Virginia's place is looking especially spiffy today.
Perhaps she will spur a professional newsgatherer or two to check the rules (and the compliance) on when police officers are on or off duty, how many shots they're permitted to consume on duty, any limits to what officers are permitted to do on "special detail," any recordkeeping requirements concerning officers' location or actions on duty, and the like.
Rick's place is worth a stop, too.
This is Good-Bye - For Now
2 weeks ago
2 comments:
Infy:
It truly is a shame that Rick has been relegated to hiding in a foxhole for fear of being gassed by a Nazi should he ever poke his head out.
As for Virginia, what can I say? I'm a sucker for great copy and witty satire (which, coincidentally, is why I'm even a fan of yours.)
However, I would have to say that regardless of what you think of His Honor, his style of governance, his busy schedule, etc., that were I the police chief and/or the Director of Public Safety, I'd order that detail to shadow the Mayor, overtime or not.
I'm not losing a Mayor on my watch if I'm responsible for public safety. Criticizing the amount of the overtime is probably a valid exercise, but we don't have a 70 year-old Mayor who ends his days at 6 or 7 p.m. we just don't. We have a young, vibrant Mayor whose day probably starts at 7 a.m. and probably ends around 11 p.m. or even later (as some of your posts suggest.)
For reasons many of his adversaries salivate about, the guy is a busy man. In fact, I'd bet that more people can identify the Mayor from a photograph than they could the County Executive (being on Letterman will do that for you!)
I think the questions about shots fired (I mean consumed) is probably a tad capricious, but were I Mayor, I would take the security detail (unless you want a Mayor running around brandishing a sidearm.)
All of that to say that these are publi employees and the public (even his adversaries) have the right to question it. But I wouldn't expect drastic changes in the scenario because, quite frankly, there aren't many Mayors who, in the post-9/11 world, wouldn't see the detail as a necessary evil.
Capricious? Spend some time at Jimmie D's, Diesel, S Bar or Elixir to learn who is drinking what and when.
By all means, let's have a comparative analysis of Pittsburgh's current expenditures on mayoral possedom vs. Pittsburgh's historical expenditure, then vs. similar cities' current expenditures.
Speaking of schedules and whether they begin at 7 a.m., the mayor's schedule -- busy or otherwise -- would also be an interesting point of information for the public to have. Another interesting comparative.
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