After a Menino-appointed “independent” audit panel recommended the obvious needed reforms in its November 30 report, for example, Menino this week touted the creation of a strategic planning committee to enact those changes.
The idea of a planning committee is fine — the department should have had such a body for years. But it’s not getting us any closer to reform.
New fire commissioner Roderick Fraser says that this latest committee will concentrate on “changes that do not require union approval.”
That leaves drug and alcohol testing outside its purview, along with most of the other recommendations of the audit panel, such as increased training, new firehouse policies, and shifting of some positions to civilians.
We don’t know what this new committee will do with its two meetings per month, but we won’t be holding our breath to find out. What will it take to light a fire under the mayor to get him to act?
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