Blackmail!
Nov. 2nd, 2007 07:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblog"Such an ugly word. We prefer 'extortion.'"- Hawkeye Pierce, M*A*S*H.
When the issue isn't pure money but demanding some form of action, this is the image that comes to mind:
And so I bring two bits of news, a day and 70 miles apart, each starring a separate shooter known and despised by at least some of you.
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At the turn of the last century, Buffalo was big enough to host a Worlds Fair-type event known as the Pan American Exposition. Most of the buildings were always intended to be temporary, and few of the more permanent ones survived for very long after the event- understandable, since it wound up being best known for hosting the assassination of a sitting president1. Today, only two structures from the Exposition are still in existence: New York State's palatial pavilion, now the home of our history museum; and a small building on Delaware Avenue, little more than a souvenir shack at the time, which is now owned by a Buffalo politician. News has come that he is threatening to tear it down if the city's Preservation Board doesn't approve a variance on another building, miles away, that he doesn't even own.
Yup, the Harold Stassen of local politics, Al Coppola, has promised to blow it up real good if the former Lord Chumley's restaurant is not permitted to install a canopy over its historic row-house entrance. And to preservationists, who'll seek a restraining order if you put a new roof on a 1970s government building (because it's a classic example of "institutional dysfunctional"), this blackmail is the equivalent of Coppola threatening to tear down City Hall and put up a Wal-Mart2:
“If they say let’s reconsider and talk about what we can do before the first snowfall, I will then back off,” said Coppola, who served as Delaware Council member from 1984 to 2000 and a year as state senator.
“But if that canopy does not go up, then that building’s coming down, and it’ll break my heart because for years all I wanted to do was restore a little history for Buffalo,” he said.
Tim Tielman, a Preservation Board member, reacted angrily to Coppola’s threat.
“It’s particularly pathetic and outrageous that a former elected official should grandstand in this manner and attempt to hold the city and the public interest hostage to an individual whim or gripe,” Tielman said.
Damn right, Tim. Only CURRENT elected officials should be allowed to wield that kind of power. Edit. Well, them and preservationistas.
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Meanwhile, back at the Roch.... a rather ugly battle's been brewing for months over who is going to be awarded the lucrative city ambulance contract. The way it works there, as in most places, is this: a 911 caller will be dispatched the "default" ambulance company unless they specifically request another. In many places, that honor has fallen (and can't get up) to a nationwide outfit named .
Jest keeding. It's Rural Metro.3 Here, they've locked down that contract, probably through many hours of performing Heimlichs on city officials after expensive meet-and-greet executive dining sessions, and they're constantly in trouble with activists for sneaking around the city's Living Wage Law and not giving their EMTs enough pay or benefits. 4 In Rochester, though, they ran into a bit of a problem- it's called "competitive bidding"- and the locally owned ambulance company quoted a price, and upgraded its equipment at a substantial cost, to give it the best chance of winning the bid, and did so.
Don't make Rural Metro angry. You wouldn't like it when it's angry:
Rural/Metro will leave Rochester, and could put 200 people out of work, if the ambulance service loses the city contract it has held the past 19 years, the company's top executives said Thursday.
"We would absolutely be forced to leave Rochester if we didn't have the benefit of the 911 contract," said Jack Brucker, president and CEO of Rural/Metro Corp., which is based in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Moments later, Brucker switched to the other side of his mouth in defending his nationwide company's financial integrity against charges of financial irregularities:
The parent company is late on its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, has seen its stock price tumble in recent months and is carrying a sizable debt.
But Brucker said the local operation — employing about 365 full- and part-time workers — is not affected, that Rural/Metro Corp. is solvent, stable and plans to file its financials by mid-month.
Right. So that would explain the threatening-to-leave part.
He also noted that the local R-M fleet has replaced 22 of its 30 ambulances and now has the newest set of any of their operations in the country. He dismissed idle speculation about the purchase coming only after they lost the bid recommendation, saying the purchases had been planned all along.
Do keep in mind, there are psychotropic drugs on those ambulances5, and it's sounding like this dude was in charge of the inventory.
Maybe if they pull out as threatened, they can move all their fancy new ambulances here to B-lo. They can pay substandard wages, get to hang out at Bills games, and maybe treat the hundreds of apoplectic preservationists who'll be protesting on Delaware Avenue.
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1 Not that this is always, necessarily, a bad thing.
2 Not that this would be, either.
3 But she probably still is screaming.
4 "We can't provide health insurance! We're an AMBULANCE company!"
5 And knowing the EMT readers of this page, I'll probably have a list of them by 1700 GMT.
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-02 11:19 am (UTC)Gee, they're being assholes again. Observe me in my lack of surprise. :P There was consternation, I remember, when they got kicked out of Amherst in favour of Twin City...
they're constantly in trouble with activists for sneaking around the city's Living Wage Law and not giving their EMTs enough pay or benefits. 4
Really? That's very interesting. When I was forced out, basics got $7/hr, and medics about $12/hr. I think FT got benefits, but I'm not sure with whom. Also, WNY was unionised, but I'm not sure if Roch was too.
Do keep in mind, there are psychotropic drugs on those ambulances5, and it's sounding like this dude was in charge of the inventory.
nothing really psychotropic-- I mean, we had morphine and valium, and I've heard of hallucinations with high doses of lido, but... *shrugs*
no subject
Date: 2007-11-03 01:03 am (UTC)Apparently, they got outbid/underbid/whateverthetermis for the gig at Sabres games, since my TCA EMT Friend has been offered shifts at the arena.
According to this (http://artvoice.com/issues/v6n28/news_briefly/wages_of_neglect), the required average wage for city contractors is $9.59 with benefits or $10.77 without, which suggests your numbers are below "living" (and I can't blame you, or them).
no subject
Date: 2007-11-03 10:11 am (UTC)ooooooh...bet that's a bee in their bonnet. ::eg:: I know R/M is still at the Bills games, though; I saw some familiar faces in the Everett coverage. Wonder if they're still at the raceway...
When I was forced out, basics got $7/hr, and medics abzout $12/hr
According to this, the required average wage for city contractors is $9.59 with benefits or $10.77 without, which suggests your numbers are below "living" (and I can't blame you, or them).
Very interesting.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-02 02:58 pm (UTC)