Same old rhetoric from Marlborough’s self-appointed watchdogs.
Marlborough city councilor Joe Delano and his cohorts are at it again in what has become an all consuming and uninformed rant that blame hard-working city employees with all the evils of the world.
In a recent article published in the Main Street Journal, Mr. Delano urges us to consider bold moves and replace some DPW services with outside agencies, use undertrained part time Police Officers to back fill duty shifts and institute volunteer responders for the Fire Dept. Ignoring the fact that these people are not qualified to hold these positions full time. These “bold moves “were published for your reading pleasure after the all-knowing Operations and Oversight Committee was informed by both the Police Chief and the Fire Chief that these ideas were antiquated, fiscally irresponsible and put the city in jeopardy from a liability standpoint and by the way violate contract agreements bargained in good faith by the unions and the Mayor of this city. But Mr. Delano never let the facts get in the way of his anti employee rants. He wrote as part of his suggestions that the city used to have volunteer firefighters, this is true but it was prior to the formation of the department in 1855. We also had horse drawn pumpers back then, perhaps he would prefer we go back to that.
In a previous article (Silver lining inside dark cloud 2/7/2009)
Mr. Delano actually wrote that our state senator and representative were essentially bought by unions and the volunteers holding the signs for them were imported union members. Forget about the fact that this is an outrageous statement, how does he know that? Does Mr. Delano personally know everyone that held a sign, or is it sour grapes because his council cohorts were the candidates defeated in an open election? I guess he believes that it’s not the will of the people it is the evil unions (city employees) that are to blame for their defeat.
If you’re a regular viewer or attendee at our city council meetings, you will constantly hear anti employee rants. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard Mr. Delano use city employees and $100,000.00 Dollars in the same sentence as if we all make that kind of money.
I sure don’t, not even close and regarding the ones that do, department heads aside how about also mentioning how many hours were worked to get to that level. I for one am sick of the grandstanding. Municipal employees make for easy targets for the council because they are paid from tax dollars. The overwhelming majority of city employees lives here and pays those same taxes themselves. We work hard and are loyal to the city but we are constantly subjected to these bully tactics and unfair attacks. Because we are city employees, we lose certain aspects of privacy such as our salaries which is public record. Anyone can go to city hall and find out what we are paid. Can I do that in the private sector? Care to publish your salary Mr. Delano? Not just your part time council salary either. Or disclose that some council members that work part time avail themselves of the city health insurance plan at the full time employee rate.
Fiscal responsibility is a wonderful thing and I do commend Mayor Stevens and the council for having the city in such great shape.
But the attacks on city workers have grown old and are unwarranted.
Some simple facts are that contracts are negotiated, signed and approved. Complaining about contractual costs after the fact is tantamount to hiring a plumber then not wanting to pay the bill.
Overtime costs are a fact of life in any business and should be factored into any budget. If an agency is understaffed and you demand the same level of service you are going to incur overtime costs. That is not the fault of city employees. We work under the terms of the contract and so must the city. Since city council meetings do not allow the public or the city’s employees to respond immediately and publicly at the time these things are said this is my forum.
I would only ask for Mr. Delano and the city council to be fair and stop the venomous rants in the public media. After all the city councilors do not make the city run day to day, it’s our city workers.
Michael Buckley
City Resident and Tax Payer
Marlborough Firefighter
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