Rad Field
                             

09/19/05  If a tree falls in the forest ...

Public Safety vs. Balanced Budget barely touched on the issue of City Manager Mary Suhm forcing Fire Chief Steve Abraira to retire.  That doesn't mean it was not significant.

There were no negative comments from the rank and file in the Dallas Fire Department, but there were none with the guts to criticize a city manager who has a history of hostility toward public safety officers.  Many DFD do not intend to grow old fighting fires for Dallas citizens.  They work 4 days on and 3 days off (or vice versa).  On their days off, most have other businesses -- whether a ranch or chimney cleaning or fire wood merchandising -- whatever.  Except for those who want to move up the ladder (and who would in Dallas?), many firefighters put in their time and then retire as soon as their date rolls around.  They are not going to put their neck out for a chief, even if he lost his job trying to protect theirs. 

At least some of the area firefighters came to his defense.  People who know something about firefighters, know forcing Chief Abraria to retire was a bad decision by a political incompetent at City Hall who was picked by incompetent politicians on the City Council rather than go forward with a national search for the best city manager we could get for Dallas.

Letters for Monday Letters to the Editor, Monday, September 19, 2005

Chief took proper stand    In 38 years with Dallas Fire-Rescue, I have served four chiefs who ran a department rated No. 1 in the hearts and minds of most citizens we protect.    The fourth, Steve Abraira, was forced to resign because he was not willing to make manpower and equipment cuts.    If he cuts equipment, response times increase. I don't think Dallas taxpayers want this.    He chose not to cut manpower for the safety of his firefighters and I join my entire crew in applauding him for taking the right stand.    If you are a concerned citizen, call your council member or city manager and ask what's in the future for your fire department. Capt. Pat Murphy, Dallas Fire-Rescue, Garland

It is shameful that a man heading up a department free of scandal is forced to retire because he would not go along with Mary Suhm's historic attacks on police and firefighter staffing.  James Ragland nails the problem when he says "In Dallas, it's not enough to do your job."

James Ragland:  In Dallas, it's not enough to do your job Tuesday, September 13, 2005/ The Dallas Morning News

Steve Abraira came to Dallas under the false assumption that he would be insulated from politics.    Stop laughing. He really believed the hype. ...  Mr. Abraira may have been a darn good fire chief ? I certainly haven't seen or heard anything to suggest otherwise ? but he was a lousy politician.    He didn't kiss up to the City Council, unlike former Police Chief Terrell Bolton.    He didn't build a constituency outside City Hall. Hardly anybody in town knows who he is.    And he wouldn't engage in the budgetary shell game that new City Manager Mary Suhm purportedly wanted him to play. ... No one outside the Dallas Fire-Rescue department seems to be the least bit bothered by what went down in Ms. Suhm's office last week, when she told Mr. Abraira to quit or be fired.    No one seems to care that the ousted chief is warning all of us that City Hall may be poised to undermine the safety of residents and firefighters alike if it slashes the department's budget. ... In the middle of dealing with evacuees from Hurricane Katrina and working on next year's budget, among other pressing matters, Ms. Suhm still found time to go after a department head who hasn't been involved in a single scandal? ... Mr. Abraira said in his resignation letter that Ms. Suhm demanded that he cut his budget, and the only way he could do that was by slashing the number of firefighters. ... the city manager won't even tell the public what Steve Abraira did or didn't do for her to show him the door. Her only response is: "He's just not right for my team." ... At least he learned the truth about Dallas City Hall: You can't just do your job quietly and go home.    You've got to be on the right team to survive.

Just because we aren't marching in the streets, does not mean that people are not bothered by Chief Abraira retiring under Suhm's pressure.

When a city manager treats all departments equally (civilian and public safety) and demands across the board budget cuts, citizens need to understand that sucking up to council members is a bigger priority for that city manager than seeing to our public safety.  The biggest part of the police and fire departments' budgets is personnel -- not desk clerks, but real police officers and firefighters.

There was a huge fire on Brockbank, just south of my neighborhood this morning.  Lots of sirens and multiple fire trucks and a huge black cloud.  I couldn't help but think of those firefighters rushing to the scene with the bare minimum staffing they are using now per truck.  Sure enough, one of our DFD firefighters was seriously injured protecting an apartment building that should have been removed years ago.

What happens when the next fire chief succumbs to Suhm's pressure and starts manning trucks with fewer firefighters?  Not only will response time go down, but our insurance premiums will go up.  Our homeowners' insurance is based on the fire department's response time to incidents.

Still, this is about fair play at City Hall.  Since the D'Angelo Lee/Don Hill scandal broke in June, we have had a whole summer of some council members and so-called "Black community leaders" and preachers grandstanding to keep a crook on the Plan Commission when they knew what we know -- the guy was taking bribes on Plan Commission cases that he not only voted for, but frequently moved through to approval. 

When a decent man gets forced from his position as Chief of the DFD, there is little or no concern -- certainly no citizen outcry.   

	Shameful on all of our parts.
	Shameful for the council to accept (in most cases, condone) this kind of mismanagement from Mary Suhm.
	Shameful for the all but dead silence from DFD rank and file.

If you have any doubt that something devious is afoot which will negatively impact us later, look who approves of Suhm's Draconian management style - Belo's Editorial Board, which is headed up by the Phoenix Flower Child.  The Dallas Managed News Editorial Board no longer represents Dallas.  Most of DMN's Editorial Board aren't even Texans, much less from Dallas, or even the DFW area.  They don't like us or respect us.  Here's what they say about Suhm's forcing Chief Abraira to retire:

Look What We Found: A leader in Dallas, and not whom we expected Editorial Page  Sunday, September 18, 2005

...  we have begged, prodded and pleaded for leadership at City Hall, and we would be remiss in not noting three recent examples: ?Dallas Fire Chief Steve Abraira was asked to take his hose down the road, and the first and second things you didn't hear were the traditional cacophonies of complaints.    Only the chief spoke on his behalf, and only in a self-serving letter to his troops. The relative silence indicates his lack of support among community leaders and elected officials ? or their support for the person showing him the door.   ...  The common thread, of course, is the work of City Manager Mary Suhm, who, with her staff, directed Chief Abraira's removal, .... Each move reflects tough, smart and organized problem-solving. ...

So, since the Chief did not go out and whip up support, "silence indicates his lack of support among community leaders and elected officials".  Baloney! 

What have we come to when being an expert in your field and running your department efficiently and effectively to the benefit of Dallas citizens is not as important as sucking up to community leaders and elected officials?  Better question, how low have we fallen if that is the current status of things at City Hall?

How can we expect to recruit the best and the brightest to lead City of Dallas departments when we have a second tier city manager who is afraid of anyone working under her who is actually qualified to have their jobs?  Why would any qualified person leave a better run city to come here and have their reputation besmirched and their expertise ignored?

Mayor Miller was right when she begged the council to hold out for a national search for a new city manager.  Mary Suhm is the city manager because the Housewife Extraordinares (Sandy Greyson, Lois Finkelman and Velveeta Lill) teamed up with the Black council members to make one last slap at Mayor Miller.  We need someone with more experience at running a city than the CYA we have in Mary Suhm who sucked her way up through the ranks under John Ware and Ted Benavides and their predecessors. 

Granted, Mary Suhm is tougher than Ted Benavides and certainly more gifted with political skills, but that's not what we need from a city manager.  If political skills and surrounding yourself with "yes men" is the only qualification for being a Dallas City Manager, we might as well have a strong mayor form of government so citizens can at least pick the politician we want to run the city.

I ask the question again, how will we recruit a top flight firefighter to run the DFD after the way Suhm has treated Chief Abraira?  Anyone she hires will have the stigma of being assumed to be someone who will not stand up for DFD firefighters or for the protection of Dallas residents and businesses. 

Stabbing qualified people in the back is the kind of city management Belo's Editorial Board wants for Dallas.  Honesty has not been Belo's editorial or management policy for several years.  It hasn't been too many months since Belo was caught fudging their circulation numbers.  Forcing out qualified managers who insist on protecting their staff has become a tradition at Belo.  Of course, Belo's Editorial Board would approve of a smoke and mirrors budgeter like Suhm axing a qualified department head who refuses to weaken his department so Suhm can save some councilmember's pet artsy-fartsy or social program.

The problem with running the City of Dallas like Belo mismanages the Dallas Managed News is that lives and property are not at stake when Belo management dickers with a successful department and pressures the head of that section to retire.

It is a given that the $400,000+ "efficiency study" Suhm is ordering up for the DFD will say what she wants it to say.  Why not use that $400,000 on something Dallas residents and businesses need -- more public safety officers?

Dallas is more and more densely populated.   My husband and I drove through my old neighborhood this evening, and it is overwhelming how many condos have been built in such a small area.  I barely recognize it, and I lived on the same block for over 25 years.  The new luxury condos are beautiful and the neighborhood looks quite prosperous, but the public safety needs for that same geographic area are ten fold what they were just four years ago when I lived there.  There are two giant highrise condominiums where there had been single family houses, duplexes and two small apartment buildings.   The streets are barely wide enough for two cars to pass simultaneously. 

	That neighborhood does not need fewer firefighters on a truck.
	That neighborhood does not need some suck-up to Mary Suhm as our next Fire Chief.
	That neighborhood and yours and mine need a first tier firefighter heading up the DFD.

A DFD firefighter is in the hospital tonight after falling through a roof at that Brockbank apartment fire.  Wonder how concerned is Mary Suhm about his welfare?  What's a downed cop or firefighter if she can keep some councilmember's pet artsy-fartsy or social program in the budget?

It's a dangerous time to be living in Dallas.  If Mary Suhm and the council insist on balancing the budget on the back of our public safety officers, it's only going to get worse.

Just because Mary Suhm took the cover of the Katrina evacuee drama as an opportunity to force out Chief Abraria and there's been little hoopla over his retirement does not make it less important. 

Louisiana officials misspent monies intended to shore up the levees on pet projects of various elected officials.  Look what happened to New Orleans as a result!  A chip here, a misspent public dollar there and you've got a disaster waiting to happen.  See Jim Schutze's story:  Levees Are Not an Act of God.
(DallasOberver.com, published: Thursday, September 15, 2005).  Mary Suhm's budget style is not that different from Louisiana public funds management.

You may not think it's a big deal that a qualified Fire Chief who looked after the welfare of his crew and Dallas citizens and businesses was forced to retire, but there will most certainly be negative results from this power play by Mary Suhm.  The people in New Orleans ignored bad management and corruption in their local and state governments, and look where they are now.

Just because you weren't there to hear a tree fall in the forest and tear down a power line in the process does not mean the tree did not fall and you will not experience an electrical loss as a result. 

You need to make some noise.

sb