanted me to help build the brand here.

You seemed to love my positive peacemaking and consensus-building.

and then....

A few battles "lost", and now what, exactly?

Gloom and doom time?

For Lakewood? For our country?

Nah...

Sorry.

I will not buy into that kind of thinking.

This is still Lakewood, a place really changed so little from when we moved here over fifty years ago.

Oh, a few less churches, a few more dumpsters (smile)....

We've still got a good city basically.

The country too.

Too many good people still trying to make things work.

In Lakewood alone,

Hundreds of volunteers help it to be so every day. The churches that are left are working overtime to make a better world where they stand. The schools rate the best possible rating, and each day seems to bring more and more outstanding reports of their successes.

Our mayor may one day rule our region.

There, I've said it.

The "R" word.

Oh, I know, "county" might be more accurate.

But let's face it. We're all in this together.

What anyone who really cares knows, however, is that our regional strength lies in the gifts of our distinctiveness. Whether one visits the charm of Old Brooklyn, to the shops of Rocky River or Beachwood, there's great strength in our area's diversity.

It's cool here.

In fact, this time of year, it's really cool.

At least Lakewood usually has less snow.


Back to the banjo...

(It makes a GREAT shovel; much better than a violin does )

Gary Rice wrote:I also know how to fiddle, but I don't think that's called for yet.

Neither would be fiddling around...(smile)

Ironic, Jimmy.

When I came on this 'Deck all those relatively few years ago, you wanted me to help build the brand here.

Oh Gary

I joke, with a person I know can joke back.

I do love all of the positive things you bring to this project and this city. I also love
the heat you bring to your causes like the trash containers, and teachers pensions.

No doom and gloom, just simply observations from a fellow Observer.

It is funny, the more I travel, the clearer things become here in Lakewood, and the region.
Oppps! I said it to!

No the forces are at work, and as I mentioned in the Steve Noble piece. Like you, and as
taught to me by others, to Observe divine, to comment sometimes less so.

Yet if we do not leave our circle, what can ever become of it, nor the invention it spurs
in the minds of others.

Yet I wonder, when you say little has changed.

I see the change, and see the rush to change, for very little other reason than to say.
"I caused change."

Last week as your banjo, could be heard from afar, and was louder and louder as you came
down the now very empty hallway in a very empty building. Everyone, and I mean
everyone smiled, and that gift, is meant to be shared not squandered. And while you claim
it makes a good shovel, the one hanging in the garage makes a better one. Keep playing
and writing so that we can all enjoy it.

As a very famous Westsider once said on vinyl. "Stick to what you are good at, and
good things will come to you." Martin Mull

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I look on a lot of the changes in the original picture, like I look at the disbanded women's community. Everybody bought a house and started remodeling.

Seasons change, people's needs change and the world changes along with it.

We must always try to see things as they are now, assess the problems and continue to do the next right thing.

May this year bring us health and happiness. I leave wealth to those who think it means something.

Blessings.