Where's Citistat

Oh well, the Fire Chief is going to be the fall guy for this story in the Star. What should Council do to him now---criticize him, demote him, fire him or cut his salary by say $21,000 or so! Anything but take the blame for the Mayor's broken campaign promise.

Of course someone leaked the audit report in advance of the "in camera" Council meeting to embarrass Chief Fields and to justify what I suspect has been proposed....I wonder who did that!

• Sick days boost fire OT
  Department $300,000 over budget this year
  
  Firefighters are calling in sick too often, according to a city councillor who is raising questions about the fire department's overtime costs of about $800,000 this year.
  
  "There's a suggestion there might be some abuse there and I think we're obliged to follow up and make people accountable," Coun. Alan Halberstadt said...
  
  Fire chief Dave Fields could not confirm that figure, but he admitted there's a problem.
  
  "Even if it was nine or 10, that is high," he said. "If it was high, obviously there's a problem and I have to look into the problem...
  
  Fields said he was at a loss to explain the number but the department has plans to implement a monitoring program that keeps a tally of sick days.
  
  If you don't have the resources to be able to monitor certain things, you're open to abuse," Fields said.
  
  

Gee, where were Councillor Budget and the Budgeteers when this was happening? Did they fail to ensure that proper financial controls were in place?

I guess they were too busy playing Scrooge to save a few dollars from the Science Centre rather than watching over city finances! And they should be praised for this? Save a penny, lose a dollar seems to be all that they are capable of doing.

Wasn't Citistat, the jewel of Eddie's election campaign platform? Didn't Citistat separate him from Bill Marra? Wasn't Citistat supposed to control overtime. Didn't it cut millions from overtime in Baltimore?

Take pity on the Chief. His staff is cut and his resources are limited. Put the blame where it should be---right with the Mayor and Councillor Brister!